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April 03, 2005
Don't Fear The Reaper
Keeping with our apparent theme of the day, it's been a busy week for the Grim.
We've heard much from the culture of life unless we disagree with you and then we'll shoot you where you stand crowd about how important it is to "err on the side of life".
This group is made up of, in part, a vocal faction of prodeath penalty advocates. These advocates apparently have no problem with "erring on the side of death" in at least some of these death penalty cases in Texas. I've never seen Tom DeLay, for example, march up the federal courthouse steps in Texas to protest an imminent lethal injection for an individual who may have had less than stellar legal defense.
Another thing...aren't most of these "culture of life..." people Christians? Why are they fearing the Reaper? In the conservative Baptist Church where I was raised, we were taught that "whosoever believeth him shall not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). At least in our neck of the woods, this meant your soul goes to Heaven.
So what's the problem with dying, then? Why "err on the side of life" if death means you're going to Heaven? Shouldn't these people want Terri Schiavo to go to be with God in Heaven? Shouldn't Randall Terry, Tom DeLay, Rick Santorum and Bill Frist want that for her too?
Life isn't just about imminent death. It seems to me that respecting life means a lot more than just forcing a feeding tube into a brain damaged woman who didn't want it. It's a lot more than keeping yourself alive even while in pain, like John Paul 2 did. And it sure doesn't have anything to do with shooting doctors who perform abortions.
Why should anyone respect individuals who picket Hospice centers when those same people try to make stem cell research illegal for petri dish cells (research of which could help some of those in Hospice) that would never be planted in a uterus?
This isn't the "culture of life" we've been witnessing from conservatives this week. It's the "culture of control freaks".
Posted by Carla at April 3, 2005 03:52 PM