Most people support responsible environmental policies but may be unaware of how radical the leading edge of the movement has become as an increasing number of activists support granting personhood rights to nature. Is nature rights a subversive threat to human exceptionalism and our thriving or is it the next necessary step in society’s moral growth and key to preventing a catastrophic environmental collapse as its adherents claim? Let’s find out. Wesley’s guest is one of the primary founders of the nature rights approach. Thomas Alan Linzey, serves as Senior Legal Counsel for the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights, an organization committed to globally advancing the legal rights of nature and environmental rights. He is the co-founder of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) and is widely recognized as the founder of the contemporary “community rights” and “rights of nature” movements. Linzey is a cum laude graduate of Widener Law School and a three-time recipient of the law school’s public interest law award. He is a co-founder of the Daniel Pennock Democracy School – now taught in twenty-four states across the country which has graduated over 5,000 lawyers, activists, and municipal officials – which assists groups to create new community campaigns which elevate the rights of those communities over rights claimed by corporations. Linzey is the author or co-author of several books on community activism and civil disobedience. He assisted the Ecuadorian constitutional assembly in 2008 to adopt the world’s first constitution recognizing the independently enforceable rights of ecosystems, and is a frequent lecturer at conferences across the country. The Center on Human Exceptionalism is most pleased Linzey agreed to join the podcast, during which he and Wesley have a discussion not an argument. Center for Environmental Rights Nature Rights with Thomas Linzey | YouTube Rights of Nature: An Interview with Thomas Linzey | Bioneers Debate Between Wesley J. Smith and Thomas Alan Linzey on the Nature Rights movement | Discovery Institute War on Humans | Wesley J. Smith The return of nature worship | Acton Institute
We live in a time in which eliminating suffering is considered by many to be society’s ultimate purpose. Too often, this leads to policies that eliminate suffering by eliminating the sufferer. Still, for those not experiencing intense pain or anguish, arguing for improved care instead of increased access to assisted suicide or euthanasia can seem like a blithe platitude. “If you were really suffering,” I have heard repeatedly in my more than thirty years involved with these issues, “you would sing a different tune.” Perhaps. But many people who suffer intensely sing from the same songbook. One, is my good friend and guest for this episode of Humanize, Mark Pickup. Pickup has experienced the intense terror and anguish caused by disabling and progressive multiple sclerosis over several decades. Yet, in the midst of his intense pain, he became one of North America’s most prominent public speakers seeking to help others maneuver their way through travail and to find meaning even in the most difficult life circumstances. He is also a noted Christian apologist. Pickup has addressed politicians in Canada and the United States, churches and denominational leaders, universities, high schools and community groups, hospital medical staffs, local, state, and provincial pro-life conventions as well as keynote speaker to U.S. National Right to Life Prayer Breakfasts (2001, 2005, and 2010). Pickup is extensively published in Canadian and U.S. media and has appeared on innumerable radio and television programs warning against a cultural drift toward euthanasia acceptance. Mark has received numerous awards for his work including the Monsignor Bill Irwin Award for Ethical Excellence (Canada) and a Governor General’s Medal for community service. He writes the Human Life Matters blog that deals with issues of the sanctity of human life and other matters of cultural concern. HumanLifeMatters Mark Davis Pickup (@MarkDavisPickup) / X (twitter.com)
To say the least, bioethics is controversial. Many in the mainstream movement reject the sanctity and equal dignity of human life around issues such as abortion, assisted suicide, and biotechnology. But there is a robust pushback against such approaches—a human dignity bioethics, if you will—that promotes medical ethics and public health policies that align with the “do no harm” ethic of the Hippocratic Oath. The differences in these approaches impact our very understanding about the meaning and importance of human life. How do these distinctions play are among the most important and contentious controversies of the day. To get a handle on the current bioethics landscape, Wesley interviewed one of the most impressive and energetic defenders of human exceptionalism in bioethics today. Charles C. Camosy, Ph.D, is a Professor of Medical