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In hope we are saved--NEW papal encyclical |
Bush boasts about his support for embryonic stem cell research, while vetoing new legislation President Bush vetoed legislation Wednesday passed by both the House and Senate that would have allowed federal funding for expanded embryonic stem cell research. In his veto message, Mr. Bush said, “If this bill were to become law, American taxpayers for the first time in our history would be compelled to fund the deliberate destruction of human embryos. Crossing this line would be a grave mistake and would needlessly encourage a conflict between science and ethics that can only do damage to both and harm our Nation as a whole.” His spokesman, Tony Snow, took the argument one step further, stating, "The simple answer is he thinks murder's wrong. The president is not going to get on the slippery slope of taking something living and making it dead for the purposes of scientific research." Five days later Mr. Snow recanted that assessment, saying his characterization was "overstating the president's position...He would not use that term." But if embryonic stem cell research is tantamount to murder, then one might think that any president who approves of such research would be considered an accessory to the crime. Thus it was ironic that in the same speech, Mr. Bush pointed out that, “When I took office, there was no Federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research.” As he had in his first presidential debate with Senator John Kerry in September 2004, Mr. Bush then boasted that he was the first president to approve funding for embryonic stem cell research. “My Administration has made available more than $90 million for research of these lines. This policy has allowed important research to go forward and has allowed America to continue to lead the world in embryonic stem cell research without encouraging the further destruction of living human embryos,” he added. "The president is not opposed to stem cell research, he's all for it," Snow said earlier in the day. The sponsors of the legislation, Representatives Michael Castle (R-Del) and Diana DeGette (D-Col), specifically restricted the funding to research on stem cell lines derived from early embryos created by in vitro fertilization clinics and otherwise destined for destruction. The Catholic Church forbids in vitro fertilization under any circumstances, a view not shared by at least half of American Catholics in several polls. A 1987 document issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, called Donum Vitae, said that use of in vitro fertilization creates a "dynamic of violence and domination." But Mr. Bush and the Republican Platform have never called for the banning of in vitro fertilization. The number of “embryo adoptions” in the US is fewer than 300, a tiny fraction of the more than 400,000 early embryos currently stored across the country. Most of these embryos could never practically be implanted, and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has likened stem cell research on these early embryos to cadaveric transplantation of hearts to save the lives of people in heart failure. Several polls of American Catholics have now shown approval of embryonic stem cell research at between 60-72%. An analysis of some numbers may provide a helpful perspective on the debate. An estimated 440 million fertilization events occur around the world every year, which works out to 1.2 million zygotes created every day leading to about 350,000 babies born daily. Thus 60-70% of these early embryos are lost, most prior to implantation. This is a daily early embryo death rate of roughly 844,000 per day worldwide. (This compares with about 71,000 legal abortions daily around the world, and 55,000 illegal abortions). On average, about 820 early embryos are implanted in women each day in the US for purposes of assisted reproduction, and 710 of them are lost (with 109 live births per day). The number of new stem cell lines being created every day globally is thought to be fewer than one, with 22 lines currently available for federally funded research under Mr. Bush’s 2001 plan, and fewer than 200 available in private repositories after five years of unfunded research. No public discussion has taken place about how to save the 844,000 early embryos that die each day around the world. No public advocacy by the Republican Party or by religious leaders has been made for an investment of research dollars in saving the embryos lost to “natural causes.” If the early embryo has the same moral worth as an adult human, then saving these lives would seem to take on an immense moral urgency. By comparison, one-sixth as many people--155,000—will die today worldwide of all other causes. 46,500 will die from heart disease or stroke. 19,000 will die of cancer today, one-third of the deaths preventable. 16,480 people will die today of starvation. 6,800 children will die from diarrhea today. 100 people today will die violently in Iraq. One or fewer embryos will be diverted today from storage or death to the creation of a new stem cell line. American taxpayers are being compelled to pay every day for the killing in Iraq, most against their will, but Mr. Bush is not concerned about their moral reservations on this issue. As a moral
community, we should decide if bringing an additional 844,000 people
into the world each day is a priority, virtually tripling the number
of children who would be born every day. If these lives have the
same moral value as any adult, as Mr. Snow’s remarks suggest,
then they should be saved as urgently as we seek to keep our elderly
from dying unnecessarily of stroke. But if saving elderly people
from “natural causes” when stroke attacks is in fact
a far greater priority for our society than saving the 844,000 embryos
dying of natural causes (as current research priorities would suggest),
then it might be worth investing our moral outrage more properly
in providing food to the hungry, clean water to the world’s
children, and peace to the war-ravaged countries of Iraq, Lebanon
and Israel than in villainizing stem cell research scientists seeking
cures for chronic debilitating diseases.
