Really Pro-Life or,....

St. Paul wrote, :”proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable; convince, rebuke, and encourage, with the utmost patience in teaching.”

I am often struck by the words, ‘whether the time is favorable or unfavorable.’ In another translation it says, ‘in season or out of season.’

In short, if your message comes at a time when people are open and eager to hear the message, proclaim it. But if there is a time when people are going to ignore you or even loathe you, proclaim it.

Paul’s words and listening to the way people speak about being ‘pro-life’ has brought me to reaching a boiling point. Society, the news media, politicians, and even the average person have consistently called people ‘pro-life’ even when they aren’t.

The whole concept of ‘pro-life’ has something of a tradition of being on the front burner when abortion was legalized and capital punishment was reinstated. Roe v. Wade dated back to 1973 and then in 1977 Gary Gilmore was executed, thus beginning the United States back on a trail of killing the worst criminals in society. An ethic, called the ‘whole life ethic,’ often called the ‘seamless garment’ argument was that for a person to be pro-life, that person had to be opposed to abortion, opposed to capital punishment, and opposed to euthanasia.

Lots of details went into this. People disagreed on the circumstances when an abortion could be moral. The Roman Catholic Church determined that a direct abortion was always immoral no matter what circumstances. Most others exempted this when the life or well-being of the mother was in danger and/or in instances of rape and incest.

Anti-capital punishment did not disallow police officers to use deadly force in lives were in danger, and was not considered to be pacifists. It considered killing prisoners to be immoral.

Euthanasia included directly causing a person’s death and physician assisted suicide. In the late 1970's in the case of Karen Quinlan, the Roman Catholic church and the state of New Jersey deemed it moral and legal to removed a person from life support when this life support was considered to be an extraordinary means. This was not euthanasia or assisted suicide, it was merely allowing nature to take its course and allow a natural death.

The label, “Pro-life” is not a political label (or meant to be) it is an ethical principle, an ethical way of approaching life issues. It sets the bar high.

I am consistently disturbed by many people who masquerade (strong word, but I believe to be accurate) as pro-life. Here is what they do:

First, they are anti-abortion.

Secondly, they are pro-capital punishment.

Thirdly, they are against abortion and physician suicide and often confuse natural death/extraordinary means with euthanasia. The Terri Schiavo was very representative of this. Lawrence B. Casey had written a landmark document concerning Karen Quinlan with the same principles being very much in play. Most of the people protesting in this instance had never read the document or had a clue who Lawrence B. Casey was or what he wrote.

Here is the problem.

It is often politically popular to be anti-abortion in certain segments of the population. Among a significant segment of our nation the topic of abortion is one that motivates how people vote and who they will vote for. (The reverse is also true.) As a result, phrases like ‘defending the innocent,’ or ‘defending those who have no voice,’ are used and they are very effective in attempting to make an argument opposing abortion.

It is, however, often politically unpopular to be anti-capital punishment. The people who are executed (presuming the trial was a good one and the verdict was accurate) are legitimately heinous people who have earned the right to die. The issue isn’t what they have earned, however, the issue is how society can, ethically, deal with them. It is far more difficult to defend the lives of the heinous than it is to defend the lives of the unborn. It is also politically unpopular.

In the issue of euthanasia we have less a conflict because euthanasia is not legal. When it happens it takes place very much under the radar and so we don’t grapple with it very much. The real tragedy of the Terri Schiavo case was that some zealots who distorted ethical teachings took advantage of very grief stricken parents. It was a horribly sad story from start to finish.

Politically there are very few pro-life candidates. Actually, I do not know of any. There are people who are anti-abortion, but they are not really pro-life. They might masquerade themselves as such, but they are not pro-life. The ethic behind this actually is a seamless ethic and needs to be.

Which brings me back to the words of St. Paul. These are, to me, wise and clever words. They are words reminding us to hold fast to that which is good, whether others like it or not. It does not matter what the political climate is or who is running, or what party a person is representing. One is either pro-life, or not.

As for me, I do make it my one person crusade to call people out on this one. I will not allow a person to masquerade as pro-life when they are simply opposed to abortion. I respect their opinion on abortion even embrace most of it with a strong belief that circumstances and life and well-being of mothers has to be taken into consideration. But, to be quite blunt, I have little respect for people who proclaim how pro-life they are when they either approve of or have little concern for the issue of capital punishment. For many, it’s a great political position to have, but has little to do with any ethical thought.

I once received a phone call from the National Right to Life Association asking for a donation. I asked them about their efforts to stop capital punishment. I received a song and dance story on how that wasn’t really their fight and blah, blah, blah.

I then said, “You know, I take this pro-life stuff seriously. I’ll tell you what. When you get serious about really being pro-life, call me back.”

My phone has not yet rung from them getting back to me...