All Posts Tagged With: "genocide"

As one of his last acts as president, George W. Bush has proclaimed January 18th to be “National Sanctity of Human Life Day.”

All human life is a gift from our Creator that is sacred, unique, and worthy of protection. On National Sanctity of Human Life Day, our country recognizes that each person, including every person waiting to be born, has a special place and purpose in this world. We also underscore our dedication to heeding this message of conscience by speaking up for the weak and voiceless among us.

The most basic duty of government is to protect the life of the innocent. My Administration has been committed to building a culture of life…

He goes on to outline what his administration has done in defense of the unborn. What he didn’t outline was what his administration has done in defense of the already born — especially those whose lives were put in peril by our nation’s own actions and policies.

I wholeheartedly believe in and support the sanctity of human life. But I believe in the sanctity of human life from womb to tomb. That means that human life has utmost value and we must act prudently in all things so as to honor and respect that sanctity of life — and it’s not restricted to American citizens or our allies only.

Sanctity of human life recognizes that war must be avoided whenever possible and should only be the very last resort — not a foreign policy tool or prematurely preemptive action later proven to be unfounded. Sanctity of human life recognizes that every human being has basic human rights — one of those rights is the right not to be tortured as well as those rights specifically outlined in the Geneva Convention. Sanctity of human life recognizes that genocide must be stopped with actions, not just words. Sanctity of human life recognizes that extreme poverty is not something to be ignored or wished away, but rather it’s a “war” that’s worth waging with at least as much energy and resources as we wage our other wars.

Mr. President, I welcome this day as one who believes in the sanctity of human life. I just wish your administration’s policies and actions matched up with your words and encompassed the totality of human existence, not just that of the unborn.

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This just plain irritates me. Jesus is not a Republican (or a Democrat). I believe with all my heart that He cares about more than just the abortion issue and the gay marriage issue.

Indeed, Jesus is pro-life, but pro-life is more than just about pregnancy and birth; pro-life extends beyond the womb and encompasses all the life issues each and every individual all around the world faces, including extreme poverty and obscene disparity of wealth, famine and hunger, genocide and war.

Jesus certainly cares about the sanctity of marriage, but that extends beyond the issue of a union between homosexual couples and encompasses the union and marriages of heterosexual couples, including fidelity and marriage “until death do us part.” Why do the divorce rates within the Christian Church so closely mirror that of divorce rates outside the Church? If fundamentalist Christians, like the gentleman in the video, care so much about the sanctity of marriage, why doesn’t he focus on the truest threat to the “traditional marriage” — rampant divorce rates among heterosexual couples who even occupy our church pews?

Do I condemn those who have been divorced? Absolutely not. I simply want the same standard of “sanctity” to apply to heterosexual couples as these Christianists want it to apply to non-heterosexual couples. I do not oppose civil unions between two adults, heterosexual or homosexual. Marriage is an institution that should remain within the religious context, and it can be defined by the respective religious institution.

What irritates and frustrates me most are that Christianists like this gentleman continue to reduce every election down to these two issues. And how successful has that proven to be. They’ve had eight years of a pro-Christianist presidency with control of at least two branches of government for the first six years. Look at where it has gotten us.

Has there been significant improvement in our nation and in the world with these two issues? Has the Christianist agenda really worked?

There are more issues than just these two that devoted followers of Christ should consider when voting this November. Failing to consider the other bigger issues — poverty, hunger, war, the Gospel message of faith, hope and agape love — is ignoring the larger messages of Jesus and the Bible.

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[Stepping down from my soapbox now.]