Bishops again seduced into attending Republican political event honoring President Bush President Bush was honored by Republican Catholics again last week for the second year in a row at an event in Washington DC called “The National Catholic Prayer Breakfast.” Mr. Bush offered self-deprecating humor and lavish compliments for Pope Benedict and the leadership of the Catholic Church. To his credit, he had the good taste to avoid the praise he offered last year for his war effort in Iraq, intimating (erroneously) that Pope John Paul had supported the killing there. The event was again a purely partisan spectacle, with one of the organizers (Leonard Leo) being a co-chairman of the Republican National Catholic Outreach for the mid-term elections. Senator Rick Santorum’s candidacy was promoted, despite his pro-war, pro-death penalty, and pro-poverty legislative voting record. The surprise this year was not Mr. Bush’s need to further ingratiate himself to Catholics, but the fact that Cardinal Theodore McCarrick and other Church dignitaries again attended the event despite the pledge of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops in a 2004 statement condemning events like this. “The Catholic community and Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. They should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions,” read the statement that was published just prior to the 2004 presidential election. The organizers of the event cheerfully honored Mr. Bush despite new evidence of plans to launch military action in Iran, dramatic cuts in social services planned for the coming fiscal year, and new abortion data showing that the Bush Administration is overseeing the first abortion increases since 1990. In a piece this week by Seymour Hersh in the New Yorker, the Administration's plans are detailed for a possible bombing campaign against Iran--with the potential loss of tens of thousands of lives. Donald Rumsfeld responded to this news, which included credible reports of planning for the use of tactical nuclear weapons, in the same fashion that the Administration responded in June 2002 to similar reports about their planning for an attack on Iraq. They called it "a fantasy." On the domestic front, Republicans sought dramatic cuts this past winter from social service programs in the current budget, while further boosting military spending above the $600 billion mark (including the "emergency" allocations for Iraq and Afghanistan). These distorted, anti-Christian spending priorities, were apparently of no concern to the event planners. Lastly, the organizers of the Communion Breakfast seem blissfully unaware of new CDC data showing the first increases in abortion since 1990 on this Administration's watch--correlating with economic policies that have dramatically driven up the number of Americans below the poverty line, escalated the medical uninsurance rate, and stagnated the real income among average Americans. All the anti-abortion rhetoric in the world cannot make up for these pro-abortion policies that are the result of the unqualified Republican advocacy for the moneyed interests that have benefited so richly from the Bush tax agenda. The Bishops' 2004 statement was directed primarily toward dealing with the issue of politicians' stances on abortion, and all the evidence would suggest that Mr. Bush has now distinguished himself as the most pro-abortion president in recent history. He mouths the right words, but the proof of his failure on the abortion issue is unfolding in the data that will be marching out over the next six years. If policies that promote poverty, war, environmental degradation and abortion aren’t enough to constitute “defiance of our fundamental moral principles,” then Church directives like that articulated by Cardinal George, Archbishop Chaput and Bishop Wuerl in their 2004 letter have no meaning. We applaud what our bishops sought to do in their letter, namely calling our lawmakers to a higher standard of defense for the dignity of human life. We are working to assure that Republicans are held to the same standard that seems to be applied so often now to Democratic lawmakers, in order to avoid letting our Church fall further prey to the manipulation of the Religious Right. Karl Rove is smiling this week at how beautifully he is playing the Republicans' tune on the Catholic harp. 10 April 2006
The
Catholic Democrat view “If
you want to avoid judgment, stop passing judgment. Your verdict
on others will be the verdict passed on you. The measure with which
you measure wil be used to measure you. Why look at the speck in
your brother’s eye when you miss the plank in your own?”
