I saw that on a bumpersticker recently, and thought it was a cogent reminder to so-called right-to-lifers that saving lives of real, whole people who actually exist and function as human beings should be at least as important as saving unborn fetuses or frozen embryos.
But to the religious right, and to the Catholic church, which I don’t lump in with the evangelicals, some “beating hearts” are more important than others.
When you go to Abortion Stops a Beating Heart website, you discover that Pro-Life Ministries “supports President Bush and our brave soldiers fighting Islamic terrorism.” A link takes you to this explanation of Islam:
Why you Need to Understand Islam and Islam’s False Religion of Hate, Intolerance and Errors Which Leads its’ Followers to Hell and Eternal Separation from God and Become a Follower of Jesus Who is the Christ, the ONLY Son of God, and sits at God’s Right Hand!
But are their Islamic hearts, and the hearts of Iraqi civilians, beating, or is it only the US military, whose hearts beat true for the red, white and blue?
What prompts this post not anything new from the fundamentalists, but a recent statement by the Catholic bishops.
The Chicago Tribune’s Washington bureau reports:
Catholic bishops: Remember abortion in 2008
by Mark SilvaThe U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops today renewed a call to American Catholics to heed the church’s teachings on Election Day — and make the fight against abortion a top priority.
“The direct and intentional destruction of innocent human life is always wrong and is not just one issue among many,” the bishops said in adopting a statement, “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,” at the close of their fall meeting in Baltimore.
The bishops also issued a statement on Iraq. From Catholic News Service:
BALTIMORE (CNS) — Some U.S. policymakers “seem to fail to recognize sufficiently the reality and failures in Iraq and the imperative for new directions,” warned the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in a new statement on transition in Iraq.
“As pastors and teachers, we are convinced that the current situation in Iraq remains unacceptable and unsustainable,” the document says.
The statement issued Nov. 13 by the conference president, Bishop William S. Skylstad of Spokane, Wash., reiterates the bishops’ insistence that the transition of U.S. forces out of Iraq should take into account moral issues, such as minimizing the loss of human life, addressing the humanitarian crisis in Iraq, the situation of refugees and the protection of human rights, especially religious freedom….
Then comes a discussion of the moral issues of war and peace:
Church teaching on war and peace “offers hard questions, not easy answers,” it said. “Our nation must now focus more on the ethics of exit than on the ethics of intervention.”
Among the moral questions it raises are:
— “How can we minimize the further loss of human lives?”
— “What actions will do the most good and least harm?”
— “What elements of a responsible transition are attainable?”
— “What actions should be avoided?”
— “What are the financial costs and global consequences of continued war and occupation?”
— “How can our nation effectively counter the perversion of religion and ideologies that support terrorism?”
How the answers could be so clear-cut on abortion, and even stem cell research, and so foggy on whether it is morally right to kill people to try to impose our will, is mind-boggling. Blessed are the peacemakers, indeed. How many IslamoFascists can dance on the head of a pin?
I find it abhorrent that any religion would try to tell its members how to vote.
But telling them that abortion is more important at the ballot box than war and peace is indefensible.
Hey, hey, USA,
How many beating hearts
did you stop today?
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