
Senator John Edwards was justly ridiculed when he stated in 2004 that people in wheelchairs would be able to walk if John Kerry were elected, because he would alter President Bush’s embryonic stem cell funding policy. This bit of outrageous hype was quickly labeled Edwards’ “amen moment.”
Now, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has had a shameless amen moment of her own, asserting in the recent House of Representatives debate:
“Science is a gift of God to all of us and science has taken us to a place that is biblical in its power to cure,” said Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, arguing for the bill’s passage. “And that is the embryonic stem cell research.”
The thing is: ESCR hasn’t cured anything. This kind of wild hype is shameful and should be ridiculed far and wide. But the media won’t even arch an eyebrow. They analyze every story and statement through the prism of destroying the Bush policy. In such a biased and ignorant milieu, no statement or argument made on behalf of embryonic stem cell research is too wild to be taken seriously.
Dear Reader,
Can I be direct with you?
War abroad. Socialists on the rise. AI upending human life. Endless uproar online. The modern attention economy doesn’t want readers — it wants users enslaved to the tyranny of the present.
First Things is the antidote: literary excellence, timeless truths, and a fixed point of reference in a culture that has lost its bearings.
But we can’t do it without readers like you.
Our goal: Raise $150,000 by November 1 to sustain First Things in the year ahead.
Your gift anchors readers in the permanent things.
Make your Fall Campaign gift now using the button below.
If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Giovanni Del Piero, Director of the Editor’s Circle, at gdelpiero@firstthings.com or 212-627-1985.
The Church in the Age of Therapy
In 1966, Philip Rieff wrote in The Triumph of the Therapeutic that “Religious man was born to…
Canada’s Deadliest Blind Spot
On September 20, the Daily Mail ran a story with the provocative headline, “Our 83-year-old Christian grandmother…
The Faithful Joy of Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen
Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen seem to have had little in common. She favored rhinestones; he wore…