Humanities at the Creighton University School of Medicine and holds the Monsignor Curran Fellowship in Moral Theology at St. Joseph Seminary in New York. Before that, he spent 14 years in Fordham University’s theology department. Among other places, his articles have appeared in the American Journal of Bioethics, Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, Journal of the Catholic Health Association, New York Times, Washington Post, New York Daily News and America magazine. He has monthly columns with Religion News Service and Angelus, writes a bimonthly feature piece for The Pillar, and does regular Q&As for OSV News. He is the author of eight books with two on the way. Peter Singer and Christian Ethics (Cambridge) was named a 2012 “best book” with ABC Religion and Ethics; Beyond the Abortion Wars (Eerdmans), was a 2015 award-winner with the Catholic Media Association; Resisting Throwaway Culture (New City) was named 2020 “Resource of the Year” by the Catholic Publishers Association. He also penned Losing Our Dignity: How Secularized Medicine is Undermining Fundamental Human Equality. Dr. Camosy is also the founding editor of a new book series with New City Press called The Magenta Project. In addition to advising the pro-life commission of the Archdiocese of New York and receiving the 2018 St. Jerome Award for scholarly excellence from the Catholic Library Association. Camosy is a proud knight of the St. Peter Claver Society. He and his wife Paulyn have four children, three of whom they adopted from a Filipino orphanage in June of 2016. Losing Our Dignity: How Secularized Medicine is Undermining Fundamental Human Equality One Church: How to Rekindle Trust, Negotiate Difference, and Reclaim Catholic Unity: Camosy, Charles C.: 9781646801527: Amazon.com: Books For Love of Animals: Christian Ethics, Consistent Action: Camosy, Charles C.: 9781616366629: Amazon.com: Books https://www.newsweek.com/vulnerable-groups-deserve-protectionthat-includes-embryos-opinion-1873531 https://www.newsweek.com/pro-life-movement-needs-fundamentally-new-approach-opinion-1859885 https://www.pillarcatholic.com/p/brain-death-at-a-crossroads
It is no secret that most of society’s critical institutions are suffering from a crisis of trust. One of these is science, which heretofore enjoyed the confidence of the vast majority of the American people. To learn, what happened, whether the loss of confidence is deserved, and what can be done about it, Wesley asked the Director of the Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture to engage the crisis. This is Meyer’s second appearance on Humanize. Dr. Stephen C. Meyer received his Ph.D. in the philosophy of science from the University of Cambridge and is a former geophysicist and college professor. He authored Signature in the Cell, which was named a Book of the Year for 2009 by the Times of London, the New York Times best seller, Darwin’s Doubt, and most recently, The Return of the God Hypothesis. Meyer has also published editorials in national newspapers such as The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The National Post (of Canada), The Daily Telegraph (of London) and The Los Angeles Times. He has appeared on national television and radio programs such as NBC Nightly News, ABC Nightly News, CBS Sunday Morning, Nightline, Fox News Live, Good Morning America and was recently heard by millions of viewers in an extended interview on the Joe Rogan podcast. He has also been featured in two New York Times front-page stories and has garnered attention in other top national media. In 2008, he appeared with Ben Stein in the theatrical-released documentary Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. He has also been featured prominently in the science documentaries, Icons of Evolution, The Case for a Creator, and Darwin’s Dilemma, which aired on PBS and which Meyer co-wrote with producer Lad Allen. About | Stephen C. Meyer (stephencmeyer.org) Center for Science and Culture Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design Darwin’s Doubt: The Explosive Origin of Animal Life and the Case for Intelligent Design Dr. Stephen C. Meyer on the ‘God Hypothesis’ and the materialists’ increasingly fringe rationales for life and the universe | Humanize New England Journal of Medicine Pushes Gender Treatments for Minors | National Review The American Anthropological Association Is Shamefully Anti-Scientific | National Review
Racism has been America’s lingering cancer. There is no question that great strides have been made in eradicating this evil from our culture since the bad old days of slavery and Jim Crow. But alas, the urgent task is not completed, and as a result, a great divide still lingers among too many Americans based on superficial and irrelevant differences of skin color and hair texture. Listening to each other’s stories and understanding differing perspectives are crucial medicines in healing this great wound in our collective national soul. My guest today is an expert communicator in this regard, helping to build bridges and palliate bitterness across racial divides. The Reverand Dr. Arthur Cribbs, Jr. is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, a former network television journalist, radio talk show host, and documentarian. He is a graduate of U.C. Berkeley, obtained his Master’s of Divinity from Chicago Theological Seminary in 1986, and his Doctor of Ministry and Ethics from Claremont School of Theology in 2009. Cribbs produced and hosted the television special, “Stories of the Soul: Life after 9/11,” for which he received an Emmy Award. He was nominated for an Emmy for his documentary: Changing Faces of AIDS. He is the former executive director of the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity and has been a long-time ethics instructor for the California Department of Justice working with police departments to improve law enforcement. Due to his many contributions in serving his community, the City of San Diego proclaimed, February30, 2007 as The Reverend Arthur Cribbs Day. Now, Cribbs has written what he calls an “autobiographical novel”—HollyWatts: From the Promised Land to Purgatory, actually a memoir recounting his life growing up in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, where he witnessed the destruction of an important African-American community under the onslaught of drugs, gang violence, and ruling class indifference. Cribbs is currently Senior Pastor of the Christian Fellowship Congregational Church in San Diego, CA. He was also Wesley’s college roommate and remains one of his oldest and dearest friends Hollywatts: From the Promised Land to Purgatory: Jr Cribbs, Arthur Lawrence: 9780829800371: Amazon.com: Books R-302356.pdf (sandiego.gov) Life-Giving Acts — Little River United Church of Christ (lrucc.org)
We are in the midst of a transgender moral panic. Where only recently, very few people sought what used to be called a sex change, today the numbers of people seeking to “transition” to the other gender—particularly among children and teenagers—is becoming a flood. Much of the American medical establishment and the Biden administration claim that immediately yielding to children’s feelings that they are not the sex they were born is medically necessary, life-saving care. But is the science really settled? Recently, the United Kingdom, France, Norway, and other European countries hit the brakes on immediate gender affirmation in children—to the point that the UK shuttered its largest gender clinic for children as unsafe for patients. Even the World Health Organization—under political pressure, to be sure—just admitted that “the evidence base for children and adolescents is limited and variable regarding the longer-term outcomes of gender affirming care for children and adolescents.” The UK’s National Health Service concluded that instead of encouraging transition, “the clinical approach has to be mindful of the risks of an inappropriate gender transition and the difficulties that children may experience in returning to their original gender role.” Such “returns” are known as “de-transitioning,” a phenomenon that receives far too little attention, and when it does, too often sparks bitter denunciation of detransitioners among radical gender ideologues. My guest today has dedicated herself to raising the public profile of this important issue. Jennifer Lahl has directed, co-written, and co-produced three important documentaries on the subject. The first, Trans Mission: What’s the Rush to Reassign Gender? explored the medical ethics of administering puberty blocking and cross-sex hormone in children. That film was quickly followed with the release of The Detransition Diaries: Saving our Sisters, which told the stories of three young women who transitioned to living life as if they were men—only to realize that they are, indeed, women. And. completing the trilogy, the just released, The Lost Boys: Searching for Manhood, in which five young men describe their experiences with gender dysphoria and their ultimate pursuit to find peace in their natural masculine bodies. Among her many accomplishments, Lahl is a documentarian and founder of The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network. Her writings have appeared in various publications including Cambridge University Press, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Dallas Morning News, and the American Journal of Bioethics. As a field expert, she is routinely interviewed on radio and television including ABC, CBS, PBS, and NPR. She is also called upon to speak alongside lawmakers and members of the scientific community on various issues of bioethical concern. Board of Directors – The Center for Bioethics & Culture Network (cbc-network.org). https://cbc-network.org/ The Lost Boys: Searching for Manhood (youtube.com) The Detransition Diaries: Saving Our Sisters – The Center for Bioethics & Culture Network (cbc-network.org) The Detransition Diaries: Saving Our Sisters – The Center for Bioethics & Culture Network (cbc-network.org) Venus Rising Podcast: https://cbc-network.org/venus-rising-podcast/ WHO Admits Evidence Supporting ‘Gender-Affirming Care’ in Children Is ‘Limited and Variable’ | National Review
