The Sage Observer

The Right to Life

          “The Right to Life”, the title given to the very important issue of abortion prevention, seems to especially come to life at the beginning of every election cycle, used by certain politicians as a tool to arouse and exacerbate the emotions of the electorate in an effort to secure votes. In between election campaigns, it seems we hear very little about the issue. It only comes up when Joe Blow wants to run for office or be re-elected. I’m sorry, but this aggravates me to no end. This issue should not be politicized. Especially significant is that the most, if not greatest, support for this issue comes from the “Christian Right”.

Now, let’s be clear about this–let there be no doubt. Although, at times not a very good one, I am a Christian; and I firmly believe in the right to life. I am opposed to abortion, except in those cases when it is medically necessary, where the pregnancy is the result of incest, or, arguably, some other extenuating circumstance is involved. Babies can always be placed for adoption, for which, the Lord knows, there is always a continuous and raging market. As we speak, Black Market Profiteers are kidnapping babies, raiding nurseries in hospitals, and stealing them from wherever they can be found. There is especially no need to kill them when there are plenty of those who want them and will love and care for them. The right to the sanctity of life demands the right to life, as redundant as that may be sound.

Now, let us get back to the “Christian Right”. They are professed Christians, born again, just as I professed, above, for myself; but, let me tell you one thing about Christianity. You can’t profess one segment of Christ without, also, accepting the other beliefs that go along with the faith. You cannot. You cannot pick and choose what you want to believe. To do otherwise is downright hypocritical. You can’t have one part without the other.

What am I talking about? I’ll get down to it. It’s this. When it comes time to go to the polls, many voters will vote for a politician based upon this one issue, or perhaps it might be another. I've used this issue, “The Right to Life” for a reason, but it is only as an example. The point is, there are others–other singular issues on which a voter may choose to focus. Too many of us don’t look at the “big” picture when we vote. We are very myopic in our views.

Back to my example–that politician who is so vigorously proclaiming the right to life in order to get your vote, is also supporting other issues on his platform which the voter simply chooses to ignore. On the one hand, he, the politician, will vote to support the saving of millions upon millions of lives from abortion; while, on the other, he will choose to ignore, in times like these, the plight of the forty-seven million of us living in poverty, with twenty million unemployed or underemployed, including an approximate million homeless women and children as well as men, sleeping on the streets, under bridges and/or in their automobiles. In these times when there are three people unemployed for every job opening and a job is extremely difficult to find (impossible for some), he will vote against the extension of emergency unemployment benefits; he will vote for the reduction, if not elimination, of the food stamp program (while, in the same instance, vote for "welfare" grants to millionaire farmers [some of whom are members of Congress] under the guise of subsidies); he will vote for the reduction of Medicaid; he votes against national healthcare. Also, just an afterthought, what would our nation’s condition be if the twenty million of us in the prisons (this is on top of the forty-seven million in poverty), were to come into the unemployment lines (Of course, not all, but the release of many prisoners is currently under consideration)?

I could go on and on, but I’m sure you understand what I am saying. This whole political process is broken. It makes no sense at all–and much of it, unfortunately, has been cast in the name of Christianity; which, Christianity it is not. Warfare is not Christianity. Torture is not Christianity. Lying, cheating, stealing, fraud, and deception are not Christianity–no matter how you cut it. Soon, we will once again have an opportunity to vote–our next election is just down the road. Look at and study the real issues. Be careful for whom you vote. What you think you see, might not be what you get.

Ronald Miller

mtss86@comcast.net