So
if there is any encouragement in Christ, any incentive of love,
any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete
my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in
full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfishness or conceit,
but in humility count others better than yourselves. Let each of
you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests
of others.
For useful views and commentary on issues related to Catholics in public life, see these webpages in America, the Jesuit weekly news magazine: Articles on Catholic politicians in the United States Commentary on American political life
RNC Chair declares free enterprise and militarism to be Catholic values The Republican National Committee has formally announced their national Catholic outreach effort for the election year, and the outlines of their strategy are a master stroke of focus group sculpting and psychological manipulation. Chairman Ken Mehlman appointed Leonard Leo and John Kelly to serve as National Co-Chairs for the RNC’s Catholic Outreach. He wrote, “These two Catholic leaders will work with my full confidence to solidify the growing relationship between the Republican Party and Catholic voters all across our great nation. We will count on Jack and Leonard to take a leading role as our entire Catholic grassroots effort is advanced by millions of Catholics who share the GOP's compassionate conservative agenda of traditional values, free enterprise and a strong national defense.” The Republicans are fully aware of the contradictions their strategy portends. No serious scholar of Christianity would contend that “free enterprise and a strong national defense” are Christian values. As practiced under the Bush Administration, the pursuit of free enterprise means the enrichment of a few at the expense of the many, which is antithetical to the most frequently repeated invocations of scripture regarding poverty. Self-enrichment, however desireable from an economic standpoint, is not a Christian value. As importantly, the reference to “strong national defense,” in the hands of the Bush Administration, signifies their commitment to preemptive war, the construction of new classes of nuclear weapons, and the weaponization of space. The Bush approach to defense is a profane violation of everything that Christianity stands for, as captured in the single phrase that all Biblical scholars agree can be directly attributed to Jesus: love your enemies. There is no love for our enemies in this Administration, and their combativeness toward enemy and ally alike has made all Americans less safe. Mr. Kelly was quoted in Mr. Mehlman’s press release as saying, “Working through the RNC's Political Division we are committed to an expansive outreach program that will not just maintain but increase the support shown by Catholics in 2004. The Republican principles of a strong commitment to a culture of life and to the economic and national security of our country resonates with active Catholics. Our goal is to let Catholics know they are the key to the future success of the Republican party." These Republican efforts represent a brilliant self-serving electoral strategy at the expense of American Catholicism, given the huge role that Catholic voters played in serving up the presidency to George Bush in 2004. More than that, however, the attempt to pass off Republican militarism and greed as if they were Catholic values is subversive to Catholicism itself. However one may feel about having a strong military and cutting the tax burden on wealthy Americans, let us agree that these are not Christian values. We will continue working with Catholics across America to advance a simple message: the power of Christ’s call to peace, reconciliation, and concern for others must not be used to advance the self-serving political agenda of the radical Republican right. 26 January 2006 Bush Treasury Dept Vendetta: An Episcopal church in Pasadena, California has been under investigation with threats to their tax-exempt status because their emeritus pastor gave a sermon just before last year's presidential election that criticized the Iraq war as immoral. The church has a tradition of anti-war sentiments dating back to their opposition to Japanese internment camps during WWII, the killing in Vietnam, and the Reagan-sponsored wars in Central America during the 1980s. The IRS letter does not hide the political nature of the accusation, stating that the sermon in question "given on October 31, 2004 to a congregation of 3500, delivered a searing indictment of the Bush administration's policies in Iraq, criticism of the drive to develop more nuclear weapons, and described tax cuts as inimical to the values of Jesus." Rev.George Regas, who was only a visiting preacher, actually began his homily by saying, "I don't intend to tell you how to vote." This apparently did not protect the church from the Administration's retribution. The pastor of
the church, Rev.
Ed Bacon, delivered a sermon November 13, 2005, that
outlines the dark side of a disrespect for church-state separation
that results in tolerance toward conservatives who politicize Christianity
while chastening progressives who actually preach the Gospel.
Facts regarding the Bush Campaign's approach to manipulating Christianity for political gain:
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