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March for Life (Washington, D.C.)
PHOTO SOURCE: http://www.marchforlife.org/
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Here are 10 quotes
from different people that agree that pro-life means pro-death penalty:
"A
related fallacy is that the pro-lifer who defends the right to life of an
unborn baby in the mother's womb, but who does not defend the right to life of
a convicted murderer on death row, is being morally inconsistent. But there is
no inconsistency here: The unborn baby is innocent; the convicted murderer is
not. It is the pro-abortion/anti-death penalty liberal who is morally
inconsistent, since he supports putting to death only the innocent.”
- Thomas R. Eddlem is the
editor of the Hanson Express in Hanson, MA, and is a regular contributor to The
New American and Point South magazines.
“Pro-lifers
deceive themselves if they imagine abolishing the death penalty will lead to
abolishing abortion or a greater respect for life. To the contrary, nations
with the death penalty generally restrict abortion more than nations who have
abolished the death penalty. Islamic nations and African nations have the death
penalty and also have the most prohibitive abortion laws. By contrast, European
nations have abolished the death penalty and have liberal abortion laws. Do
pro-lifers really want to follow the example of Europe?"
- Thomas R. Eddlem is the
editor of the Hanson Express in Hanson, MA, and is a regular contributor to The
New American and Point South magazines.
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| Craig Alan Myers |
God is the Giver of life. He created it, and
He may take it. Death is the result of sin. God requires death–both physical
death and spiritual death–as the just punishment for sin (Romans 6:23).
Christians recognize the pervasive depravity which permeates the human soul.
God may delegate to human governments such things as He wills to maintain
societal order. He has delegated to all human government the authority to
require one’s life in a certain, limited circumstance–the murder of another
human being. Capital punishment is not on a par with abortion or euthanasia,
for the latter involve the taking of “innocent” life, while the former is
carried out in relation to those who have been duly convicted and made lengthy
appeals.
- Craig Alan Myers is the pastor of Blue River Church of The
Brethren. He and his wife Laura have four children, whom they educate at home.
He is a graduate of The Pennsylvania State University and Ashland Theological
Seminary. He also received ministry training through the training program of
the Western Pennsylvania District. Bro. Myers is chairman of the Brethren
Revival Fellowship and president of the Whitley County Ministerial Association.
He has served on the Northern Indiana District Board, and was chairman of the
District Ministry Commission. He is moderator of the Northern Indiana District
Conference, and preaches revivals and Bible Conferences around the
country.
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Paul Ramsey
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University scholar
Dr. Paul Ramsey fully concurs: "abortion and
capital punishment are two different questions. There is no inconsistency
between moral disapproval of unnecessarily killing the innocent and the
judicial execution of the guilty." (Haven Bradford Gow,
"Religious Views Support The Death Penalty", The Death Penalty:
Opposing Viewpoints, Greenhaven Press, 1986, p. 81- 82 & 84).
- Paul
Ramsey (1913–1988) was an American Christian ethicist of
the 20th century. He was a Methodist. Paul Ramsey undertook his doctoral
studies at Yale where he was mentored by H. Richard Niebuhr. He subsequently
taught Christian Ethics at Princeton. He has been credited with re-introducing
just war theory into Protestant ethical reflection. His popular text book Basic
Christian Ethics was reviewed by a young John Rawls.
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| Father Richard Roach |
"Abortion is absolutely prohibited. It
is always evil. No one can ever abort a ‘guilty’ baby, so the act can never be
right. This is not the case, however, with either capital punishment or a just
and defensive war. It is only murder, along with its subdivisions suicide
and abortion, which God’s law absolutely prohibits. The upshot of all this is
that trying to put abortion, capital punishment and war in one package makes
chaos of Catholic morals and can lead one to misinterpret God’s Law.“
- Father Richard Roach was born in Seattle on October 12, 1934, and
baptized as an adult at Blessed Sacrament Church on April 18, 1955, toward the
end of his undergraduate years at the University of Washington. Shortly after
graduating, he joined the US Air Force as a jet pilot, serving for three years
before he entered the Jesuit novitiate in Sheridan, Oregon, in September of
1958. He pronounced his first vows as a Jesuit in 1960, studied philosophy at
Mount St. Michael's in Spokane, taught for three years at Jesuit High School in
Portland, OR, and began theology studies in Toronto in 1966. Fr. Roach was
ordained a priest by Archbishop Thomas Connolly at Seattle on June 14, 1969. As
a newly ordained priest, he began doctoral studies under the noted moral
theologian Dr. Jim Gustafson at Yale University. Fr. Roach returned to the
Jesuit theology program in Toronto, this time as professor of moral theology.
He taught at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for almost 20 years,
and then spent a year as scholar-in-residence at Columbia University's Catholic
Campus Ministry before returning to Seattle where he has been pastor of St.
John Vianney Parish since 1998. Fr Roach brought his great learning and
intellectual energy to bear in the carefully prepared homilies he delivered
each week at St. John Vianney, always providing longer written versions for
those who wanted them. Fr. Roach deeply loved his parishioners, and they
returned his affection, caring for him and supporting him during the long
months of his illness. He loved the Catholic liturgy and looked forward to the
opportunities to gather his parishioners at the daily Eucharist and especially
at the weekly Saturday and Sunday Masses. One of his favorite ways of being
with parishioners was a weekly discussion group during the time between Sunday
Masses. Father Roach died on Friday, November 7, 2008.
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John Hardon
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"There are certain moral norms that have always and everywhere been
held by the successors of the Apostles in communion with the Bishop of Rome.
Although never formally defined, they are irreversibly binding on the followers
of Christ until the end of the world." "Such moral truths are the
grave sinfulness of contraception and direct abortion. Such, too, is the
Catholic doctrine which defends the imposition of the death penalty."
- John Hardon A.K.A John A. S. A.
Hardon, S.J., Servant of God (June 18, 1914 – December 30, 2000) was a Jesuit
priest, writer, and theologian. He is the founder of The Holy Trinity
Apostolate. Hardon was born into a devout Catholic family in Midland,
Pennsylvania, and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. He obtained his bachelor's degree
at John Carroll University before entering the Society of Jesus in 1936. He
obtained a master's degree in philosophy at Loyola University Chicago, studied
theology at West Baden College in West Baden, Indiana, and was ordained a
priest on June 18, 1947 on his 33rd birthday. He received his doctorate in
theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. Father Hardon was a
very prominent member of the Jesuit community, which is known for its academic
rigor, and wrote dozens of books on religion and theology, including: The
Catholic Catechism (1975), a defining volume of Catholic orthodoxy; and the
Modern Catholic Dictionary (1980), the first major Catholic reference
dictionary published after the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965). Hardon was
also a major contributor to Catholic newspapers and magazines and was executive
editor of The Catholic Faith magazine. Hardon had a close working relationship
with Pope Paul VI, engaging in several initiatives at the Pope's request,
including his authoring of The Catholic Catechism. Father Hardon's Catholic
Catechism was a significant post–Vatican II work in the sense that it
essentially brought modern Catholic teaching and faith into one book, unlike
any other before, and was a precursor to the Catechism of the Catholic Church,
which is the official codified teaching of the Catholic Church, promulgated by
Pope John Paul II in 1992. Hardon served as a consultant for the drafting of
that document. Father Hardon died in Clarkston, Michigan, on December 30, 2000,
after suffering from several illnesses. Having been known throughout his life
as a holy man, there is interest among some Catholics for his beatification and
a Church-sanctioned prayer for that cause has been written. According to Church
law, Father Hardon could have his cause for beatification opened by the Church
as early as December 30, 2005. If that happens it would place him on the path
towards possible sainthood. An effort is underway to establish a Father Hardon
library and study center at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse,
Wisconsin. ... father John Hardon is beatified, and has been for a few years
now.
