Notable Speeches

Marvin Olasky, editor in chief at WORLD News Group, is the author Reforming Journalism (P&R Publishing, 2019).

He taught journalism at the University of Texas at Austin from 1983-2007 and later held the distinguished chair in journalism and public policy at Virginia's Patrick Henry College.

His earlier books include The Tragedy of American Compassion (original edition 1992, republished in 2007) and Prodigal Press: Confronting the Anti-Christian Bias of the American News Media (2013), co-authored with Warren Cole Smith. 

This address was presented on January 22, 2020, at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. It has been condensed slightly for this podcast.

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Journalist/blogger Rod Dreher is the author of The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation (Sentinel, 2017). 

He presented this address Feb. 4, 2020, at an event titled "God, Honor, Country: President Ronald Reagan, Pope John Paul II, and the Freedom of Nations — A National Conservatism Conference."

The conference, sponsored by conservative groups from Hungary, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the U.S., was held in Rome, Italy.

Mr. Dreher's remarks have been abridged slightly for use on this podcast.

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Arthur C. Brooks, a Harvard University professor and president emeritus of the American Enterprise Institute, was the keynote speaker at this year's National Prayer Breakfast, held February 6 in Washington, D.C. The breakfast is an annual event, attended more than 3,000 leaders from the U.S. and around the world.

Mr. Brooks is the author of 11 books, including Love Your Enemies: How Decent People Can Save America from the Culture of Contempt (Broadside Books, 2019) and The Conservative Heart: How to Build a Fairer, Happier, and More Prosperous America (Broadside Books, 2015).

Earlier in his career, Arthur Brooks was a professional musician, playing french horn with the Annapolis Brass Quintet in Maryland and the City Orchestra of Barcelona in Spain.

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The United Methodist Church, America's second-largest Protestant denomination, seems likely to split this year — a decision to be voted on at the denomination's General Conference this spring. One prominent plan would divide the UMC into at least two denominations — one adhering to historic Christian teaching, the other taking a "progressive" doctrinal stance.

In this address, Professor William J. "Billy" Abraham, a proponent of "traditional" Methodist theology, says United Methodists face "a stark and inescapable choice" about the future of the Methodist movement.

Dr. Abraham teaches at Southern Methodist University's Perkins School of the Theology, where he is the Albert Cook Outler Professor of Wesley Studies. His most recent book is Methodism: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2019).

This address was recorded at the November 2019 gathering of the Wesleyan Covenant Association in Tulsa, Okla. It has been abridged slightly for use on this podcast.

A magazine article adapted from Dr. Abraham's address is available here.

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One day after this year's March for Life in Washington, D.C., Heritage Foundation president Kay Coles James spoke to about 3,000 pro-life activists gathered for the National Pro-Life Summit.

Before becoming the president of Heritage in 2018, Kay Coles James served as the director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (2001-2005) and as dean of the Roberston School of Government at Virginia's Regent University (1996-1999). She is the founder of The Gloucester Institute, an organization that offers leadership training programs for African-American college students.

This address, recorded January 25, has been abridged slightly for use on this podcast.

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On Jan. 23, 2020, dozens of world leaders gathered in Jerusalem to commemorate the Holocaust, the genocide of European Jews during World War II.  The Forum coincided with the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp.

 The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, claimed an estimated six million lives, 

This edition of Notable Speeches features the World Holocaust Forum address presented by Charles, Prince of Wales, heir apparent to the British throne. 

You can read the official transcript of his remarks here.

Others in attendance included Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Emmanuel Macron, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, and about 100 Holocaust survivors.

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British-born philosopher Roger Scruton, once hailed as “the most influential conservative thinker since Edmund Burke,” died Jan. 12, 2020, at the age of 75.

His books include The Meaning of Conservatism (1980, 2001), An Intelligent Person's Guide to Modern Culture (1998, 2005), and The West and the Rest: Globalization and the Terrorist Threat (2002).

Mr. Scruton delivered this address at a lecture-and-discussion event titled "Beauty in a World of Ugliness" held at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. The October 2018 event was sponsored by the Dietrich von Hildebrand Legacy Project. 

His remarks have been abridged slightly for this podcast.

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Hadley Arkes, the founder of the James Wilson Institute on Natural Rights and the American Founding, was the architect of the Born-Alive Infants’ Protection Act, signed into law in 2002. 

A follow-up bill, known as the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, passed the House in 2018 but was not taken up in the Senate during that session of Congress.

Mr. Arkes is a professor emeritus at Amherst College and the author of Natural Rights and the Right to Choose (2002) and Constitutional Illusions and Anchoring Truths: The Touchstone of the Natural Law (2010), both published by Cambridge University Press.

This address was recorded at a November 2019 event hosted by the American Principles Project Foundation. It has been abridged slightly for this podcast.

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Historian Gertrude Himmelfarb passed away Dec. 30, 2019, at age 97. 

In an editorial tribute, The Wall Street Journal wrote that she was "known for rigorous scholarship, brilliant essays, and her forceful defense of morality in democratic politics," 

Her books include Poverty and Compassion: The Moral Imagination of the Late Victorians (Knopf, 1991) and The De-Moralization of Society: From Victorian Virtues to Modern Values (Knopf, 1995).

Gertrude Himmelfarb was born in 1922 in Brooklyn, New York. She went on to study at England's Cambridge University and New York's Jewish Theological Seminary before earning her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1950.

Himmelfarb (also known as Bea Kristol) was married to the influential editor and essayist Irving Kristol from 1942 until his death in 2009.

The address was recorded in March 1996 at Ashland University in Ohio. It has been condensed slightly for this podcast.

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New York Times columnist Ross Douthat is the author of Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics (Free Press, 2012) and The Decadent Society: How We Became the Victims of Our Own Success (Simon & Schuster, 2020).

He presented this address in September 2019 as part of the Archdiocese of Denver's Saint John Paul II Lecture Series, "a quarterly event which features intellectually stimulating talks," according to the Archdiocese's website.

Mr. Douthat's remarks have been abridged slightly for this podcast.

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