via the AP: The Chinese government is taking draconian measures to slash birth rates among Uighurs and other minorities as part of a sweeping campaign to curb its Muslim population, even as it encourages some of the country’s Han majority to have more children. While individual women have spoken out before about forced birth control,… Read More Forced Sterilization, Birth Control, and Abortion Part of China’s Eugenic Discrimination against Uighurs

Kelly Stewart writes: It is a truism, perhaps especially in left-leaning Catholic circles, that Catholic social teaching is the church’s best-kept secret. Marcus Mescher’s The Ethics of Encounter: Christian Neighbor Love as a Practice of Solidarity seeks to bring this best-kept secret to the fore and make it accessible to U.S. Catholics. Mescher argues that… Read More NCR on ‘The Ethics of Encounter’

At NCR, Mike Jordan Laskey  writes: Many people who have resisted restrictive measures meant to slow the spread of the coronavirus object to what they see as government overreach, causing an unjust curtailing of essential freedoms…. As a Catholic committed to the common good, these arguments drive me crazy. To me, it’s pretty straightforward: stay… Read More Freedom is Not License. Wear a Mask.

Philosopher Charles Taylor and sociologist José Casanova, a Berkley Center senior fellow, discuss the global crisis of democracy, the resurgence of exclusionary populisms and self-enclosed nationalisms, and lessons from the global pandemic: