Terri's door opens just a little wider...

[Tonio]

Hessian, you're right about the heroism shown by individual Christians in the face of totalitarianism. Their work has made the world a much better place to live. When he was still Karol Wojtyla, the late John Paul II was one of those whose faith motivated his resistance to the Nazis. I think that says a lot about the power and goodness of religious faith, as opposed to dogma and orthodoxy.

My objection is not to Christianity specifically, but to the common dogma that Christianity shares with orthodoxies like Judaism and Islam--the idea that people are inherently sinful. I don't understand how that jibes with democracy and freedom, two concepts which are inherently humanistic. I've said this before, but if one accepts the idea that there is NOTHING good or valid about humanity, how can one possibly find any reason or justification for humanity's existence?

 

[Hessian]

And another thing....

Christ taught about the Good Samaritan...someone who would be loathed by Orthodox Jews, He showed compassion & sacrifice toward a stranger who was in desparate need. (NOTE: the lawyer went to the other side of the road!)

Who was praying, demonstrating, petitioning, e-mailing on behalf of CATHOLIC Terri?....thousands of Protestant evangelicals! Some even risked arrest and stood beside Catholics in condemning Terri's starving death.

That in itself is a stunning statement about American Christians.
In Belfast..they would have bombed each other, in the Balkans, the feuding never ends, in Russia: Pentecostals, Baptists etc. were persecuted with the assistance of the Russian Orthodox church.


EVEN 50 YEARS AGO...CATHOLICS & PROTESTANTS IN THIS COUNTRY WERE OPENLY HOSTILE (ie Kennedy's term!)

So what has happened that has brought unity among rather divergent Christians?????

Well?

They see a general threat rising in secularness, humanism, evolution, liberalism that has soaked into this culture-breeding apathy, hostility, radical feminism & political correctness. Euthenasia and the culture of death will only bond us stronger together.

 

[willie]

World Net Daily and Glenn Beck are slithering out of the slime only to promote themselves. Is this a catchy headline or what?....BTW it's not from stmarystoday.

MATTERS OF LIFE AND DEATH
Granddaughter yanks grandma's feeding tube
81-year-old not terminally ill,
comatose, nor in vegetative state

 

[Larry Gude]

Tonio...

Why do you think they are so worked up about this case?

I think, and it's only a thought, that they all are kinda wired into the same circles as elite commentator types. Tom Delay is on their speed dial, again, I would think.

So. the 'play' on the story is that everyone will be outraged when they find out how evil this Michael guy is and how great a story 'Terri the Fighter' is and libs will stick their necks out thinking this is an outrageous abuse of federal legislative power and outrageously intrusive into a sad, but private matter.

Well, a funny thing happened on the way to the forum.

The evil Michael guy is NOT. Terri 'the Fighter' hasn't been for 15 years and libs, for once, at least for awhile, just shut up.

So now, everyone from the President to Cheny on down is backpedling like
mad to say no, we don't need to impeach every judge that gets in Tom Delays way. Bush GETS it. Cheny gets it. This IS a sad but private matter. The Schindlers are the evil freaks and Delay and Co. tried to bring the entire weight of the federal government down on a innocent mans head.

That is EVIL.

So, Limbaugh and Beck et all know damn well this WAS handled like a DU freak show and they're running around trying to find ANY justification they can. They have to talk every day. Bush don't.

 

[Larry Gude]

Ps...

...in lawyer-ese, when you have the facts on your side, argue the facts. When you have the law on your side argue the law. When you have neither pound the table.

Limbaugh and Beck are POUNDING the table.

 

[Larry Gude]

Hess...

Man I wish the public would stop slamming Christians over these matters.

The moment Delay and Rush and Glen remove Christ from Terri and Michael Schindlers story, the moment they stop getting slammed. As it is, the presumptions made about Michael Schiavo are incredibly invasive, un-Christian and, frankly, as you brought it up, Nazi-easque.

How dare they impose their beliefs in this matter. How dare they. They Crucified Michael Schiavo. They tried him, comvicted him and are trying to destroy him over a matter that is none of their, or yours or my damn business. There is not, has not and sure as hell doesn't look like ever will be a SHRED of evidence that Michael acted improperly or illegally.

They are staining him as immoral and they have NO case.

 

[Larry Gude]

Hess...part 2....

How can you, of all people make analagous...

How many Christians were butchered by the SS & Nazis for trying to hide Jews? Who ran the orphanages in China despite the brutal Mao's policies?
What motivated Reagan to demand that Gorbachov open up East Germany?

...to Terri's case???

You WOULD turn to them if you were hunted down or needing refuge...but until then,--lets just be happy to denounce & mock them.

I have the utmost respect for real Christians and I tell you this; the Christ I know would have washed Terri with Michael, held him and her and cried and prayed as she passed, reassuring Michael that it was OK to let Terri go and that she was in a far better place now with his Father. That it was good and that it was right. That the glory of the after life as taught by Christ is far greater and stronger than the anguishing journey of Terri's last 15 years.

He also would have consoled Mr. and Mrs. Schindler in the same manner and they would have turned her over to God LONG ago, just as they turned her over to Michael some 20 years ago.

There is no Samaritan in prolonging her suffering. There is no Samaritan in making her condition and death the abominable public circus it became.

The Christ I was taught would look upon us in shame for foresaking the Glory of God in heaven in order to keep Terri's shattered body and soul around, presumably forever, as some morbid political football.

Christ would not have a story written that has him stand idly by while an innocent man was stoned in the public square.

But of course, that's where faith enters the story and Delay, Limbaugh and Beck, the people relied upon to get it right in His stead are betraying theirs.

 

[Tonio]

I think, and it's only a thought, that they all are kinda wired into the same circles as elite commentator types.

I think that's probably true. I was asking about their emotional motivation, of course. After I read "Horton Hears a Who" to my daughters last night, I wondered, "Hmmm...Horton Hears a Schiavo?" It does seem like DeLay and the other Schindler supporter see themselves as Christian versions of Horton. In my view, they sound like they don't believe in the concept behind living wills and advanced directives.

This IS a sad but private matter.

Well said!