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March for Life (Washington, D.C.) |
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 |
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 |
"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 |
“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 |
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 |
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(born August 7, 1950) is an American conservative political activist, author, former diplomat, and perennial candidate for public office.
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Cal Thomas |
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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