Pro-life Stupidity in Massachusetts
The latest cause of the pro-lifers, at least those who are Catholic, in Massachusetts is to help elect Scott Brown to fill the spot left vacant by the death of Senator Ted Kennedy. Brown has this statement on his website:
Abortion
While this decision should ultimately be made by the woman in consultation with her doctor, I believe we need to reduce the number of abortions in America. I believe government has the responsibility to regulate in this area and I support parental consent and notification requirements and I oppose partial birth abortion. I also believe there are people of good will on both sides of the issue and we ought to work together to support and promote adoption as an alternative to abortion.
Is this pro-life? “I think killing babies is kind of yuckie but the decision to kill babies or not should be made by the women and their doctors and only in accord with government regulations.” No wonder the enemies of Christianity don’t even bother to respect us.
With apologies to George Bernard Shaw, here’s the joke:
Brown: Will you vote for me if I support a woman’s right to abortion but hint I’ll to try to cut down on the number of abortions and to pay respect to parental authority?
Christian the pro-lifer: Well, yeah, I guess I would because there don’t seem to be any better candidates.
Campaign life goes on for several weeks…
Brown: Will you vote for me if I support a woman’s unlimited right to abortion with no restrictions, generous government funding, and a Planned Parenthood counselor in every hospital?
Christian the pro-lifer: What kind of a defender of innocent life do you think I am?
Brown: We’ve already established that. Now we’re just negotiating the details.
For those who are interested, this is alleged to be the original dialogue as found here (go down the page to Anecdotal Dialogue):
* GBS: Madam, would you sleep with me for a million pounds?
* Actress: My goodness, Well, I’d certainly think about it
* GBS: Would you sleep with me for a pound?
* Actress: Certainly not! What kind of woman do you think I am?!
* GBS: Madam, we’ve already established that. Now we are haggling about the price.
(This dialogue is also attributed to Winston Churchill).
Brown is at best abortion-advocate-lite and there are signs announcing enthusiastic support for Brown to be found on the yards of devout Catholics and in the windows of cars parked in front of Catholic churches. Maybe we should just complete our sell-out of Christ and hang placards from the feet of the crucifixes over altars.
Brown shows his moral integrity in his stance of so-called Obamacare. Heck, he’s bragged about helping to write and enact Mitt Romney’s pioneer version of governmental we-now-own-your-body health care expansion and now he solemnly proclaims his opposition to Obamacare. How else would he have suckered the Tea Party crowd into supporting him? The pro-lifers were easier. He only had to promise not to be as enthusiastic about killing babies as the average Massachusetts Democrat, and Martha Coakley is certainly average.
The pro-lifers will claim he’s the best they can get and we’ll have to support him and hope for the best. We’ve heard similar claims over the past few decades as Christian leaders have negotiated away their moral integrity, and that of American Christianity, step by step. Maybe Brown will be different? Maybe he won’t betray us as did the Supreme Court appointees of those alleged moral conservatives, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan? Maybe he won’t betray us as did the Bushes and Dole and nearly every Republican who so strongly supports morally conservative stances. So long as they’re out of power. In power, they at least maintain the status quo on abortion, big-government, the coming of the-government-owns-your-body healthcare, and other issues. In power, they often advance the agenda to which they claim to be opposed.
This is Einstein’s definition of insanity as found here:
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
There was a man beheaded in Austria during World War II because he refused to serve in the Austrian Army once the Nazis had taken over Austria. He wasn’t a pacifist nor a coward. He’d gone on maneuvers as a reservist a few years earlier but he wouldn’t put on his uniform so long the Austrian Army served the evil purposes of the Nazis, even though he had some young daughters who would be orphaned and a young wife who’d face a tougher life without him.
His name was Franz Jaggerstatter. He was recently beatified by the Catholic Church, a major step in being declared a saint. I’m pretty sure I know where Jaggerstatter went after he was beheaded. I have fears about the destinations of those who collaborated with the Nazis because it seemed to be the less evil of choices at the time. I have suspicions about the destination of the bishop who advised him to serve in the Nazi-Austrian army for the sake of his young daughters. I have trouble imagining that Blessed Franz would have voted for Scott Brown even if a still more evil politician would have been elected. Christians don’t support great evil even when still greater evil is the other possibility. When those sorts of choices confront Christians, we have no choice but to to refuse to support either the great or the greater evil and to leave the matter in God’s hands. Admittedly, God’s solutions sometimes involve decades or even centuries of suffering and hard work to rebuild what we have allowed to decay, but He is the boss.
We’ve long passed the time when we Christians have to say the political entities of this age aren’t ours and we can only withdraw to build Christian communities and prepare for a future which will be better only if we put Christ and His commandments at the center of our thoughts rather than illusions that we’re clever enough to win something by negotiating with those who don’t share our moral committments and who have betrayed us consistently (Republicans in particular but establishment politicians in general). In the political realm, we Christians aren’t clever. The record indicates that we’re very stupid, at least that our leaders, including those in pro-life groups, are very stupid.
But cleverness was never the point. Moral integrity was the point. When you trim your principles, when you attempt to beat an immoral political system by using their own means, you’re compromising only one thing — your own moral character. If pro-lifers, moral conservatives in general, wish to do something, then boycott the system in a very public way. Let the world know the American political system has become an evil joke. Don’t enter the evil joke yourself and pretend you can turn it into an edifying tale. And, most of all, don’t try to drag Christ and the Body of Christ along with you as you travel some gradual road to Hell along side of the likes of Brown and Bush and whomever.
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