In one simple quote, Sister Joan Chittister, O.S.B. sums up the hypocrisy of some in the 'pro-life' movement:
"I do not believe that just because you're opposed to abortion, that that makes you pro-life. In fact, I think in many cases, your morality is deeply lacking if all you want is a child born but not a child fed, not a child educated, not a child housed. And why would I think that you don't? Because you don't want any tax money to go there. That's not pro-life. That's pro-birth. We need a much broader conversation on what the morality of pro-life is."This arrogant morally self-superior ignorant woman just stepped on one of my pet peeves. [I do know good religious sisters, like one of my late paternal aunts, and I knew several good ones from my first alma mater, although some of them were unduly influenced by the emerging social justice/feminism cause.] Let me be clear: capitalism and the market economy has brought more people out of poverty than any other institution or ideology in human history. Whereas the Catholic Church has itself provided a lot of support through its mission work through schools and hospitals, its missions have been financed and traditionally staffed by volunteers, not at the point of a gun, i.e., government.
Unlike the Master, Sister Joan judges and smears those in the pro-life movement. She doesn't know us. The idea that our sense of ethics is limited to the duration of pregnancies is absurd. A large percentage of pro-lifers would adopt preborn children from other couples in a heart beat--that means 18 years or more of raising and caring for a child, which comes at a significant personal sacrifice. A number of them also participate in charities, do volunteer work, and/or give significant resources. As the Chronicle of Philanthropy points out, "In Who Really Cares, Arthur C. Brooks finds that religious conservatives are far more charitable than secular liberals, and that those who support the idea that government should redistribute income are among the least likely to dig into their own wallets to help others."
Those of us who are conservative or libertarian or fusionists (like me) accept a limited role for government--for the intrinsic rights to life, liberty, and property. Sister Joan strays into the advocacy of what we call "positive rights", i.e., politically-derived "rights", and has no problem with picking the other guy's pocket to pay for the expenses of an entitled class, even if such payments can result in a dependency on the confiscated wealth of others, a vile form of moral corruption.
Jesus went out of His way to separate His spiritual mission from a political one; it's all over Scripture: when a crowd of people sought to make Him king, His paying the temple tax, His rebuke of Peter for drawing his sword, and His response to Pilate, among other things. Jesus never discussed the libertine ethics of Romans, the unjustices under Roman rule. The Greatest Commandment is not secular humanism, but unconditional love to God. Acts of charity are a means of praying to God, by seeing the likeness of God in others.
Sister Joan continues to engage in a knowing smear of the likes of Adam Smith and Herbert Spencer, although both of them wrote major books on morality, not this stereotypical social Darwinism. Just because you don't believe in trickle-down "charity" at the point of a gun doesn't mean you oppose private-sector charities; in fact, you might embrace them. Government institutions include paid bureaucrats and pervasives rules and regulations that discourage efficiency, innovation and charitable efforts. In the case of "healthcare reform" we see attempts to get religious-affiliated institutions to back off Church moral doctrine.
No, Sister Joan, Jesus did not teach us to politically agitate against the State to steal other people's wealth to spend on itself and others. He taught us to be individually responsible in our dealings with others. He taught us not to judge the meager offerings of others, like the widow who gave all that she hade. No, the Daily Kos gives Sister Joan high fives for making morally conservatives out to be hypocrites. In fact, where does Sister Joan criticize "progressive" politicians like Biden who gave merely a trickle of his earnings to charity until he became VP? Biden was saying he was doing his part by helping the government steal more from the pockets of others--but when it came to his personal commitments, which Jesus actually taught about, it was pennies on the dollar.
Although the abomination of the murder of millions of preborn babies is a huge issue with us pro-lifers, it's hardly the only one; we discuss euthanasia and other issues. I often feature pro-life stories about kids born with handicaps or serious health issues, adoption, etc. When it comes to humanitarian causes, I fight for things like free trade and liberalized immigration and against meddling in the internal affairs of other countries. But stop the smear that if you oppose the government's counterproductive social welfare policies--which have created a permanent underclass of dehumanizing government dependency versus virtuous self-reliance, you are against the private sector's more efficient, effective products and services. I have control over my money; I have no voice over what the government does with my money after they steal it.
