Consistent Life Ethic

I don't usually write two blogs in one day, but I got distracted reading other blogs after writing my first one and what I read was really upsetting to me. I have to express some of my thoughts. I was reading a blog of a fellow Catholic who, among talking about some things I agree with (like taking into account those who are without enough to eat and the beauty of motherhood and giving life) also wrote about how Muslims were evil and had pictures depicting Iraqis as "bad guys" and U.S. soldiers as "good guys" with those captions underneath them. She claims that Muslims are attacking Judeo-Christianity and appears to make the connection that, because of that, it is ok that we are waging war on Iraq.

First of all, what happened on September 11th was an incredible tragedy in which many lives were lost meaninglessly. Many many people suffered at the hands of a few who made some horrific choices. It is important to remember that September 11th was one of thousands of horrific events that have been committed by one group of people against another throughout the past century. It is also important to separate the "Islamic faith" from the "Political Islam" that is being used as a name to back violent acts. I would argue that there exists a "Political Christianity" and "Political Judaism" too. There are plenty of examples of times when the name of a particular denomination has been used to justify horrible tragedies that have nothing to do with what these faiths actually teach. Those who practice a particular faith do not necessarily support the people that use that faith for political purposes and we must be able to separate these things.

The teaching of the Catholic faith is that life is sacred from conception until natural death. All life. All people. Everywhere. I guess in part this interpretation may be my own bias because I could never swallow the concept that God would have a "chosen people" in some preferential sense. The God I know does not distinguish between His children in some fundamental, value laden kind of way, and I believe it is exactly at the moment we, as people, begin to say which lives are valuable and which aren't that we become a completely self-destructive culture. If you believe that women should not abort their children because life is precious, then why, when it comes to war, are lives all of a sudden extinguishable? If life is sacred, it's sacred. Period. I don't understand how people can be so avid about protecting life for some people and then dismiss the lives of others. The unborn, children, adults, the elderly, in Russia, Mexico, the United States, China, India, Japan, Iraq, Malawi, Kenya, Indonesia, anywhere in the world- they're all sacred and all valuable human beings. Regardless of where they were born or what faith they grew up with, their lives should be considered and protected.

An inconsistent life ethic- believing that taking life under some circumstances and not others violates the entire premise of trying to promote a culture of life. If Jesus is the one that came to save us and He's everything to us, shouldn't we pay a little more attention to His life for guidance in our own? Shouldn't we remember all the times he talked to people across cultural and faith divides? Did we forget the stories about Gentiles and Jews and how Jesus came for all of us and replace them with stories about battling and creating wars to protect the "right" side instead?

War should essentially be a non-option for those professing to want to live as Jesus taught. The fact that it was considered and implemented so thoughtlously with so little relevant connection to the attacks that actually took place on American soil should be as disappointing to the American people as it has been devastating to the world.

In Iraq, an estimated 600, 000 Iraqis have died by violence (see the following website: http://www.eprof.org/wednesday/2006/11/extra_credit_600000_iraquis_de.html).
600, 000 people who were just living their lives, who had little to nothing to do with September 11th- who were just trying to make it day to day when their country was shattered by bombs that missed their targets over and over again. 600, 000 have died, 2 million have fled to surrounding areas, and 1.8 million are internally displaced within their own country. And not only Iraqis have died of course. According to www.hispanicbusiness.com "As of Sunday, at least 3,217 U.S. troops have died in Iraq, according to an Associated Press count. An additional 13,357 were wounded and returned to duty, while 10,685 suffered more serious wounds. About one in five of the wounded troops suffered serious wounds such as loss of a limb or an eye, massive burns, spinal or head damage or other debilitating injuries." This war has caused destruction far greater than what happened on September 11th and has taken hundreds of thousands of more lives. Waging war will never bring back the people that were taken from us. It will not erect "justice" in any real sense. It will only bring more destruction, as is clearly evidenced in the case of this war. We have to learn how to mourn our losses, forgive and move on with our lives in a peaceful and loving way.

Only by doing this can we maintain a consistent life ethic of valuing all life, everywhere in the world, fully and equitably. 600,000 Iraqis dead should devastate me as much as having 600,000 Washingtonians dead. They are all people- Iraqis are my brothers and sisters in this world no less than those in my own state or country and they deserve no worse treatment and no less respect. I really believe that this is what God calls me to see. Tell me, with such a loss of life, a loss of dignity, a loss of living in any kind of reasonable safety or security, where is our faith? I speak against this as a Catholic and as a member of this world who values all life, everywhere, no less than my own, until the end.