The southern border of the United States is in chaos. Millions of people from all over the world are flooding here each year, mostly illegally, but still allowed to remain in — and be transported free — throughout the country. Matters are quickly coming to a head. The crisis has strained our infrastructures, exacerbated our bitter political divisions, and called into question the ability and, indeed, willingness of the federal government to control American borders. At the same time, the system of legal immigration is strained with people waiting to come here lawfully facing complicated bureaucratic processes and long delays. Why is this happening? What can be done to improve the situation? Can America remain sovereign and treat those coming here illegally for a better life with respect and dignity and still maintain order at the border? My guest today has answers. Mark Krikorian, a nationally recognized expert on immigration issues, has served as Executive Director of the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) since 1995. His knowledge and expertise in the immigration field are sought by Congress, as well as the mainstream press and new media. He has published articles in numerous outlets including the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New York Times, and elsewhere. He is a contributor at National Review Online and has appeared on all major cable and broadcast news networks. Mr. Krikorian is the author of the books The New Case Against Immigration, Both Legal and Illegal and How Obama is Transforming America Through Immigration. His most recent co-authored publication is Open Immigration: Yea & Nay. Mr. Krikorian holds a master’s degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University. He spent two years at Yerevan State University in then-Soviet Armenia. Related
When the Supreme Court ruled that abortion was a constitutional right in Roe v. Wade in 1973, it not only throttled an important ongoing democratic debate in the country about legalizing abortion, but it tore this country’s culture apart. In the next fifty years, dedicated pro-life activists committed themselves to democratic engagement and advocacy to reverse Roe and return the struggle over the right to life to the democratic sphere. That decades-long effort bore fruit last year in the Supreme Court case of Dobbs. But that is far from the end of the story. The abortion issue continues to roil the country, with state legislatures passing dramatically different laws about the issue and voters in state initiative elections, such as in Kansas and Ohio, supporting legalization. With the federal courts officially neutral on abortion, how will the Pro-Life Movement seek to achieve its stated goal of convincing the entire country that life should be protected and respected from conception to natural death? Wesley’s guest on this episode of Humanize has some answers. Clarke Forsythe is Senior Counsel at Americans United for Life (AUL) and the author of Abuse of Discretion: The Inside Story of Roe v. Wade (Encounter Books 2013), which was cited by the Supreme Court in its majority opinion in Dobbs. In his 38 years at AUL, Forsythe has been co-counsel for parties in three U.S. Supreme Court cases and has argued before federal and state appellate courts. He has also testified before Congress and state legislatures. Forsythe has authored or co-authored 20+ professional legal articles on constitutional and bioethical issues. His other articles have been published in the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, Public Discourse, The Washington Times, The Federalist, The Hill, and many other newspapers and magazines. His first book, Politics for the Greatest Good, which draws on lessons in political prudence from Thomas Aquinas, William Wilberforce, and Abraham Lincoln, was published by InterVarsity Press (IVP) in 2009. His new book, Pushing Roe v. Wade Over the Brink, co-authored with Alexandra DeSanctis, chronicles the 50-year legal struggle to overturn Roe v. Wade, and its implications for future bioethical issues in American law and policy. Forsythe has a B.A. from Allegheny College, a J.D. from Valparaiso University, and an M.A. in Bioethics from Trinity International University, where he has been an Adjunct Professor of Bioethics. Clarke and his wife, Karen, married for 41 years, have five daughters and 11 grandchildren. Pushing Roe v. Wade Over the Brink: The Battle for America’s Heart, the Human Right to Life, and a Future Full of Hope Abuse of Discretion – Encounter Books Crucial Priorities for Advocates and Lawmakers After Dobbs – Americans United for Life (aul.org) AUL’s 40 Year Stand Against Chemical Abortion – Americans United for Life When Congress Funds Abortion, It Funds Coercion | National Review
