The cartoon above is overly simplistic, but makes an important point. It shows a Republican elephant carrying two signs that say, “Pro Life,” and “Keep the Death Penalty.” Meantime, the Democratic donkey also is carrying two signs, “Pro Choice,” and “End the Death Penalty.” the point is being made that each party holds some views that are defined as being part of being pro-life by organizations such as Priests for Life and the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, while each party holds some view that are defined as being pro-death or anti-life by the same type of groups. So, how does one resolve this discrepancy? Well, what many anti-abortion Christians do is to use mathematics to argue that one must vote Republican. Since there have been millions of abortions nationwide and worldwide, this appears to be a winning argument. After all, how can you beat millions of dead? Add to that the argument that each life is of infinite worth, then certainly you have no choice but to vote Republican.
But, there are two problems with that argument, one is mathematical and the other has to do with the effects that certain deaths cause that may be greater than other deaths. What do I mean?
Well, first, let’s tackle the mathematical argument. Frankly, infinity is infinity. There is no number greater than infinity. Once each human life is of infinite worth, then it does not matter whether you have one death or 1,000,000 deaths. Whether it is one times infinity or 1,000,000 times infinity, the answer is the same, infinity. By making the worth of each life infinite, those who make that argument destroy their very argument that numbers matter. But, there is another problem and that is the problem of cause and effect as part of making decisions.
Republicans carefully do not mention or even allow themselves to publicly accept that the invasion of Iraq, and the concomitant encouragement to overthrow Gadhafi and Assad (Libya and Syria), set up the very thing we most wished to avoid in the Middle East, a populace that hates us, a radical group (ISIS) that is destroying the entire culture of the area, and the loss of a Christian presence in the Middle East. Even before President Bush’s term was over, a significant portion of the Christian population of the Middle East had become refugees. In the USA, Republicans have made it clear that worker wages have little to do with justice, even though Evangelicals should be standing up and quoting Saint James (and various Old Testament prophets) on the responsibility of employers to pay fair wages. As Saint James says, the wages that you are withholding cry out to the Lord of Hosts. There are various other issues that are defined by Priests for Life and the US Conference of Catholic Bishops on which the Republican platform fails.
Does this mean you need to vote Democratic? Please do not misinterpret what I am saying. I have made it clear in the last couple of posts that, according to Saint Thomas á Kempis, our responsibility is to choose the lesser of two evils. But, what I am saying is that as part of evaluating which party may be the lesser of two evils, you cannot do a simple mathematical totaling of deaths to decide which one is more the party of death. This is because the effect of certain policies, though they may result in fewer deaths, may/will result in more international (and therefore more dangerous) disruptions in the long run than a simple totaling of numbers. If the long-term effect of certain Republican approaches is more damaging to a fully pro-life approach than simply totaling the number of deaths, then you may wish to vote Democrat. If you believe that the moral effects of abortion are more damaging than some of what I have mentioned above, then you may wish to vote Republican.
But, what you ought not to do is to simply and blindly add numbers without considering the effect of certain decisions. Let me give you one example. In the Spanish flu epidemic of the beginning of the 20th century, approximately 50,000,000 people died of it worldwide. It is estimated that 20% to 40% of the world’s population became ill, though only 50,000,000 died. Now, let’s look at World War I. Only 17,000,000 people died as a result of that war. However, the effect of World War I was significantly greater on world politics, on the succeeding World War II, and on the geopolitical shape of the world than the Spanish flu ever caused. Even though only 1/3 as many people died of World War I than of the Spanish flu, few would argue that the effect of World War I was much much greater.
In the same way, though the number of abortions is very high, nevertheless, this does not necessarily mean that the effect of those deaths is greater than the effect of the destruction of the Middle East, the killing of innocents at the hand of the death penalty, etc. But, that is for you to decide. What I am arguing is that you ought not to use simplistic mathematics. You need to read; you need to evaluate; you need to make a decision based on the effect of various policies. Do so, and then decide whether to vote Democratic or to vote Republican.
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