esk@wucs.UUCP (Eric Kaylor) (10/02/84)
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Did anybody else notice the controversy that got started by Ferraro, New
York Governor Mario Cuomo, and some Catholic church officials? It helped
inspire a *Newsweek* cover story recently ("God and Politics"). Well, I've
had just about enough of the illogic that was brought forth. It's time to
get out the flamethrower.
All this junk about "mixing religion and politics" is pure ideological
mystification. For starters, the issue that started this -- abortion -- is
an ethical issue, not simply a religious one. Indeed, in the Catholic view
(or so I've heard) it's not a religious issue at all -- the moral principles
involved are those of "natural law", which are not a matter of faith but can
be understood by agnostics and atheists as well. And politics necessarily
involves ethical issues; nobody can have any political views without basing
them on ethical views, even if they don't realize this. Of course, even if
their ethical views here *were* derived from their religion, that would not
mean -- contra Ferraro, Cuomo, and a lot of editorialists -- that such views
should be separated from politics.
Ferraro and Cuomo hand out the tired old line, "I personally am morally
opposed to abortion, but ...". For our sake, I hope they're lying. Has
there ever been any reason to think that abortion is wrong other than thinking
that it is the unjust taking of human life? I've never heard of any other.
Besides, Cuomo said specifically that he agrees with the Catholic church's
position on the morality of abortion. I ask you, think about what these
politicians are saying. They are saying, PRECISELY, "I think so-and-so is
a human being, but since you don't necessarily agree with me, I think it
should be legal for you to kill so-and-so." I certainly don't want these
politicians to be around if MY humanity ever comes to be questioned.
I wish that the pro-choice politicans would be honest and straightforward,
and say "I don't believe that it is a human life". In fact, they should be
even less tactful and say (what amounts to the same thing) "I believe that
the moral views of the pro-lifers are WRONG"! If only they would put it
that way, they would have my respect. But the arguments they do use -- the
old bugaboos about "imposing morality", etc., etc., etc. -- are a dodge; a
deception. Maybe the ones they are deceiving are themselves, and the reason
they don't say "the moral views of pro-lifers are WRONG" is because they
don't believe that. But I hope that they do, because the alternative is
downright scary.
--The untiring iconoclast,
Paul V Torek, ihnp4!wucs!wucec1!pvt1047
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