BlackSport96 said:
Matthew: I see where you're going with this, but at the same time I disagree on those issues necessarily being strictly religious. I believe life starts long before birth, not because of my religious beliefs but because I value life. Having my first kid just reinforced that. While she was still only 3-4 months old in the womb, she would brush against my wife's stomach only to immediately poke that same spot again when I touched it. If I poked her in there she would almost immediately poke back in the same spot. Now to those who believe in abortion, 3-4 months is still well within a reasonable timeframe to kill that child, but my daughter was responsive to external stimuli even then. I oppose abortion completely in the issues of rape and incest and especially with the girls who get pregnant and don't want a baby yet. That last one comes back to personal responsibility. Should've used protection or been abstinate if you don't want a kid yet. Rape and incest, those aren't necessarily the woman's fault (definitely not rape) but its the not the kid's fault either. Bring the baby to term and then give him/her up for adoption. I had a friend in high school who had sex, got pregnant and gave the baby up for adoption. She made one couple who couldn't conceive very happy. She got to pick the family and everything. I struggle over the issue of a mother's life being in danger. I don't want to condemn her to death, but don't want to kill the baby either. As a Christian I'd say God will take care of it and whatever happens will be for the best, but the wordly side (yes, that side never dies it is only shut up) says but what if she dies?? I can't make a stand on that since I don't really have a clear stand to take...I don't want to see the government turned into a religious run excercise, but at the same time I think the nation could benefit from a little bit of morality and a clear definition of right and wrong. I forgot the name of the philosophy but it basically says that there are no absolutes. What's right for me might be wrong for you. Who are we to call anyone's ideas wrong? By that philosophy, Hitler didn't do anything wrong. That is where I fear too many people are trying to take this country, to a belief that there is no such thing as right or wrong.
Well, I see your point, but I still think you're missing mine, and that some questions, even those with answers that you believe to be absolute, are not answered by government, and although you don't believe your choices represent a religious agenda, others do, including, I believe, those whom you are choosing to lead. Since you bring up Hitler, I might point out that many Germans accepted, or even signed on to National Socialism, because it answered some of their needs and their fears. They ignored the nasty bits, figuring they could control it later. They were wrong. I know I'm in a minority, and I may be wrong, in fact I hope I am, but I believe that although the majority of people who support the current administration are not religious radicals, and aren't looking to alter the fundamental character of the United States, they are signing on to a much deeper and further reaching agenda than they think, which will be very hard to control, and if it goes too far, very hard to undo. I'll leave it at that. Nothing would make me happier than, 20 years from now being remembered as some alarmist nutcase. We'll see.
"Those days we slept in a trumpet.
Backward and forward we dreamed,
avenues, symmetrically planted.
On a tranquil unending back
we lay against that arch,
and never dreamed it would sound." (Gunter Grass)
