The Editors

First Things : How did you get involved in the magazine? Where and when did you meet Fr. Neuhaus? George Weigel: I first met Father Neuhaus in May 1978, in New York, when I was arranging a conference on international human rights in Seattle, where I then lived and worked. We quickly became fast . . . . Continue Reading »

First Things : So I think the first thing we would like to know is what it was that brought you to New York in the first place and how you met Father Neuhaus and your background. James Nuechterlein: In the early ’60s, he was then Pastor Neuhaus of St. John the Evangelist in Brooklyn, and I . . . . Continue Reading »

How did we get here, to this curious and unexpected place? We could never have imagined, for instance, we’d live to see the day a book of the Bible is illustrated by an R-rated comic-strip cartoonist… . Continue Reading »

[Note: This online symposium originally appeared on Evangelical Outpost in November 2006.] “Torture is not always impermissible,” argues Charles Krauthammer in “The Truth About Torture,” his provocative essay in The Weekly Standard. “However rare the cases, there are . . . . Continue Reading »

In a recent Weekly Standard article, “The Truth about Torture,” Charles Krauthammer has questioned the coherence of the McCain amendment passed by the Senate by a vote of 90-9, ostensibly banning under all circumstances “cruel, inhuman, or degrading” treatment of any . . . . Continue Reading »

In his Weekly Standard article, “The Truth about Torture” (December 5, 2005), Charles Krauthammer responds to arguments made by Senator John McCain and codified in the McCain amendment, which would prohibit any “cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment” of any prisoner in . . . . Continue Reading »

Self-preservation is not the ultimate value underlying Christian ethics, and recognition of that fact must underlie any attempt to articulate a Christian response to torture. The specter of terrorists holding information that could save thousands of lives does not alter or eviscerate the . . . . Continue Reading »

This is an argument very much worth having. Charles Krauthammer writes in The Weekly Standard: But if that is the case, then McCain embraces the same exceptions I do, but prefers to pretend he does not. If that is the case, then his much-touted and endlessly repeated absolutism on inhumane treatment . . . . Continue Reading »

Evaluating the “Caiaphas Ethic” of Charles Krauthammer “But a certain one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, ‘you know nothing at all, nor do you take into account that it is expedient for you that one man should die for the people, and that the . . . . Continue Reading »

Charles Krauthammer has written a timely and provocative piece critical of Senator John McCain’s effort to ban all forms of torture. In particular this debate regards whether “cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment” should ever be used with detainees who operate outside the . . . . Continue Reading »