|
Terri Shiavo: The Triumph of Secular Humanism Over Religion
Who would have thought that born again George W. Bush and the GOP controlled 109th Congress would create and pass a special law that dramatically demonstrates that secular America is more powerful than God?
I don’t know Terri Shiavo, her husband, or her parents. I don’t know if she wants to live or die, and I don’t have an opinion of whether or not she should die. That’s a problem for her family not ours (the United States).
Reportedly Terri’s aversion to eating is what caused her heart to stop in the first place, so I find the irony of this battle to insert or remove her feeding tube to be the very definition of what existentialists call “the absurd.
Forget that the bill granting Shiavo's parents "relief" (which we all now know was fleeting), S.686, is a gross abuse of state’s rights and the concept of federalism – a purported cornerstone of “conservative ideology.” I put the term in quotation marks to make that point that this ideology only exists on paper and can never be found in actual legislative practice, or political action.
Forget the frantic pace and brazen self righteousness with which Republican “principals” are casually cast aside when politically convenient. Yesterday, the party of fiscal displine, as if we don’t notice the trillions of dollars going down the GOP memory hole; today the party of limited government, as if we don't notice the elephant in the bedroom.
Forget that “state’s rights” doesn’t actually mean that federal intervention into state’s legislative integrity
|
“The Hypocrites” by Joh n Flaxman |
is philosophically wrong; it means white power. Limited government doesn't actually mean that government keeps out of the private affairs of its citizens, it means deregulation of business. There are no cornerstones on a house of cards.
Forget that the vast majority of Americans, regardless of their opinion of Terri Schiavo’s circumstances, are adamantly opposed to the federal government usurping the authority of the state’s courts and intervening into a family matter.
Forget that our government has become a parody of itself because of the last time Florida's courts were overruled by the federal government -- Bush vs. Gore.
Forget that Bush vs Gore and S.686 are so colossally and unapologetically unconstitutional that the caveat that they will establish no legal precedent and can only be used in the one specific case for which they have been passed is written into their language.
Forget about the now well exposed bill Governor Bush signed in Texas that specifies doctors and hospital administrators can pull the plug (or feeding tube) with or without the parent’s wishes under the same medical definitions that apply to Shiavo's case.
Forget Sun Hudson, the 17 month old baby whose feeding tube was just removed under the statues of that Texas law. No evangelicals will be arrested trying to save his life. Tom Delay will make no ignorant and inflammatory speeches on his behalf. Sun Hudson suffered the ignoble fate of being born in Texas and not where the President’s brother is Governor. He is also poor and African-American. What was he thinking? Forget that if Shiavo was in New York, or California, or Massachusetts, or some other state, then this would be a non-issue. Terri's plight would remain a private affair, and we wouldn’t have overly sanctimonious politicians embarrassing themselves, and our nation, on the Congressional floor insisting that they should be the arbitrators of her fate. It’s a very simple equation: No GOP Congressional mid-term votes, no special legislation.
Forget the GOP memo acquired by the Associated Press detailing the “relief” for Shiavo’s parents as a political opportunity to fire up the GOP rubes on the Christian right. The Rubes are starting to realize that they mobilized to re-elect Bush and aren’t getting the dark, sex repressed, discriminatory, fear-of-life theocracy they so desperately crave before Jesus comes back to save them (not us, them). Culture of life means Protect power at all costs.
Forget that Bush unnecessarily flew at taxpayer expense on Air Force One to sign this atrocity of a bill in person, when flying the bill to him would have cost us all a great deal less of money. But flying this atrocity of a bill to him doesn’t have the same ring as “President Bush cut his vacation short and rushed back to Washington, D.C. today…” and rules out ruling by photo op –- the intellectual center of the right wing.
Forget that the President has been on vacation his entire life.Forget that the GOP rejects the idea that the federal budget is a moral document.
Forget that the GOP Congress is cutting, slashing, and burning the safety net of American health care, removing bankruptcy protections for those who become destitute due to overwhelming medical bills, and limiting medical malpractice awards like the one that has been paying for Shiavo’s almighty feeding tube for fifteen years.
