The Ever-Increasing Divide

[seeker63]

This is maybe too big of a topic to address, but it seems that in the various Culture of Death issues that the opposing sides are getting more and more polarized—the Left going more to the Left, the Right going more to the Right. While one side seems to be getting more active in fighting abortion or euthanasia, et. al., the other seems more and more comfortable with the idea of these practices. They seem more intrenched as a part of society.

So how do you figure this is going to end or come to a head? A war? Secession? Wll there be two Americas in fact and not just in morals and values? I just find it hard to believe either side will give in to the other.

 

[HagiaSophia]

seeker63:

This is maybe too big of a topic to address, but it seems that in the various Culture of Death issues that the opposing sides are getting more and more polarized—the Left going more to the Left, the Right going more to the Right. While one side seems to be getting more active in fighting abortion or euthanasia, et. al., the other seems more and more comfortable with the idea of these practices. They seem more intrenched as a part of society.

So how do you figure this is going to end or come to a head? A war? Secession? Wll there be two Americas in fact and not just in morals and values? I just find it hard to believe either side will give in to the other.

People have become de-sensitized. Violence is now part of our daily news reading and of course media and tv have popularized instant death as part of the “entertainment” industry.

We are moving economically toward a more utilitarian society – the weakest and the physically/mentally “unfit” to compete are becoming more and more disenfranchised and with “mad science” making the pronouncements they do, the cost of medical care and maintenance for those unable to take care of themselves, I fear we will lose a large number of people before the entire thing swings the other way.

 

[Philip_P]

The difficulty with many of these issue is that both sides are arguing that they have the moral high ground, and instead of moral values complementing each other, we find they are being pitted against each other.

Look at abortion. On the one hand, the anti-abortion side argues for the humanity of the unborn. On the other, the side wishing to keep abortion legal argues for the health and well-being of the mother. Of course, there is no reason these should be pitted against each other - I’d like to see a bumper sticker to the effect of “pro-woman, pro-child, pro-life.” But you see how our culture has allowed itself to become falsely divided. No one is “pro-death,” and all would claim the mantle of “pro-life,” but so long as we entertain these false division, we are none of us truly pro-life.

As far as solving it, lately I’ve been reading a lot of the late Cardinal Bernardin’s writings on the consistent ethic of life and finding much wisdom there. To heal these divisions, we must uphold this consistent ethic. After all, what good does it do to argue for the humanity of a fetus, if we’ve already accepted the killing of human beings? What good does it do to argue against warlust, if we’ve already accepted violent death in the womb as routine and acceptable? We are either consistently pro-life, or not at all.