Humanize

When Terri Schiavo collapsed with a cardiac arrest in 1990, she could have had no idea that 32 years later people all over the world would know her name and care very much about the manner in which she died. What began as a private family tragedy ultimately exploded into an international cultural conflagration and what was perhaps the most Read More ›

It is no secret that our country is badly divided and riven by profound moral, religious, and political differences about what constitutes the good, the best means of promoting human flourishing, and even the proper meaning of the term, “civil rights.” The question thus becomes: How do we maintain mutual respect and comity, and retain sufficient cohesion to be considered a true society?

The usual canard about the pro-life movement goes something like this: “Pro-lifers care so much about babies before they are born, but not much after. The thing about canards is that, by definition, they are not true. Pro-lifers also work hard to protect the lives of born people—often in coalition with activists and organizations that do not oppose abortion–ranging from Read More ›

The COVID pandemic has been one of the most politically and culturally divisive events in American history. Which seems odd. Usually, a universal external threat unite societies and rallies populations to focus on the common foe. Instead, American society fractured into different tribes, which often coincided with our preexisting political factionalism. Adding to our woes, the proper approach to scientific Read More ›

Adoption didn’t used to be a matter of significant controversy. Public and private adoption agencies worked diligently to place children needing families with those who wanted to love them. Private adoptions often happened without a hitch. These days, adoption has been caught up, at least to some degree, in the culture wars surrounding abortion and gay rights. Adoption of children Read More ›

We live in intellectually mediocre times, when commitment to true debate as a means of ascertaining truth — and the understanding that reasonable people can have different opinions — has been replaced by a desire among the culturally powerful to stifle heterodox thought and punish unapproved opinions. Wesley’s guest on this episode of Humanize refuses to yield to such intellectual Read More ›

Is criminal justice a “human dignity issue?” Wesley’s guest, Pat Nolan makes a compelling case that it is and for improving the manner in which—and attention we pay to—the care and rehabilitation of incarcerated people. In their conversation, Nolan discusses his upbringing in a tough Los Angeles neighborhood and how that led him to a career got in politics as Read More ›

People of true principle are rare commodities in this age of bitter political divisions and cultural discord. What matters exclusively for too many, is winning. Indeed, we live in such strident times that some find it difficult to be friends with people with whom they disagree. In this sense, we have lost the crucial understanding to living in mutual comity, Read More ›

Since the murder of George Floyd, the nation has been embroiled in racial unrest of a kind not seen in decades. It is a disturbing time. Is racism best struggled against through the colorblind approach of the Reverend, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., or a newer strategy—summarized by the term “critical race theory”—that sees race as the central fact of Read More ›

“What is truth?” Pontius Pilate famously asked Jesus. That is a most human question, because of all the known species in the universe, only we even understand the concept of Truth with a capital T. As moral beings, most of us, at least to some extent, seek to live out our lives in ways that we conceive of as Truth. Read More ›