The Corner: Eleven Things that Caught My Eye: Jimmy Carter, Pro-Life? NYC’s Marijuana Mistake & More
- John Murdock: “Jimmy Carter, Awkward Abortion Moderate”
The continuation of the Hyde Amendment would become Carter’s lasting legacy on abortion policy. In 2012, Carter publicly called for the Democrats to move away from their full embrace of abortion. That plea went unheeded, but to his credit, Carter never publicly abandoned Hyde, unlike like Joe Biden. Nevertheless, Carter continued to publicly support the Democrats and, with the exception of a 2015 reiteration of his personal views to the New York Times, 2012 was the last time Carter publicly advocated for any moderation of the growing abortion extremism in his party. In 2016, he endorsed Hillary Rodham Clinton, whom he had appointed to a position in his administration decades before, despite her actively calling for publicly funded abortions. He went on to endorse Biden despite the flip on Hyde, and at 100 announced that he voted for Kamala Harris, despite her abortion cheerleading.
In 2019, I visited one of President Carter’s Sunday school sessions in Plains, Georgia. I used my ten seconds to thank him for supporting Hyde and urged him to speak out again. He made no reply and looked a bit sheepish. A letter on the same topic went unanswered. Carter was passionate and outspoken about many worthwhile causes, from Habitat for Humanity to the eradication of disease. On abortion, though, he tried to take a moderate position on an issue that logically affords none. Carter was unwilling to take on Roe at a time when a constitutional amendment was within the realm of possibility, and he helped to herd pro-lifers out of the party. Still, he supported the Hyde Amendment in its infancy. That act of leadership helped to build a bipartisan coalition that has kept taxpayer funds from paying for abortions for decades, likely saving millions of lives. There are worse political legacies to have.
- Dan Lipinski: “The Last Pro-Life Democrat President”
Carter never stopped speaking out on abortion. In his 2018 Liberty University commencement address, he condemned sex-selective abortions and lamented the “160 million girls and women who are not living today.” We must never forget the injustice of abortion, which Jimmy Carter proclaimed. May all Americans, especially Democrats, heed that voice of conscience now. And may he rest in peace.
- AP: “Pope calls for commitment to protect life as he doubles down on abortion in New Year’s Day message”
Francis, 88, celebrated a New Year’s Day Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Wednesday that was dedicated to Mary, the mother of Jesus.
In his homily, he prayed that everyone learns to care for “every child born of a woman” and to protect “the precious gift of life: life in the womb, the lives of children, the lives of the suffering, the poor, the elderly, the lonely and the dying.”
“I ask for a firm commitment to respect the dignity of human life from conception to natural death, so that each person may cherish his or her own life and all may look with hope to the future,” he said, using the terminology of the church’s opposition to abortion and euthanasia.
The full homily is here.
- National Post: ‘It’s being abused:’ Group that led campaign for Medical Aid in Dying is now calling for safeguards
The civil liberties group that led the push for the 2015 decriminalization of physician-assisted suicide in Canada is now warning it has become too easy to obtain MAID, and the government must enact safeguards.
The British Columbia Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) filed the case for Carter v. Canada, the constitutional challenge that led to the country’s current Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) regime. Statistics released last week reveal it was responsible for about one in 20 deaths in Canada in 2023, including 622 people who received MAID for a non-terminal illness.
- RealClearReligion: “Quebec Has Become a Bastion of Religious Intolerance”
Premier François Legault wants to ban prayers in public spaces, his latest crusade for religious intolerance.
Legault’s rationale is that Quebec is a secular state, as reinforced by “Quebec values.” He isn’t the first politician to use Quebec nationalism as a pretext for religious suppression.
In 2013, Premier Pauline Marois, with the Parti Québécois, proposed to ban religious symbols from public institutions. Banning private religious schools, particularly Jewish schools in Montreal, has been at the core of public debate since Jean Charest.
However, this is not about protecting Quebec values — this is about hatred of “invasive” religions.
- Naomi Schaefer Riley: “Why the riskiest situation NYC foster kids can face is visiting their birth parent”
- Seth Barron for City Journal: “New York Could Soon Regret Legalizing Marijuana”
The legalization of marijuana in New York may have increased K2’s availability. Following pot decriminalization, thousands of “smoke shops” sprang up throughout the city, sometimes several on a block, selling drug paraphernalia, unlicensed marijuana, and little bags of K2, labeled as “potpourri” or “incense.” A 2024 state law that permitted municipalities to close and padlock these stores without a warrant or means of appeal was quickly overturned as unconstitutional, so police must return to investigating each venue individually, making undercover purchases and painstakingly gathering evidence to bring a case before a judge. In practice, this allows the stores to keep selling illegal products—either unlicensed pot or synthetic products—under the counter.
- Andrew T. Walker for Daily Wire: “Jimmy Carter and America’s Double Standard for Celebrating Christianity”
Carter’s faith comforted the cultural Left. It posed no threat to the dominant liberal order.
To be fair, his faith motivated many good works for which I will not criticize him. But Carter’s Christianity ultimately allowed him to serve as a chaplain to progressive America. It represents the convergence of religious sentimentality with progressive moral values. In effect, Carter’s faith symbolizes the one form of church-state establishment that liberalism will tolerate: a Christianity stripped of its harder truths, its calls to repentance, and its moral clarity.
- Luke Coppen on The Pillar: “The book of before and after”
There is a serious crisis on the horizon of the Chaldean Church, which is somewhat hidden because Chaldeans are generally fairly faithful and our churches are pretty full.
The crisis is that within a lifetime, the Chaldean Church could very easily disintegrate as its people either stop being religious or go to other churches. The temptation in the West right now is to make short-term “gains” by making ourselves as much like the Latin Church as possible (“latinization”), adopting their style, music, etc.
This is, in my experience, an easy way out that will be suicidal in the long run. If the Chaldean Church ends up feeling just like a Latin Church, then why not just go to a Latin Church?
The more challenging route is to take our traditions, prayers, music, and spirituality, and make them accessible to the English-speaking faithful. This route is more work and has more social obstacles, but in my view it’s the only real way to keep the Chaldean Church alive in the long run.
- Eli Federman in WSJ: “The Bald Eagle Is Heaven-Sent”
Soaring with symbolism, America’s new national bird is mentioned in the Bible at least 30 times.