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Mike Huckabee
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“Now, having said that, there are those who say, "How can you be
pro-life and believe in the death penalty? Because there's a real difference
between the process of adjudication, where a person is deemed guilty after a
thorough judicial process and is put to death by all of us, as citizens, under
a law, as opposed to an individual making a decision to terminate a life that
has never been deemed guilty because the life never was given a chance to even
exist.”
– Mike Huckabee (born August 24,
1955) was the 44th Governor of Arkansas, serving from 1996 to 2007.
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Peter Hitchens
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Now,
if they were consistently against the killing of anybody, surely they'd have to
be against this ganging up of adults on innocent children? But they're often
not. You ask them why. Try as I may to put myself in the position of the
pro-abortion anti-hanger, I can't get the argument to work. It can only be done
by insisting that a baby is not human until a certain (or rather, uncertain)
date, set to suit the abortionist rather than the baby, which is understandably
not asked if it considers itself human at this stage, or would have considered
itself human at this stage if it had survived a little longer and been allowed
a say. If you're against hanging, you must also be against abortion. But you
can be for hanging murderers and against abortion. The key is innocence or
guilt, and beneath that lies the ideal of lawful justice, which is what we are
actually talking about. (Some responses to correspondents 09 January 2007 4:03 PM)
- Peter Hitchens (born 28 October 1951) is
an award-winning British columnist and author, noted for his traditionalist
conservative stance.
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Alan Lee Keyes
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As
a matter of fact, everything that has come from the Pope and the Holy See has
made it clear that abortion and capital punishment are at different levels of
moral concern.
Abortion
is intrinsically, objectively, wrong and sinful, whereas capital punishment is
a matter of prudential judgment which is not, in and of itself, a violation of
moral right. And that has been made clear in every pronouncement, including
Cardinal Ratzinger's latest communication, including the interpretation of
American bishops and cardinals. That distinction is fundamental. And it's one
that folks in the media, and others, seem not to understand.
There
are certain issues that objectively violate the most fundamental canons of
moral decency, and abortion, for instance, is one of them--the taking of
innocent life.
The
question of whether or not you should apply capital punishment, in an instance
where someone has been found to be guilty, is something that depends on
circumstances, that depends on judgments about efficacy and balancing the
results against what is, in fact, to be effected in capital punishment. And
that is an area where Catholics, as others, have the right to debate, to
disagree, and to exercise their judgment and common sense, which of course is
what I do.
But
if you take a position that effaces the distinction between innocent life and
guilty life, then you not only violate a moral canon--you destroy the
fundamental basis of the law, and that is the ultimate disrespect for human
life.
- Alan Lee Keyes
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Cal Thomas
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Respect
for human life should mean a murderer ought to forfeit his or her own life as
payment for the life taken. Life in prison is unequal punishment. It is not
fair to the victim, to the victim's family or even to the killer who has not
received his or her "just deserts."
In the
case of abortion, obviously there can be no sentence of death or life in prison
for the "murderer." But that doesn't mean that Maryland cannot
exercise an equivalent respect for life through laws that restrict abortion.
Shouldn't the unborn also be spared a death sentence? If the Maryland
legislature can stop the state from taking the lives of murderers, it can adopt
restrictions that save the lives of many threatened by abortion.
I have
often proposed a deal for my liberal friends who are anti-death penalty but
pro-choice: I will surrender my position in favor of the death penalty, if
pro-choicers support laws that protect the unborn.
It seems
like a fair deal to me, but so far I've gotten no takers. This seems
ideologically inconsistent, if they argue all human life is valuable.
The
death chambers will close in Maryland for a few murderers, but thousands of
abortions will continue in Maryland each year -- more than 1 million annually
nationwide -- "sentencing" innocents to death without due process.
- Cal Thomas A.K.A John
Calvin "Cal" Thomas (born 1942) is an American syndicated
columnist, pundit, author and radio commentator.
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