I know one of the protestors
I'm struggling to make sense of the Terri Schiavo case. Lord knows, I wouldn't want any judges, legislators, governors, and especially not United States Presidents making feeding tube decisions for anyone in my family. (Note to anyone who cares: should you ever have to decide this issue for me, never keep me artificially alive on life support. When it's time for me to go, let me go. For me, "To live is Christ, but to die is gain.") But they've been all over Terri's case for fifteen years, culminating in the extraordinary congressional action over the weekend and a rearranged Presidential schedule Sunday night. As I write this, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals is deciding yet another appeal to have the feeding tube reinserted. Sadly, much of the hullabaloo is old fashioned political pandering, as evidenced by the Republican memo calling Schiavo a "great political issue" that has "excited" that party's "pro-life base." And indeed it has. What bugs me even more than the pandering (which is, unfortunately, to be expected) has been the inflammatory rhetoric by my Christian compatriots on the Right. Some of our most media savvy evangelical leaders have been quoted leveling horrible accusations at Terri's husband Michael, comparing him to Nazis and calling him a killer. How does this help? Doesn't compassion for the living demand that after fifteen years of his wife's coma followed by persistent vegetative state, medical treatments (some extraordinary, like implanting electrodes on her brain, which failed to produce any results), hospice care, and litigation, Mr. Schiavo deserves the benefit of the doubt -- or at the very least, a little less hostility? At least the protestor I know is one of those silencing his mouth with red masking tape. While I'm not sure I agree with their cause, at least they're not piling on. Maybe they could spare some tape for their allies?
posted by Jeremy Del Rio @ 3/22/2005 10:44:00 PM
1 Comments:
I agree. So much of the negative reaction to the Terry Schiavo situation has come from those claiming to represent a Christian worldview. Sadly, it seems that the worldview they hold is limited to an aspect of pro-life, not the holistic picture of life that Jesus seems to offer.
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