Good and Evil
Items on the problem of evil and responses to evil
Forgiving Enemies in Northern Ireland
Wed 06 Jan 2010 by Nigel Biggar
Spiritual Self-preservation, Absolution, and Compassion
Professor Nigel Biggar presented this talk on his understanding of reconciliation and its specific application at an evening event for the Westminster Forum of Trinity Forum Europe in December 2009.
Loconte on Niebuhr in Books & Culture
Mon 01 Dec 2008 by TTF Staff
Senior Fellow Joseph Loconte has a review essay in the November/December 2008 issue of Books and Culture on the new edition of Reinhold Niebuhr’s The Irony of American History. “The Irony of American Politics”:
Nevertheless, many Niebuhr admirers have a disposition that blunts much of his message. They have fastened onto his critique of America's national foibles and used it like an axe to dismember U.S. foreign policy under the Bush Administration. Remarkably, they tend to ignore the religious core of Niebuhr's political thought: his Christian understanding of the tragedy of human nature. It was this German-born theologian, after all, who tried to reclaim the biblical doctrine of original sin during the inter-war period.
The World Standing Beside Me
Tue 18 Nov 2008 • Responses: 1 • by Jo Kadlecek
She didn’t mean to make me sad. My colleague’s words were short and brave, but there was no mistaking the heavy worry she felt as a mother.
“He’ll be here for a ten-day break,” she smiled. “Then back to Iraq for another tour. But really, it’s been okay. He’s okay.”
When I asked how she was doing, she emphasized the ways in which her son’s courage had grown during his twelve months away from home, how his sense of humor was still intact and his weekly phone calls encouraging.
Korean Anxieties
Wed 05 Nov 2008 by David Aikman
While the attention of almost all Americans and much of the world has been focused on the presidential election campaign that ended November 4, tensions are rising alarmingly in a part of the world thousands of miles away. North Korea is up to its old tricks, threatening fire and brimstone on the South, and keeping the world guessing as to the whereabouts, and indeed the health, of its “Dear Leader” President Kim Jong-il. The combination of leadership uncertainty in North Korea, a South Korean administration notably more hard-nosed towards North Korea than its predecessors, and an imminent political change in Washington, constitute the ingredients for a possible serious rise in tensions on the Korean peninsula.
The U.N.’s Human Rights Charade
Wed 13 Aug 2008 by Joseph Loconte
The Geneva-based U.N. Watch has just released its critique of the tenure of former U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour. Entitled, “The Right to Name and Shame,” the report offers a clear-eyed look at the record of the U.N.’s most prestigious human-rights official. Sadly—but predictably—Ms. Arbour’s performance, painstakingly examined, receives mixed reviews:
Social Justice and Conservative Politics
Sun 10 Aug 2008 • Responses: 2 • by Joseph Loconte
Americans don't pay much attention to the domestic politics of other countries, but the tectonic shift of political fortunes in Great Britain deserves some reflection. In a recent cover story of The Weekly Standard, "First, Lose Three Straight Elections," executive editor Fred Barnes describes how the Conservative Party has emerged from a long and lonely trek in the wilderness. The youthful face and articulate voice of party leader David Cameron only partially explains their astonishingly strong support in public opinion polls. Once known as "the nasty party," Conservatives have redefined themselves—not only in style but in substance.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, RIP
Sun 03 Aug 2008 by TTF Staff
“A great writer is, so to speak, a secret government in his country.”
Broken Promises for Human Rights in China
Tue 29 Jul 2008 by Joseph Loconte
Though painfully overdue, a leading human-rights organization has finally focused serious and sustained attention on a leading human-rights abuser: China. In a scathing report released ten days before the Olympic Games in Beijing, Amnesty International has concluded that China “continues to persecute and punish” those who advocate for human rights and democratic reform.
Muslims Challenge Islamic Hypocrisy
Fri 25 Jul 2008 by Joseph Loconte
The Arab regime of Omar al-Bashir in Sudan has long been accused of ethnic cleansing in its war against black African rebels in Darfur. Since fighting broke out in the spring of 2004, various U.N. investigators and human-rights groups have offered strong evidence of government complicity in the destruction of villages, sexual violence against women, and the brutal dislocation of nearly two million non-Arab Sudanese. Indeed, last week the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Mr. al-Bashir, accusing him of genocide. Yet, as best as I can tell, not a single Arab state has spoken out clearly and forcefully against the Islamist government in Khartoum.
The manifest hypocrisy of the Arab world toward Sudan, however, is becoming too much for some Muslims to bear.
Zimbabwe, the Scandal of Africa
Tue 24 Jun 2008 by David Aikman
It certainly looks as if the Almighty’s help will be needed in removing Mugabe from power.
The average American—or average Irishman or Frenchman, for that matter—could be forgiven for not knowing the answer to the following question: which country in the world has inflation of more than 15,000 percent, unemployment of 80 percent, and the lowest life-expectancy rate in the world (age 37 for men)? The answer—Zimbabwe—is not only the scandal of Africa today, but also the current scandal of world politics.
The immediate crisis in Zimbabwe is that the country’s president, Robert Mugabe, seems quite determined not to permit opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai to assume political power in the country. In an initial election March 29, Tsvangirai, leader of the political party Movement for Democratic Change, won 47.9 percent of the vote, to Mugabe’s 43.2 percent. The election results, however, were not released until May 2, however, leading the opposition to charge that Mugabe’s party, ZANU-PF (Zimbabwe African People’s Union—Patriotic Front), had suppressed the results.
