The Life Worth Living

His Name is Jesus

The late Richard John Neuhaus:

"The culture of death goes all the way back to that fateful afternoon when Cain struck down his brother Abel, and the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” And Cain answered, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” And the Lord said to Cain, “The voice of your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground.” The voice of the blood of brothers and sisters beyond numbering cry out from the slave ships and battlegrounds and concentration camps and torture chambers of the past and the present. The voice of the blood of the innocents cries out from the abortuaries and sophisticated biotech laboratories of this beloved country today. Contending for the culture of life has been a very long journey, and there are still miles and miles to go.

The culture of death is an idea before it is a deed. I expect many of us here, perhaps most of us here, can remember when we were first encountered by the idea. For me, it was in the 1960s when I was pastor of a very poor, very black, inner city parish in Brooklyn, New York. I had read that week an article by Ashley Montagu of Princeton University on what he called “A Life Worth Living.” He listed the qualifications for a life worth living: good health, a stable family, economic security, educational opportunity, the prospect of a satisfying career to realize the fullness of one’s potential. These were among the measures of what was called "a life worth living."

And I remember vividly, as though it were yesterday, looking out the next Sunday morning at the congregation of St. John the Evangelist and seeing all those older faces creased by hardship endured and injustice afflicted, and yet radiating hope undimmed and love unconquered. And I saw that day the younger faces of children deprived of most, if not all, of those qualifications on Prof. Montagu’s list. And it struck me then, like a bolt of lightning, a bolt of lightning that illuminated our moral and cultural moment, that Prof. Montagu and those of like mind believed that the people of St. John the Evangelist—people whom I knew and had come to love as people of faith and kindness and endurance and, by the grace of God, hope unvanquished—it struck me then that, by the criteria of the privileged and enlightened, none of these my people had a life worth living.

In that moment, I knew that a great evil was afoot. The culture of death is an idea before it is a deed.".......

"We're treating Terri Schiavo in far worse fashion than prisoners in the war on terror would be permitted to be treated. The pro-Democrat media stands for ending the life of a human being who needs only a feeding tube to survive. And they get away. -- they get away with calling themselves, they get away with being called, the party of human and civil rights."--Rush

Terri transcending the Culture of Death (canadafreepress.com): "When I kiss her hello or goodbye, she looks at me and "puckers up" her lips. This may not seem like much to you, but it means everything to Terri's mother and me. It tells us she is still there, she still knows us."

16 Years After They Starved My Sister to Death, We Must Never Forget Terri Schiavo - LifeNews.com:

"Each year on March 31, I remember my sister, Terri Schiavo, who died an inhumane death when her feeding tube was removed. Terri was slowly starved to death over a two-week period. This was a brutal death no family – particularly parents – should ever have to witness. As the world watched, Rush Limbaugh said the moment Terri died 16 years ago was “the day our country hit rock bottom.” Terri was cognitively disabled and had difficulty swallowing so she needed a feeding tube to administer her food and water. Terri was not sustained by “life support,” nor was she sick or dying. Nonetheless, she received a death sentence ordered by Circuit Court Judge George W. Greer of Pinellas County, Florida, at the request of her estranged husband."

Monsters.

Rush Limbaugh, Defender of Life ~ The Imaginative Conservative: "Although it was 16 years ago, I remember it vividly. I was driving down I-270 in Maryland toward Washington, DC, listening to Rush Limbaugh on the radio. This was unusual for me, because my work didn’t allow me to be driving very often during his noon–3 PM time slot. At this time the Terri Schiavo tragedy was playing out, with what seemed like the whole country following the sad story of this young woman slowly being killed by her husband and the medical establishment, with the media cheering them on.

Rush, however, was having none of it. After first giving an airtight argument for the protection of Schiavo, he launched into a passionate defense of all life, especially the life of those most vulnerable. Rush’s case for life went far beyond the standard fare political conservative argument; it was something reminiscent of Pope John Paul II or Mother Teresa.

I don’t remember his exact words anymore, but I do remember thinking at the time that it was the most eloquent defense of life I had ever heard. At this time I had been deeply involved in pro-life work for more than a decade, so I had heard many great pro-life speeches, but none were as good as Rush’s off-the-cuff radio remarks.

I also remember realizing that at the same time Rush was fighting for Terri Schiavo, the poor woman’s own bishop refused to defend her. It was quite the dichotomy: at the time Rush was a thrice-married divorcé who wasn’t outwardly religious in any formal sense, yet he seemed better able to grasp and express the dignity of all human life than a Catholic bishop. 

When he went to meet his Maker, I’m sure that Terri Schiavo made her way to Rush’s side and said to our Lord, “Have mercy on him, Lord, for he defended my life when even your shepherds did not.”

Rest in peace, Rush. We’ll miss you."......

YOU ARE A PART OF GOD'S FAMILY

John 10:10  The Message Bible

6-10 Jesus told this simple story, but they had no idea what he was talking about. So he tried again. “I’ll be explicit, then. I am the Gate for the sheep. All those others are up to no good—sheep rustlers, every one of them. But the sheep didn’t listen to them. I am the Gate. Anyone who goes through me will be cared for—will freely go in and out, and find pasture. A thief is only there to steal and kill and destroy. I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.