Self-Proclaimed Pro-Life American Politicians in True Perspective
TRANSCEND MEMBERS, 30 May 2011
Charles Mercieca, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service
The United States is a very complex nation. Although we may understand various facets of this politically confused country, yet when it comes to getting a good bird’s eye view of its totality we do encounter problems. In the first place, the ultimate source of power does not lie with its government but with its big corporations that finance the election of all leading governmental officials.
Real Goal of US Politicians
This means that, regardless of what elected public officials may say, their real goal is not the vital interests of the American people but the boosting of the respective products of the corporations that contributed money to such political figures. Needless to say, money is only a part of the game. Those in the nation that exert influence on the people of one kind or another become quickly political targets. In spite of the fact that the United States proclaims itself to be a nation of democracy, in essence it is merely a nation of plutocracy.
In order for prospective political candidates to be elected they must make themselves known to the American people who may be reached only through the news media consisting mostly of the press, radio and television. To do so they must pay tens of thousands of dollars, which means only the rich may run for the office they seek. If they are not wealthy but they happen to have charisma of some kind, then big corporations may step in to finance their campaign.
Since the majority of Americans are religiously oriented and they developed the habit to participate in church services on week-ends, the church ministers become the target of political attention. The best way that this is done is for prospective political candidates to declare they are “pro-life,” adding that abortion is murder. Not only so but most politicians even try to secure the endorsement of clergymen by saying that they would want a constitutional amendment that recognizes the unborn as a fully fledged human being.
If deep inside, such self-proclaimed pro-life politicians have a genuine respect for the sacredness of life, then they must move a step further and declare that they view life as sacred not only from conception to birth but also from birth to natural death. Ironically, these so called pro-life politicians put more money on weapons and wars than on anything else. They do not hesitate to furnish the nations of the world where they have inner conflicts with all the weapons and military equipment they need.
Support for Human Conflicts
As a result, tens of thousands, amounting to millions on a global scale, are brutally murdered, most of whom are women, children, the elderly and the sick. When Pope John Paul II warned the former self-proclaimed pro-life US President George W. Bush not to invade Iraq and wage a war against it, he was totally ignored. The Pope insisted that such a war would be immoral and that it might turn the region into a quagmire with great animosity developing against Christians. And we know the rest of the story.
President Bush had the support of all the pro-life politicians in invading Iraq for reasons that were proven to be entirely false. The infrastructures of several cities were destroyed with tens of thousands of innocent people killed brutally and mercilessly, including hundreds of pregnant women. Two million people became refugees having lost their homes and all of their belongingness. More than three quarters of a million children became orphans many of whom lost the will to live, which explains the story of suicide bombers.
Besides, numerous Iraqi children, as a result, were born deformed. What a nice contribution pro-life politicians make to the sacredness of life! Moreover, when leading pro-life politicians were asked as to the number of Iraqi people that lost their lives following the US invasion, their answer was quick: “We do not keep a count of such incidents since we consider this merely as collateral damage!” In other words, these US self-proclaimed pro-life politicians view the loss of the lives of Iraqis not as a sacred element but just as a piece of furniture!
And here we need to ask seriously US clergymen who insist that people have an obligation to vote for self-proclaimed “pro-life” politicians. Millions of people around the world believe that life is sacred from conception to natural death. US politicians, who say they are against the killing of the unborn, continue to provide weapons to many countries and to promote more wars that kill tens of thousands of pregnant women, amounting to millions on a global scale. In other words, while for pro-life politicians it is bad to kill the unborn, it is fully all right to kill mercilessly and brutally the unborn baby with the mother as well!
If we were to examine the policies of pro-life politicians in the USA, they all insist that the nation should balance the budget by cutting money from the vital needs of people, such as health care, education, and decent housing facilities. Not one of them advocates seriously the cutting of the phenomenally bloated military budget. On the contrary, they continue to build foreign military bases in addition to the 747 military bases already in operation around the world. Some of these bases are costing the American people billions of dollars a week!
War Industry as Lucrative Business
Let us keep in mind that in the USA, the continued manufacture and sales of weapons, along with the waging of wars, have turned into a great lucrative business. As a capitalistic nation, the USA views money and wealth as its God. For this God anything is allowed to take place, even the vicious breaking of the Ten Commandments, which include, among others, you should not kill, you should not destroy the property of others, and you should not tell lies. Under the guise of “national defense and security,” self-proclaimed pro-life politicians in particular believe they can do anything that crosses their mind.
Many believe that when self-proclaimed pro-life politicians speak for the protection of the unborn, they do not have in mind the safeguard of innocent lives. Politicians know quite well that to continue to wage future wars they must be equipped with manpower. Hence, every unborn child is viewed as a potential soldier who will continue to keep alive the objectives of the weapons industry and the military industrial complex. In view of this, it is very naïve for clergymen to believe that pro-life politicians are necessarily for the sacredness of life.