Forget that her lawyer is arguing that Terri’s Roman Catholic religious beliefs are being violated and that nothing less than her eternal soul is in jeopardy because, in the words of her lawyer:"
It is a complete violation to her rights and to her religious liberty, to force her in a position of refusing nutrition.” Mortal sin is defined by St. Augustine (Contra Faustum, XXII, xxvii):Dictum vel factum vel concupitum contra legem æternam
Translated into “American” it means something that is said, or done, or desired contrary to the eternal law. Theologians have debated these issues for two millenniums, yet the position of the Roman Catholic Church in this case is irrelevant. In a court of law, the eternal or Divine Law is nothing more than a bunch of Old Testament mumbo jumbo. For a church with a long inglorious catalogue of crimes, most recently widespread sexual abuse of minors by Priests, it is inconceivable that the Roman Catholic church still believes it has any moral authority beyond Vatican City and Anthony Scalia’s living room.
Forget that the Roman Catholic Church has no moral authority.
Forget that the Protestant evangelicals, who now support Shiavo's Catholic rights by singing Jesus songs outside Terri’s hospice, use to kill Roman Catholics with white sheets over their heads.
Forget this question -- what kind of God would reject Terri Shiavo's immortal soul?
Forget everything the GOP wants us to forget, and see Terri's plight through the cynical prism of political opportunism that defines the right wing and their legislative robots in the House and Senate. Let us agree to see and hear only what the GOP want us to see and hear.
Let us remember only what they want us to remember:
GOP Presidential and Congressional support for Terri Shiavo is an affirmation that right wing conservatives, in fact, have souls, and are compassionate people who care about their fellow citizens, and are committed to a culture of life defined by giving value to each individual. By insisting that Terri Shiavo live, the GOP controlled U.S. government will fight to return America to a society governed by Christian theology, so we must all vote for them in the next mid term elections.
Yes, let us remember the GOP position. Let us canonize it on every television and radio station from coast to coast. The politicians who championed this legislative abomination did so at their own risk. The modern GOP tramples all over the Constitution and common human decency as easy as falling off a log, but this time they have enshrined into their own putrid political grandstanding this very simple premise:
Secular humanism is what has saved Terri Shiavo for fifteen years, not God.
Being forced into a position of refusing nutrition use to be called “death,” but revolutionary advances in medicine and medical technology, driven by secular humanist principles, have gradually reversed the inevitability of death's all powerful grasp. This is the religious right's unspeakable Room 101 -- that on its present course science and medicine will one day achieve immortality and there will be no more need for God.
If Terri Shiavo's fate had been left up to God, she would long be dead (forced into a position of refusing nutrition). Instead, “junk science,” as flat Earthers and Bush supporters like to call anything that actually explains the world, has kept her alive for an additional 15 years. To save Terri from death using secular advancements in medical technology (i.e. the feeding tube), reaffirms the GOP’s complete opposition to the advancements of medical technology (i.e. stem cell research, contraception, abortion, etc).
I doubt any acknowledgment that the only reason this woman is alive is because of secular medical technology is forth coming from our mainstream media, as this would push the notion of God right out of the argument, or, at the very least, call God's omnipotence into question.
A thin piece of rubber ruins God’s power over conception. Terminated pregnancies (which have been around as long as there has been pregnancy) ruin God’s power over birth. Modern surgery ruins God’s powers over death. Should we let our soldiers die on the battlefield to protect our culture of life and allow God’s will to roll on without impediment, or do we save them using the tools of our wicked secular society? Do we save them using the feeding tube, or do we allow God to claim another life so a small group of religious radicals can pat themselves on the back with smug certainty of their divine redemption?
What is God, if not death? Yet, we cheat death everyday without the accompaniment of vitriolic political battles in a media manufactured culture war being blasted to the four corners of the earth. We cheat death, and thus God, every single day -- with seat belts, with organ transplants, with armored plates, with pharmaceutical drugs, with early warning systems, with dialysis, with earthquake proof building codes, with nothing but the raw determination to survive. We even want to cheat death with a missile defense shield.
By committing themselves to the notion that only God should decide Terri Shiavo’s fate, which God did 15 years ago when she suffered a brain aneurism, and by defying God’s will by using a machine, the feeding tube, to keep her alive, the GOP confirms their worst possible fears –- secular humanism is stronger than God, and they just proved it with an act of Congress.
LAST NOTE: The only other thing I ask you to remember is the Democrats who voted for S.686. Their names can easily be found on the internet. I expect cheap stunts like this from GOP politicians, but for the Democrats who are complicit in this charade there is no excuse. They must be voted out of office one by one.
|
