Respect Life Radio

Kara Frederick: Big tech and big government converging to restrict freedom

Digital IDs and digital passports are the gateway to the "social credit system, in addition to the second element and that is: tech companies doing the government's bidding to effectively cut you off from digital life, and a public life, if you have the wrong opinions, especially with regard to the government," said Kara Frederick, research fellow in technology policy at The Heritage Foundation who recently published a research report, "Combating Big Tech’s Totalitarianism: A Road Map."

Frederick was previously a fellow at the Center for a New American Security and, prior to that, "helped create and lead Facebook’s Global Security Counterterrorism Analysis Program," according to her Heritage bio. Follow her @karaafrederick on Twitter.

 

Arielle Del Turco: Ukrainians rise up to fight for their country

“We're used to seeing conflicts all around the world. What we're not used to is really seeing the population — average citizens, moms, grandparents, average people — rally together and make a unified effort to say, 'No, we're not all fleeing the country,' though many are. 'We're actually going to stay, we're going to fight, we're going to pitch in.' It's not just that Russia is attacking the Ukrainian military. [Russian President Vladimir Putin] really has to fight the entire country, because the entire country is rising up to fight him," said Arielle Del Turco, assistant director of the Center for Religious Liberty at Family Research Council, who recently wrote a commentary, "Courage on Display in Ukraine." 

Follow her @arielledelturco on Twitter.

Charles Stimson: Crime rising amid ”rogue prosecutors”

"The rogue prosecutor movement operates under a misbelief that the entire criminal justice system is systemically racist. Of course it isn't. And that the only way to fix it is to fundamentally reverse engineer and destroy the existing criminal justice system. Which is hogwash," said Charles "Cully" Stimson, deputy director of the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation. "You cannot find one of their policies, not one, that's pro-victim. Not one."

See Stimson's research at the Rogue Prosecutors web page and follow him @CullyStimson on Twitter. 

Fr. Blake Britton: Reclaim Vatican II for renewal of the Church

“What most people assume is Vatican II is actually not Vatican II. It's this paracouncil, this false narrative constructed by these different theologians and thinkers, as opposed to the actual documentation itself," said Fr. Blake Britton, a priest in the Diocese of Orlando, a contributor to Word on Fire and author of "Reclaiming Vatican II: What It (Really) Said, What It Means, and How It Calls Us to Renew the Church" (Ave Maria Press / Word on Fire). 

Follow Fr. Britton @frbritton on Facebook and @frblakebritton on Instagram. 

Bob Fu: How the Chinese Communist Party threatens liberty

“The Chinese Communist Party [is] not only posing a threat from far away, they are penetrating deeply in our society already, in every sphere of our society,” said Bob Fu, Ph.D., founder and president of ChinaAid, based in Midland, Texas. Fu, a pastor and author, is Senior Fellow for International Religious Freedom at Family Research Council and "was a student leader during the Tiananmen Square demonstrations for freedom and democracy in 1989," according to his ChinaAid profile.

“Pray for those who are persecuted and write letters to them to encourage them,” said Fu. “Write to our elected officials, instruct them. They need to speak for the people's voice — not the special interests and the Chinese lobbyist's voice, who really compromise our society.”

Follow him @BobFu4China and @ChinaAid on Twitter.

Elizabeth Lev: Discovering St. Joseph in art history

"What I found was this 1,600 year development to Joseph, which is just so compelling and so beautiful, how he goes from being absent in the early history of art to being truly the patron of the universal Church," said Elizabeth Lev, Ph.D., art historian, professor and author of books, including "The Silent Knight: A History of St. Joseph as Depicted in Art" (Sophia Institute Press).

Lev said she was inspired by the 2020 apostolic letter (With a Father's Heart) from Pope Francis  that described St. Joseph as having "creative courage."

St. Joseph is "a man of action, but then he's also a man of receptivity, of dreams, of meditation," said Lev. "So he has this wonderful balance between these angelic experiences he has — these angelic messages he's given — but then he gets up and he does something..."

Learn more at elizabeth-lev.com and follow her @lizlevrome on Twitter.

 

Jonathan Culbreath: The need for common good conservatism

"Only recently have we started to see a resurfacing of an older type of conservatism — they call it a common good conservatism — which is trying to regain a little bit of a foothold in the recognition of the absolute universality of moral truth claims and trying to restore that recognition to the political philosophy of conservatism. Other than that, I think the capitulation to relativism is quite prevalent...," said Jonathan Culbreath, writer of a recent article, "Which Freedom? Whose Relativism?" for The American Conservative.

For more from Culbreath, see Postmodern Perennialist and follow him @maestrojmc on Twitter.

David Closson: Amid all the confusion, what is your worldview?

"Every philosophy of life, every worldview, every religion has to answer four basic questions: Why is there something rather than nothing? What's gone wrong in the world? Is there any hope? Where is all this headed?" said David Closson, director of the Center for Biblical Worldview at the Family Research Council, which is based in Washington, D.C. "Increasingly, even those who would call themselves professing Christians don't understand those basic questions. And that's one of the reasons we have the Center for Biblical Worldview. It's to remind pastors and to remind churches, and Christian parents, why they have to take this job of discipleship very seriously."

See resources from Closson, including "Year in Review: 10 Stories from 2021" and "Biblical Principles for Pro-Life Engagement." Follow him @DavidClosson on Twitter. 

Brock Martin of FOCUS: The goal of SEEK22 is to foster Christian community

“The truth is, every single human being has been created by God for a relationship with Him. So the more the world tries to strangle out that reality, the brighter somebody saying, 'Hey, you were created to be unbelievably incredible, you were created to be a great saint' — the more that truth rings true in men's and women's hearts," said Brock Martin, director of regional evangelization for the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS).

FOCUS “is a Catholic collegiate outreach whose mission is to share the hope and joy of the gospel with college and university students,” according to the Colorado-based organization, which cites a presence on more than 160 college campuses across the U.S., plus international locations. Its SEEK22 conference takes place online Feb. 4 — 6, with registration details at seek.focus.org. Follow @FOCUScatholic on Twitter, and the hashtag #SEEK22.

Michael Lichens: What we can learn from Marian apparitions

Marian apparitions are "proof positive, right there — in the flesh, so to speak — that God didn't just make us and leave us alone. He is still involved in us and His mother still prays for us," said Michael J. Lichens, editor at Catholic Exchange and the editor of the recent book, "The World of Marian Apparitions: Mary's Appearances and Messages from Fatima to Today" by Wincenty Łaszewski (Sophia Institute Press). Lichens also discusses the care taken by the Church in evaluating and approving apparitions.