When Jesus was asked who He was, there was only one answer that He gave: Ego sum veritas – I am the Truth. Confronted with this tangible reality, it is incomprehensive for US clergymen, to formulate the slogan, “If you are for-life, you vote pro-life.” If a US politician is “pro-life and pro-peace” at the same time, then considering voting for such an individual would be appropriate. But if such a politician proves to be “pro-life and pro-war” at the same time, then voting for such an individual should be totally out of question.
Since actions speak louder than words, the politician’s words should not be automatically taken for granted. We have to explore as to whether, deep inside, the politician really believes that peace could be achieved only when you are really prepared for war! The Romans used to say: Si vis pacem, para pacem – If you want peace, prepare for peace. Also, Si vis bellum, para bellum – If you want war, prepare for war. US President Richard Nixon came with his new slogan: Si vis pacem, para bellum – If you want peace, prepare for war.
One of the greatest weaknesses of American clergymen lies here. They view abortion as “intrinsic” evil but not war. This is, indeed, very strange! Let us be realistic. When we have abortion we have an innocent life being attacked. When US troops are sent to destroy the infrastructure of a nation, the sacred life of people living within that infrastructure is equally the same being attacked. The only difference lies here. In abortion you kill one person at a time. In war you kill hundreds and tens of thousands of people at a time.
Waging of Wars no longer Justified
There was a time when churches spoke of justifiable wars and, as a result, they formulated crusades to go and kill Moslems to prevent them from taking hold of the holy places. A few centuries later, the saintly Pope John Paul II apologized with tears in his eyes, asking the world for forgiveness for the needless massacre of so many innocent lives. And a couple of years after Pope Benedict XVI assumed the throne of St. Peter he stated emphatically that “war is never justified under any circumstance whatsoever.”
With two leading political parties, the American people do not seem to have much choice when they go to voting. So they are faced with a dilemma: voting for the better of two goods, or voting for the lesser of two evils which is usually the case. When we take everything into consideration, it is very obvious that the self-proclaimed “pro-life” politicians are the worse of two evils in the sense, they are constantly ready to deprive people from their vital necessities of life, like health care, good education, and adequate housing facilities.
Also, while so called “pro-choice” politicians do not really do anything to “force” women into having an abortion, “pro-life” politicians continue to provide all the lethal means for people to annihilate each other. Stated differently, while “pro- choice” politicians may be responsible for the killing of the unborn, only one at a time, “pro-life” politicians are responsible to the continued waging of wars and for the brutal massacre of tens of thousands at a time amounting to millions on a global scale.
That would include the murder of the unborn along with its mother, which happens each time all kind of weapons are used to bombard and destroy hospitals, schools, and residences where people live. It would be wise for clergymen, in their defense of “life,” to condemn very strongly the continued manufacture and sales of weapons and the continued waging of more struggles and wars. In the USA, these destructive war elements are viewed as the “holy cow,” that has become increasingly difficult to criticize and to take real drastic steps to help reverse this destructive trend.
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Charles Mercieca, Ph.D.
President, International Association of Educators for World Peace Dedicated to United Nations Goals of Peace Education, Environmental Protection, Human Rights & Disarmament Professor Emeritus, Alabama A&M University Hon President & Professor, SBS Swiss Business School, Zurich.
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 30 May 2011.
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Yes, well, I have to agree. The clergy would have to believe that God exists, is present among us today, and that he is able to provide for our needs if we enter into an agreement – a covenant – to serve God’s divine will. Unfortunately, this doesn’t happen. The clerics lean on psychological terminology at the pulpit, and opt to take money at the expense of the truth. Metaphysics is alien to the modern Church. One elder woman had told me that she had attended church all of her life. She argued with me regarding signs from God, and said that Christ wouldn’t give the Pharisees a sign – not understanding the reason why, since she “doesn’t like to read the Bible”. This is not the exception, this is the norm in Christian America. I have relatives who are Catholic and Lutheran, etc. None – I mean zero – of them will study the Scripture for themselves, and consider me an outcast because I oppose the kind of hypocricy that Dr. Mercieca describes in the expression of his views. J.R.R. Tolkien once explained to a Jesuit priest that it is cheating to regard death as not being important – That for Christ to raise the dead to life, and to conquer death for his own life is no trivial matter. Yet, to the modern Christian, it amounts to (as Jethro Tull put it) winding up God on Sunday. That is Dr. Mercieca’s point. These ministers wind God up on Sunday, collect the money, and refuse to preach dependence on God, and to explain how that relationship is developed. Finally, the grant-seeking organizations that should be using our technology to speed up the process of exerting control over the birth rates of the poorest nations – unsustainable birth rates among failing nations – seem more interested in job security and grant money than in bringing into being the works that will edge the world closer to peace. I have to warn people who create the conditions for violence that when you leave this world, you might reawaken again on this planet, in a place where things are not so cushy.