A Profile Case Againts Bush
Callahan, Sidney
A PROLIFE CASE AGAINST BUSH It's about more than abortion Sidney Callahan I voted for George W. Bush and I'm heartily sorry now. My support was motivated by prolife convictions, but so is...
...The president does not seem to recognize that conscience is not divine dictation, or the direct voice of God, but rather God's voice "echoing" in his depths (the Catechism...
...The president signed the partial-birth abortion bill and has set up a bioethics commission, which advises him on the morality of unregulated biotechnical research...
...As for foreign policy, Bush's promises of "humility" were reassuring...
...I am now ready to sign up for a "Prolifers against Bush" campaign...
...At least Kerry, a Catholic veteran and antiwar protester, will be committed to work for a foreign policy of international cooperation aimed at peacemaking...
...Our unilateral act of war against Iraq turned much of the world against us—and with good reason...
...In referring to his conversion from drinking, he has said, "There is only one reason that I am in the Oval Office and not in a bar...
...Bush, too, appears superconfident, now promising to "rid the world of evildoers...
...military might can never by itself make right, nor can it create democracy by force...
...Killing to create peace and coercion in the cause of freedom constitute a policy beset by internal contradictions...
...Then came 9/11...
...Protecting fetal lives is an all-important prolife goal, but every day my local paper runs pictures of young U.S...
...From my ""feminist for life" (prowoman, prolife) perspective I can see that it takes much time for education and moral persuasion to gradually change abortion laws...
...So far my conscience has not deceived me...
...As the president declared in his State of the Union address, "We will do what is necessary, we will spend what is necessary, to achieve this essential victory...
...25.00 hardco',Dove Booksellers 13904 Michigan Ave...
...Billions of dollars are being spent, many lives are being lost, and Americans have tortured Iraqi prisoners...
...tice...
...Moral decisions must be continually informed through dialogue and consultation with others...
...But from the perspective of peace and war, the world can get much worse fast...
...bishops' statement...
...What happened to Bush's avowed humility...
...New tax cuts favor the rich...
...At the same time, domestic troubles mount...
...OK, so maybe Bush has never heard of the "the grace of self-doubt," but surely somewhere in his Yale education he must have encountered the Greek concept of hubris...
...As Jesus says, all those who cry "Lord, Lord" (however sincerely) may not be doing God's work...
...Compassionate conservatism, we now know, is mostly directed toward the wealthy—those who will never need to worry about their health-care insurance, or the size of their Social Security checks...
...He has had more than one Rasputin assuring him that his critics can be dismissed as enemies of the faith...
...In international affairs, U.S...
...Should those with the right stuff listen to weak sisters...
...Worst of all, the millions of antiwar demonstrators around the world were contemptuously pooh-poohed as irrelevant to him...
...Continued on page 18) Commonweal 15 June 4, 2004 (Continued from page 15) In the midst of the wartime crisis, Nicholas calmly assured his prime minister, who was desperately reasoning with him to change course, "Despite most convincing arguments in favor of adopting a positive decision in this matter, an inner voice keeps on insisting more and more that I do not accept responsibility for it...
...But I have become completely alienated by his foreign policy as well as frightened by his moral and religious views...
...Individual conscience can be in error because it is a complex human capacity requiring reason and emotion...
...Nicholas II, the last czar of Russia, comes to mind...
...Has this kind of "war on terrorism" really made us safer...
...Yet I am certainly no Bush hater...
...Disastrous miscalculations and conflict can enkindle violent wildfires...
...military forces quickly engaged in retaliatory warfare...
...Nicholas went on to explain that "a czar's heart is in God's hands...
...Fortunately, there has been some progress on the prolife front...
...I thought of George W. Bush keeping to his charge when reading about Nicholas earlier this year...
...Historians and theologians have traced the development of Christian doctrine, and even offered theories to explain it...
...This leader's stubborn faith in his imperial and providential destiny led to disaster...
...The Catholic vote in 2004 should support the church's imperative call for peacemaking abroad and justice for the poor at home...
...Sacrifices consisting of the lives of other people's children are always easier to endorse...
...THE DIALECTICAL DEVELOPMENT OF DOCTRINE A Methodological Proposal by Charles Dickinson If Christianity—including Christian faith and theology—is to avoid becoming totally out of touch with the world—a museum piece at best, a force of baleful reaction at worst—it must constantly update itself by constant interaction, dialogue, dialectic with all the important intellectual currents, movements, disciplines of today...
