For Christians who have the Ballot Box Blues--vote against abortion (for Bush) or against war (for Kerry), or, for some, avoid voting for the greater evil--Professor J. Budziszewski clarifies it for us.
[Via Touchstone's Mere Comments]
Posted by Clifton at October 29, 2004 01:16 PM | TrackBackHeck, I would say that an unjust war is exactly like abortion. That is our problem...there is no single issue, as you demonstrate. Most pundits make it so because it is easier to get elected that way. If you muddy the waters with a variety of perspectives, conflated ideas or a web of connection then you are deemed a flip-flopper (everyone running has been called this, including Bushy himself.).
I think this election only demonstrates that our election system was designed for 14 year old boys. Note: 14 year old boys do not vote.
My how this sucks. F%#*K.
Posted by: AngloBaptist at October 29, 2004 03:30 PMTripp:
I reject your unjust war-abortion comparison most vociferously. In part: How many abortions take place each year? about 1.2-1.5 million. How many since Roe v. Wade? About 45 million. Let's say Iraq is, indeed, an unjust war. Given the dispute as to actual numbers of innocent deaths (*innocent* deaths, i. e., non-military, non-terrorist, non-complicit citizens, born and unborn), it would be difficult to make comparisons. But it's easy to see which is worse.
Note: I'm not arguing a principle in terms of numbers, but using numbers to make a point.
More to the point, however, is: is Iraq an unjust war? No Christian can say definitively. You can offer your opinion, but that's all you got. For you, I know that's all you need. I, for one, however, find voting on eternal verities in terms of personal opinion deeply unsatisfactory.
I don't think there's any reasonable Christian opinion that can rank abortion above (even unjust) war.
Posted by: Clifton D. Healy at October 29, 2004 03:40 PMUm...why is an innocent death deemed more horrific than another? Are you capable, like God, to judge innocent deaths? I certainly would say that you are not. You certainly would agree.
One innocent death makes it a horrific tragedy. One accidental bombing of a house where children are killed makes it equivalent to abortion.
A just war - there simply is no such thing.
You know, I wonder how the most powerful nation in the world will ever experience martyrdom when it does nothing but kill its enemies in spite of the injunction to love our enemies? There is not hope for martyrdom. There is no hope for anything but salvation by might and justification by killing.
Show me how this war is just. Show me how Bush loves Saddam. Really. How is he loving AlQuaeda. Is he? Are you? Am I? Heck no. We would not dare. It would be martyrdom.
Love me and wish me dead. That is a just war. This is not a just war. This has forever been a "love us and wish them dead" war. If that is just then I say toss the Gospel.
Posted by: AngloBaptist at October 29, 2004 03:49 PMThis is an interesting article about world poverty and the number of people who die of starvation every day.
35,000...
That is 12,460,000 people a year.
Are you as ferocious in your feelings about poverty as you are about abortion, or are you falling into the trap of holding one issue (many faceted as it is) over another (many faceted as it is)? Probably. That would make you human.
But my fear is that somewhere in your mind you are thinking that it is okay that all these people die of starvation (50% children) and that si okay because they are not innocent.
Be ferocius about your stance on abortion, but be equally so when any life is snuffed out by the willful action of another...or the systemic evil that suggests that one economy is to be so lauded that it cannot be dismantled to provide without repayment so that others may live...
Oy. On that I am off to Virginia.
Peace and all good things to you and yours.
Posted by: AngloBaptist at October 29, 2004 04:02 PMhttp://www.catholic.net/RCC/Periodicals/Inside/12-96/news.html
oops
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