David Mills Dr. John C. Cutler was a monster. A monster who died after a long and successful life in government and academia, with scholarships and lectures created in his memory. As readers may know, in the mid-1940s he experimented upon poor Guatemalans, including mental patients and orphans as young as nine, trying to find a cure for syphilis. The most horrifying example, already much posted on the web (I quoted it on “First Thoughts” a few days ago), is... Read more

LUTHERAN – CATHOLIC DIALOGUE September 27—Johannes Brosseder, Professor of Systematic Theology at the University of Cologne, Germany, and expert in ecumenical affairs will lecture on “What Now for Lutherans and Catholics After the 1999 Agreement on Justification?” Professor Brosseder’s presentation will be responded to by the Rev. William Wiecher of College Lutheran Church in Salem, Virginia, and by Monsignor Joseph Lehman of Our Lady of Nazareth Catholic Church in Roanoke County. The lecture will be held at Antrim Chapel on... Read more

Matthew J. Franck & William E. Simon Jr. This Sunday is the tenth anniversary of the al-Qaeda attacks on our country that left nearly 3,000 dead, the great majority of them in the ashes and rubble of the World Trade Center in New York City. As Americans pause on September 11 in mournful remembrance of that dreadful day, many of them will mark the moment with a prayer for the dead, for the loved ones from whom they were taken,... Read more

George Weigel Shahbaz Bhatti knew that his life was in danger. Some weeks before his death, he made clear in interviews that he was fully aware of the risks he was running. But he was determined to hold fast to his faith and to his convictions about religious freedom. “My struggle will continue,” he said, “despite the difficulties and threats I have received. My only aim is to defend fundamental rights, religious freedom, and the life of Christians and other... Read more

Russell Saltzmann First Things It wasn’t until she encountered the love of Christ that anything actually changed. That was her ultimate impetus to leave her gay lover, something she would not have done for “anything less than the person of Christ Himself.” She describes a growing consciousness that her identity as a Catholic offered more spiritual security than her identity as a lesbian. It was this, no “reparative” therapy or exhortations to “pray away the gay,” that have given us... Read more

The King James Bible—the bestselling book of all time, the most quoted book in the English language—is celebrating its 400th anniversary this year with conferences and exhibits in museums and libraries. Yet how this book of superlatives came to be is not so well-known. It is a peculiar story, full of twists and surprises. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903918104576502782310557332.html Read more

The science is now all-but-settled on global warming, convincing new evidence demonstrates, but Al Gore, the IPCC and other global warming doomsayers won’t be celebrating. The new findings point to cosmic rays and the sun — not human activities — as the dominant controller of climate on Earth. http://opinion.financialpost.com/2011/08/26/lawrence-solomon-science-now-settled/ Read more

So, the vice president goes to China—and if that sounds like the beginning of a bad comedy routine, it’s because our current vice president has made it one. The man is a walking pratfall, a clown of the tongue-tied, stumbling kind, and only the media’s determined effort to shield the Obama administration from laughter has kept Joe Biden’s miscues, misunderstandings, and mispronouncements from becoming our long-running national joke. http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/motley-fool_591422.html?page=1 Read more

A Montserratian graduate of Barbados’ Codrington College who rose to become rector of the largest black parish in the United States Episcopal Church is leaving his wealthy religious edifice in Brooklyn early because of same-sex marriages. http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/print.php?storyid=14773 Read more

The bishop of London is describing the weight of the episcopal burden. A bishop’s destiny, he says, is to be tossed about by storms while struggling to resolve the tension between leading and serving his people. The words, boomed sonorously at half a dozen worshippers gathered for the 8am Eucharist, are those of a fifth-century prelate, dismayed by the encumbrance of promotion. http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/print.php?storyid=14775 Read more