Killing for Life

Killing for Life PDF Author: Carol Mason
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501724673
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 263

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Book Description
How can those who seek to protect the "right to life" defend assassination in the name of saving lives? Carol Mason investigates this seeming paradox by examining pro-life literature—both archival material and writings from the front lines of the conflict. Her analysis reveals the apocalyptic thread that is the ideological link between established anti-abortion organizations and the more shadowy pro-life terrorists who subject clinic workers to anthrax scares, bombs, and bullets.The portrayal of abortion as "America's Armageddon" began in the 1960s. In the 1970s, Mason says, Christian politics and the post-Vietnam paramilitary culture popularized the idea that legal abortion is a harbinger of apocalypse. By the 1990s, Mason asserts, even the movement's mainstream had taken up the call, narrating abortion as an apocalyptic battle between so-called Christian and anti-Christian forces. "Pro-life violence of the 1990s signaled a move away from protest and toward retribution," she writes. "Pro-life retribution is seen as a way to restore the order of God. In this light, the phenomenon of killing for 'life' is revealed not as an oxymoron, but as a logical consistency and a political manifestation of religious retribution."Mason's scrutiny of primary sources (direct mail, internal memoranda, personal letters, underground manuals, and pro-life films, magazines, and novels) draws attention to elements of pro-life millennialism. Killing for Life is a powerful indictment of pro-life ideology as a coherent, mass-produced narrative that does not merely condone violence, but anticipates it as part of "God's plan."

Killing for Life

Killing for Life PDF Author: Carol Mason
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501724673
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 263

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Book Description
How can those who seek to protect the "right to life" defend assassination in the name of saving lives? Carol Mason investigates this seeming paradox by examining pro-life literature—both archival material and writings from the front lines of the conflict. Her analysis reveals the apocalyptic thread that is the ideological link between established anti-abortion organizations and the more shadowy pro-life terrorists who subject clinic workers to anthrax scares, bombs, and bullets.The portrayal of abortion as "America's Armageddon" began in the 1960s. In the 1970s, Mason says, Christian politics and the post-Vietnam paramilitary culture popularized the idea that legal abortion is a harbinger of apocalypse. By the 1990s, Mason asserts, even the movement's mainstream had taken up the call, narrating abortion as an apocalyptic battle between so-called Christian and anti-Christian forces. "Pro-life violence of the 1990s signaled a move away from protest and toward retribution," she writes. "Pro-life retribution is seen as a way to restore the order of God. In this light, the phenomenon of killing for 'life' is revealed not as an oxymoron, but as a logical consistency and a political manifestation of religious retribution."Mason's scrutiny of primary sources (direct mail, internal memoranda, personal letters, underground manuals, and pro-life films, magazines, and novels) draws attention to elements of pro-life millennialism. Killing for Life is a powerful indictment of pro-life ideology as a coherent, mass-produced narrative that does not merely condone violence, but anticipates it as part of "God's plan."

Executing Grace

Executing Grace PDF Author: Shane Claiborne
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062347365
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 210

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Book Description
In this reasoned exploration of justice, retribution, and redemption, the champion of the new monastic movement, popular speaker, and author of the bestselling The Irresistible Revolution offers a powerful and persuasive appeal for the abolition of the death penalty. The Bible says an eye for an eye. But is the state’s taking of a life true—or even practical—punishment for convicted prisoners? In this thought-provoking work, Shane Claiborne explores the issue of the death penalty and the contrast between punitive justice and restorative justice, questioning our notions of fairness, revenge, and absolution. Using an historical lens to frame his argument, Claiborne draws on testimonials and examples from Scripture to show how the death penalty is not the ideal of justice that many believe. Not only is a life lost, so too, is the possibility of mercy and grace. In Executing Grace, he reminds us of the divine power of forgiveness, and evokes the fundamental truth of the Gospel—that no one, even a criminal, is beyond redemption.

God Behaving Badly

God Behaving Badly PDF Author: David T. Lamb
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
ISBN: 1514003503
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 157

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Book Description
God has a bad reputation. Many think of God as wrathful and angry, smiting people right and left for no apparent reason. The Old Testament in particular seems at times to portray God as capricious and malevolent, wiping out armies and nations, punishing enemies with extreme prejudice.. But wait. The story is more complicated than that. Alongside troubling passages of God's punishment and judgment are pictures of God's love, forgiveness, goodness, and slowness to anger. How do we make sense of the seeming contradiction? Can God be trusted or not?. David Lamb unpacks the complexity of the Old Testament to explore the character of God. He provides historical and cultural background to shed light on problematic passages and bring underlying themes to the fore. Without minimizing the sometimes harsh realities of the biblical record, Lamb assembles an overall portrait that gives coherence to our understanding of God in both the Old and New Testaments. This expanded edition includes an updated preface, afterword, and appendix addressing the story of Noah and the flood.

The Disinformation Age

The Disinformation Age PDF Author: Eric Cheyfitz
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351839071
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 418

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Book Description
The Disinformation Age, beginning in the present and going back to the American colonial period, constructs an original historical explanation for the current political crisis and the reasons the two major political parties cannot address it effectively. Commentators inside and outside academia have described this crisis with various terms — income inequality, the disappearance of the middle-class, the collapse of the two-party system, and the emergence of a corporate oligarchy. While this book uses such terminology, it uniquely provides a unifying explanation for the current state of the union by analyzing the seismic rupture of political rhetoric from political reality used within discussion of these issues. In advancing this analysis, the book provides a term for this rupture, Disinformation, which it defines not as planned propaganda but as the inevitable failure of the language of American Exceptionalism to correspond to actual history, even as the two major political parties continue to deploy this language. Further, in its final chapter this book provides a way out of this political cul-de-sac, what it terms "the limits of capitalism’s imagination," by "thinking from a different place" that is located in the theory and practice of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas.

Is God a Moral Monster?

Is God a Moral Monster? PDF Author: Paul Copan
Publisher: Baker Books
ISBN: 9781441214546
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
A recent string of popular-level books written by the New Atheists have leveled the accusation that the God of the Old Testament is nothing but a bully, a murderer, and a cosmic child abuser. This viewpoint is even making inroads into the church. How are Christians to respond to such accusations? And how are we to reconcile the seemingly disconnected natures of God portrayed in the two testaments? In this timely and readable book, apologist Paul Copan takes on some of the most vexing accusations of our time, including: God is arrogant and jealous God punishes people too harshly God is guilty of ethnic cleansing God oppresses women God endorses slavery Christianity causes violence and more Copan not only answers God's critics, he also shows how to read both the Old and New Testaments faithfully, seeing an unchanging, righteous, and loving God in both.

Did God Really Command Genocide?

Did God Really Command Genocide? PDF Author: Paul Copan
Publisher: Baker Books
ISBN: 1441221093
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
A common objection to belief in the God of the Bible is that a good, kind, and loving deity would never command the wholesale slaughter of nations. Even Christians have a hard time stomaching such a thought, and many avoid reading those difficult Old Testament passages that make us squeamish. Instead, we quickly jump to the enemy-loving, forgiving Jesus of the New Testament. And yet, the question doesn't go away. Did God really command genocide? Is the command to "utterly destroy" morally unjustifiable? Is it literal? Are the issues more complex and nuanced than we realize? In the tradition of his popular Is God a Moral Monster?, Paul Copan teams up with Matthew Flannagan to tackle some of the most confusing and uncomfortable passages of Scripture. Together they help the Christian and nonbeliever alike understand the biblical, theological, philosophical, and ethical implications of Old Testament warfare passages. Pastors, youth pastors, campus ministers, apologetics readers, and laypeople will find that this book both enlightens and equips them for serious discussion of troubling spiritual questions.

Thou Shalt Not Kill

Thou Shalt Not Kill PDF Author: John Mortimer
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780727846587
Category : Detective and mystery stories
Languages : en
Pages : 239

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Book Description
A collection of crime stories by authors including John Mortimer, Ellis Peters, Charlotte Armstrong, Ralph McInerny and G.K. Chesterton.

The Death Penalty

The Death Penalty PDF Author: Roger Hood
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191005312
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 612

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Book Description
The fifth edition of this highly praised study charts and explains the progress that continues to be made towards the goal of worldwide abolition of the death penalty. The majority of nations have now abolished the death penalty and the number of executions has dropped in almost all countries where abolition has not yet taken place. Emphasising the impact of international human rights principles and evidence of abuse, the authors examine how this has fuelled challenges to the death penalty and they analyse and appraise the likely obstacles, political and cultural, to further abolition. They discuss the cruel realities of the death penalty and the failure of international standards always to ensure fair trials and to avoid arbitrariness, discrimination and conviction of the innocent: all violations of the right to life. They provide further evidence of the lack of a general deterrent effect; shed new light on the influence and limits of public opinion; and argue that substituting for the death penalty life imprisonment without parole raises many similar human rights concerns. This edition provides a strong intellectual and evidential basis for regarding capital punishment as undeniably cruel, inhuman and degrading. Widely relied upon and fully updated to reflect the current state of affairs worldwide, this is an invaluable resource for all those who study the death penalty and work towards its removal as an international goal.

A Companion to the Spanish Scholastics

A Companion to the Spanish Scholastics PDF Author: Harald Ernst Braun
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004296964
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 643

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Book Description
A much-needed survey of the entire field of early modern Spanish scholastic thought. Each chapter is grounded in primary sources and the relevant historiography, includes a useful bibliography, and serves as a point of departure for future research.

International Human Rights Law and Crimes Against Women in Turkey

International Human Rights Law and Crimes Against Women in Turkey PDF Author: Ayşe Güneş
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000297918
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 271

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Book Description
This book evaluates the effectiveness of current international human rights law, and in particular the recent Istanbul Convention, in eradicating so-called honour killings in Turkey. So-called ‘honour killings’ have become an issue of concern for the international community. In Turkey, in particular, the practice still exists despite the adoption of the relevant human rights instruments. The book argues that the improvement of the status of women in Turkey in accordance with gender equality as well as the application of the principle of state due diligence, both requirements of the Istanbul Convention and international human rights law, are fundamental means towards eradicating the killing of women in the name of ‘honour’. Using feminist approaches, in particular the intersectionality approach, the study looks at the application of such standards as well as the current obstacles. Through such a lens, the study discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the Turkish Constitution, Turkish Civil Code, Turkish Penal Code and Law to Protect Family and Prevent Violence Against Women and questions the judicial approach to the implementation of the women’s right to life. It identifies the lacunae in the Turkish legislation that allow inadequate legal protection for women and the inconsistency of the judicial approach to the definition of the so-called honour killings in the judgements. The study then recommends some concrete amendments to the relevant legal provisions in order to better reflect the international framework and the feminist approaches. The book will be a valuable resource for academics, researchers and policy-makers in the areas of international human rights law and feminist legal theory.