...The mounting costs of a disaster can be interpreted by them as a test of courage...
...On the other hand, various observers of the church in the world—perhaps most notoriously Max Weber—have interpreted how Christianity and the world have, for better or for worse, reacted upon one another...
...A PROLIFE CASE AGAINST BUSH It's about more than abortion Sidney Callahan I voted for George W. Bush and I'm heartily sorry now...
...Solving social problems through violent killing is a proabortion strategy, and a preemptive-war policy can be just as lethally prochoice...
...Well, yes, but this does not mean we can slight self-examination and critical testing of his understanding of God's will...
...First-strike attacks are a breach of moral principle and international law...
...Dearborn, MI 4812 (313) 624-9784 dovebook.com...
...I am here because of the power of prayer...
...Yet, for an advocate of a Catholic consistent ethic of life, Bush's prolife credentials seem compromised, if not completely betrayed, by his pursuit of optional war...
...True believers may be more dangerous than those who fake it...
...But, as Friedrich Schleiermacher said, it must open its windows to the world, lest it become irrelevant or even harmful...
...Commonweal 18 June 4, 2004 Pryor Pettengill Ann Arbor, MI 48107 ISBN 0-933462-01 U.S...
...For these measures and his encouraging speeches, Bush is called the "Prolife President" in the movement's literature...
...Another reason to urge an anti-Bush vote by prolife advocates arises from reading the signs of the times...
...Meanwhile, the Democratic Party and John Kerry will remain rigidly and dogmatically proabortion...
...new policies and rationales justified preemptive military action...
...As a man of deep faith, Nicholas was convinced of his own inner moral guidance...
...soldiers killed in Iraq, and who's counting the Iraqi civilian lives destroyed...
...For Catholics, prolife advocacy must include peacemaking and social jusSidney Callahan is a psychologist who has taught moral theology and is the author of In Good Conscience: Reason and Emotion in Moral Decision Making (HarperSanFrancisco...
...But going beyond such works, The Dialectical Development of Doctrine combines the two themes by proposing a necessary two-way dialectic between theology and the world, a dialectic absolutely essential to the healthy growth and development of both our faith and our understanding of the world, as well as of the culture which we continue to create and will bequeath to our children...
...I found God...
...I found faith...
...In the process, it must not lose its soul, or else it becomes useless...
...Hopes for bettering the plight of the poor under Bush II seem blighted...
...He also ignored the admonitions of his own Methodist leaders—along with warnings from Jimmy Carter and senior Republican policy experts...
...How many leaders in history have been brought down by similar gutbased moral certainties...
...My support was motivated by prolife convictions, but so is my present dismay...
...Our present policies, now dubbed the Bush Doctrine, are morally suspect and prudentially disastrous...
...Who could have been nicer than Nicholas II...
...On the question of going to war in Iraq, the president found it easy to brush off the UN, reject the pope's pleas for peace, and dismiss the U.S...
...What good is it to declare oneself a humble sinner and remain so absolutely, supremely certain (or cocky) in one's behavior...
...Humility is, of course, a central Christian virtue, and Bush's seemed to reflect his avowed identification with "Christ—because he changed my heart...
...As casualties and "collateral damage" increase, it can become harder to admit error...
...In this sad dilemma I think the Catholic prolife agenda of peace and social justice for all is best served by a vote for Kerry and the Democrats...
...I find him genial as a person and welcome the good that he has done for the unborn...
...Islamic terrorists have been given renewed impetus for their crusade of hatred against the West...
...Poor children are still left behind...
...In 2004, the Republicans will be a prowar party led by a would-be crusader...
...I opted for Bush in 2000 because I thought he'd try to protect embryonic life in and out of the womb, and also support faith-based social initiatives...
...Bush emphasizes his unique role in God's plan and relies on gut religious intuitions...
...His strong Christian faith apparently has a shadow side...
...Overconfidence in God's direct guidance can be a good man's fatal flaw...
...Inspired by a favorite Methodist hymn, "A Charge to Keep I Have,"—emphasis on the I—Bush seems content to go it alone...
...Yes, terrorism is a real threat that must be countered, and Saddam was a monster, but what was the administration leading us into...
Vol. 131 • June 2004 • No. 11
