Words Like Locusts Flew From Her Fingers

“Sanctity of Life”

USNews.com: Life and death politics: The Schiavo case is just the latest case in a much nastier war (4/4/05): “‘For many evangelicals and Roman Catholics, the religious right’s two big constituencies, Schiavo is ‘a powerful symbol for what’s wrong with this country,’ says University of Akron political science Prof. John Green, ‘which is that it doesn’t respect life.’”

I absolutely agree with anyone who says there’s not enough respect for life in this country. Here’s what pisses me off, though: What almost everyone means when they say that is there’s not enough respect for human life.

When I think of how blithely our culture sanctions the monstrous slaughter of millions of creatures — all of whom have far greater conscious mental capacity than Terri Schiavo — well, it makes me want to cry. Cows, pigs, lambs and chickens all have more on the ball than Terri Schiavo. Yet, who looks out for them? Millions of them live and die every year under conditions far worse than what Terri Schiavo’s lived with and with far more awareness of their surroundings.

Have you ever noticed that in the earliest creation stories in the Bible, God says, “I now give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the entire earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.” He doesn’t talk about cows and pigs and chickens, does He? Only after Adam and Eve have been booted out of The Garden do people start killing animals and eating them. You’d think more Bible-believers would give that idea some serious thought.

Whatever. The next time someone tries to tell me all about the “sanctity of life” while munching on their hamburger or chicken nuggets, I suspect I’ll have to leave the room to keep myself from slapping them.