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May 29, 2005
All Rights Reserved
World Copyright
© Martin Foreman
Column 8: Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness
American values - and Vatican lies
By © Martin Foreman
Word Count: 796 words
Publication date: March 27, 2005
Three different topics this week – the Vatican’s response to The Da Vinci Code, same-sex marriage in California and Terri Schiavo. The church’s reaction to a work of fiction provides light relief, so let’s end with that. In contrast, both the Schiavo case and the court ruling in the Golden State provide an insight into what are, or should be, fundamental human values in America today.
This article was updated on March 25th, a week after a Florida court decision allowed Schiavo’s feeding-tube to be disconnected for the third time. (It had been disconnected and reconnected twice before by court order, causing further harm to her already severely damaged health.) At the time of writing, it appeared that all appeals by Schiavo’s parents to state and federal courts to have the feeding-tube reconnected had failed, and her life was moving towards its end.
The federal courts only became involved because Congress, railroaded by House Republicans, rushed through legislation specific to this case and President Bush cut short his vacation to sign the bill into law.
This was a serious misuse of congressional time. As a general principle, rushed laws are inevitably inferior laws, whatever issue they deal with. As another general principle, laws that apply to a specific individual, place or incident have a tendency either to privilege the person or place involved or to create unforeseen precedents. Thirdly, the legislation revealed a disturbing tendency among many members of Congress to see the issue in black-and-white rather than gray.
Let us be charitable and assume that those involved in this grandstanding, including the brothers Bush, were motivated by concern for Schiavo’s well-being rather than by politics. But in their zeal to maintain life – a zeal they somehow misplace when it comes to reviewing the death penalty – they forgot that life without quality is no life at all.
All life comes to an end. Extending life where consciousness has disappeared is to condemn whatever is left of the individual’s personality to a prison from which there is no release. Each of us has the right to accept a diminished quality to our own lives but none has the right to impose life on those for whom there is no quality at all.
The right to life is paramount, but so is the liberty to die. If as a result of last weekend’s legislation the principle of maintaining life at all costs comes to override the principle of quality of life, then the liberty of all Americans has been further eroded.
Same-sex marriage in California; as a gay man who spent four happy years with my lover in Los Angeles, I inevitably have an interest, although for most of my life I considered marriage an irrelevance. Today, however, the more arguments I hear from both sides, the more I am convinced that it is a legal right irrespective of gender.
Judge Richard Kramer’s recent ruling should be a model for all state and federal judges at every level of the judiciary. His two key points echoed the Supreme Court decision (1954: Brown v. Board of Education) that began dismantling segregation in America. Firstly, he reminded us that “separate but equal is not equal”. Secondly he ruled that “the state's protracted denial of equal protection cannot be justified simply because such constitutional violation has become traditional."
The legal case for same-sex marriage is strong, the historical and moral case equally so. As I frequently repeat, the Declaration of Independence recognizes the right of Americans to pursue happiness; it does not and could not define the circumstances in which happiness is sought. For almost every couple, marriage confirms their mutual love and joy; restricting the institution to heterosexual couples shows at best a lack of understanding, at worst a contempt for the values on which the nation was founded.
Finally, the Vatican’s attempt to discredit Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code… For the half dozen people on the planet who have not read it, the novel weaves together fictional characters, real places and long-standing legends to suggest that Jesus did not die on the cross, that he had a child by Mary Magdalene and his descendants are still alive. It’s a fun read but only the most gullible believe that it points to some kind of truth.
Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Archbishop of Genoa, told an Italian newspaper that “it astonishes and worries him that so many people believe these lies.” It would be nice to think that the Cardinal was referring to his employer, the Roman Catholic Church, which owes its existence and considerable wealth to 2,000 years of maintaining the fiction that God and the Devil, saints and miracles, and Heaven and Hell exist.
Unfortunately, no. He was talking about Brown’s book - a perfect case of the pot calling the kettle black.
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FOOD FOR THOUGHT
"Today belief in God is crazy, pointless and sometimes downright harmful, but that wasn't always the case. Religion helped us evolve from primates dominated by short-term instinct into human beings capable of forming sophisticated societies."
The evolution of religion
"The United States prides itself on championing freedom and in enshrining the pursuit of happiness in its constitution. It is ironic that so many Americans espouse a moral code whose impact is to restrict both freedom and happiness. America needs moral values, but values that respect and honor every citizen."
What moral values?
"Maybe Noah had some help building the Ark; he may have contracted some of the men on God’s death list. 'No, no… there isn’t going to be a Flood. I just want to give the wife something to look at while she’s washing dishes.' "
How did the koala get to Australia?
"In 2002, seven women were ordained priests. Wasn’t that great, especially since the Church has a problem recruiting young men to the priesthood? So what was the Pope’s response to these people who wanted to serve God? He threw up his hands in horror at the fact that the seven had the spiritual, but not the physical, balls to be priests and excommunicated them."
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