It’s hard to write about Terri Schiavo. It is a tragic picture, the legal, medical and moral aspects are hideously complex. Many people are covering it well. GetReligion , in particular, is observing how fairly journalists cover the religious angle of the story. There is little original left to write and it is virtually impossible to be sure of the facts of the case.
Why is the fight so bitter? What is really at stake? JOHN PODHORETZ writing in today’s New York Post lays it out bluntly:
“The looming death by starvation of Terri Schiavo has exposed yet again the key fault line in American culture. Those who have sided with her parents in seeking the reinsertion of her feeding tube have a view of life that is profoundly different from those who have sided with her husband's quest to have her die.”
It is one more battle – maybe a crucial one – in the culture wars. The culture wars, I suggest, originate first in the arrogation of lawmaking power by the court over the legislatures, described here. Second, President Johnson's failure to seek a declaration of war in Vietnam embittered the nation.
UVA professor James Davidson Hunter addressed this issue in his book Before the Shooting Starts, citing comparative law Professor Mary Ann Glendon’s conclusion that the problem in America is unique. In Europe, where the voters had direct influence on the outcome, abortion is permitted but restricted in various ways. In the United States, Roe v. Wade restricts the voters to fighting over which candidate will chose the Supreme Court justices who will interpret the constitution and decide the outcome. Reaching compromise through the ballot box is unlikely.
The conflict is bitter because both sides realize that this is a human life issue that is not resolvable through the ballot box or political compromise. Troubled as I am, I can only pray for the Terri's recovery, the Schiavo’s, Schindler’s, the courts, politicians and the culture. My prayer comes from Lincoln’s 2nd inaugural address, given near the end of the conflict over that other human life issue – slavery:
“The Almighty has his own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offenses! for it must needs be that offenses come; but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through his appointed time, he now wills to remove, and that he gives to both North and South this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to him? Fondly do we hope--fervently do we pray--that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn by the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, "The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."
With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan--to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations.”
(The scripture quotes come from Mt. 18:7 & Psalm 19:10)
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