Human Race

Convicted

A Boston jury on Aug. 12 convicted mobster Whitey Bulger, 83, of racketeering, money laundering, drug dealing, and 11 murders in a crime spree spanning decades. Bulger did not react when the verdict was read, but family members of victims wept. Authorities first indicted Bulger in 1994, but he evaded the FBI until his 2011 arrest in California. Bulger’s defense attorney, Jay Carney, said the trial exposed government corruption. Sentencing is set for November.

Died

Suspected World War II criminal Laszlo Csatari, 98, of Hungary died Aug. 10 in Budapest. Csatari topped the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s list of Nazi war criminals for alleged participation in beating and deporting over 15,000 Jews to death camps. A Czechoslovakian court sentenced Csatari to death in absentia in 1948, but he escaped to Canada and lived quietly as an art dealer for nearly 50 years. After Canada revoked his citizenship in 1997, Csatari returned to Hungary where authorities put him under house arrest last year. He denied all charges of wrongdoing.

Died

Former national security adviser William P. Clark, also known as “Judge Clark,” died Aug. 10 at age 81. Clark, a former California Supreme Court judge, was a trusted confidant of Ronald Reagan—some say his best friend—who played a key role in shaping White House policy. Time magazine called Clark the second most powerful man in the White House in a 1983 cover story. Clark, who was ardently pro-life, was chief of staff during Reagan’s tenure as California governor and mastered the “mini-memo”— brief issue summaries that later became a staple of the Reagan White House.

Broken

Stanley Ntagali, an Anglican archbishop in Uganda, delivered a blistering critique of his denomination on Aug. 13, marking the 10-year anniversary of the church installing its first openly gay bishop, American Episcopalian Gene Robinson. “This unbiblical decision on the part of a church threw the entire global Anglican Communion into chaos,” the archbishop wrote. Ntagali, who was installed last December, said church leaders made the move knowing it would tear the fabric of the communion.

Died

Christian ethicist and philosopher Jean Bethke Elshtain, 72, died of heart failure on Aug. 11. Elshtain, best known for her work on just war, the disabled, and the ethics of abortion, spent four decades teaching at the University of Massachusetts, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Chicago Divinity School. Elshtain, a Lutheran, earned respect from both the Christian and secular academic communities and became a vocal proponent of just war theory.

Hired

The Reformed Theological Seminary board of trustees announced Ligon Duncan will replace retired chancellor and CEO Michael Milton on Sept. 1. Duncan is currently the senior pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Jackson, Miss. Duncan, who became an RTS professor in 1990, will continue to teach systematic and historical theology at the RTS campus in Jackson. He is co-founder of Together for the Gospel, president of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, and the author of or contributor to more than 35 books.