The homelessness and addiction catastrophes on our city streets seem intractable. Unhygienic squatter tent cities. Human waste on our sidewalks. Used needles littering our parks. Crime. Collapsing commercial districts. It’s enough to make one turn away in despair and allow areas of our once most beautiful cities to become no-go zones. But some refuse to yield. One is veteran independent journalist Jonathan Choe. Choe focuses his journalism on homelessness, drug addiction, and the mental health crisis ravaging America through hard-hitting video narratives. In this episode of Humanize, Choe will describes the horrors—and heroism—he encounters daily as he covers the homelessness beat Choe is a Senior Fellow with Discovery Institute’s Center on Wealth and Poverty, covering homelessness issues for its Fix Homelessness initiative. Prior to joining Discovery, Choe spent several years as one of the lead reporters at KOMO-TV, consistently the top-rated television station in Seattle. His in depth stories on crime and deep dive investigations into the homelessness crisis led to measurable results in the community, including changes in public policy. Choe has more than two decades of experience in television news behind the scenes and in front of the camera for ABC, NBC, FOX, CBS, and Tribune. He has also been nominated and honored with multiple industry awards including an Emmy. As an independent journalist, Choe also contributes regularly to the Mill Creek View and Lynnwood Times and has reported on exclusive stories in the past year for Daily Wire and The Postmillennial. Choe is a New England native and Boston University journalism school graduate. (757) Choe show – YouTube Twitter: Jonathan Choe Journalist (Seattle) (@choeshow) / X (twitter.com) https://www.discovery.org/p/choe/ (757) DOWNTOWN #seattle MADNESS CONTINUES – YouTube Donate | Fix Homelessness (1) “I have never seen this much anti-Semitism.” (substack.com) Other Humanize Interviews on the Homelessness Catastrophe Robert Marbut on America’s Homelessness Crisis, Strategies for Uplifting the Homeless, and Effective Government Policies | Humanize Jim Palmer of the Orange County Rescue Mission on causes and cures for America’s homelessness crisis | Humanize
It is no secret that American politics are in crisis. Polls show that Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives are increasingly estranged from each other, conservative red states and progressive blue states are enacting public policies that are dramatically dichotomous, and millions of people no longer trust the integrity of our electoral system. As this program is being recorded, there is no Speaker of the House of Representatives. The two leading candidates to become president in 2024—President Joe Biden and Former President Donald Trump—are both highly unpopular, and most Americans don’t want a rematch of 2020. How has this crisis come to be and what can be done about it? Wesley asked one of the most respected election analysts in the country to provide some insight. Henry Olsen is a Washington Post columnist and senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. He was the Thomas W. Smith distinguished scholar in residence at Arizona State University for the winter/spring 2023 semester. Olsen began his career as a political consultant. After three years working for the California Assembly Republican Caucus, he went to law school, and after graduating, clerked for the Honorable Danny J. Boggs on the United States Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. Olsen later joined the think tank world where he served as the President of the Commonwealth Foundation, a Vice President at the Manhattan Institute, and Vice President and Director, National Research Initiative, at the American Enterprise Institute. He left AEI in 2013 to pursue a career in political analysis and writing at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Olsen’s writings have appeared in variety of leading publications throughout the United States and the United Kingdom. He is the author of “The Working Class Republican: Ronald Reagan and the Return of Blue-Collar Conservatism” and co-authored, “The Four Faces of the Republican Party”. Olsen’s biennial election predictions have been widely praised for their uncanny accuracy, and he is a frequent guest on television and radio news and commentary programs. Olsen regularly speaks about American political trends and global populism in the United States, Europe, and Australia. He is also the host of the Beyond the Polls podcast. In this interview, Wesley does not ask Olsen to take sides on the issues of the day or political personalities but solicited his dispassionate analysis of what has gone wrong in our contemporary political discourse and why. Beyond the Polls With Henry Olsen – Ricochet PowerPoint Presentation (centerforpolitics.org)
