On today's Meet The Press, Joe Biden has come down to defining life itself as a religious definition, not a legal, moral, or scientific one.
SEN. BIDEN: I'd say, "Look, I know when it begins for me." It's a personal and private issue. For me, as a Roman Catholic, I'm prepared to accept the teachings of my church. But let me tell you. There are an awful lot of people of great confessional faiths--Protestants, Jews, Muslims and others--who have a different view. They believe in God as strongly as I do. They're intensely as religious as I am religious. They believe in their faith and they believe in human life, and they have differing views as to when life--I'm prepared as a matter of faith to accept that life begins at the moment of conception. But that is my judgment. For me to impose that judgment on everyone else who is equally and maybe even more devout than I am seems to me is inappropriate in a pluralistic society. And I know you get the push back, "Well, what about fascism?" Everybody, you know, you going to say fascism's all right? Fascism isn't a matter of faith. No decent religious person thinks fascism is a good idea.
MR. BROKAW: But if you, you believe that life begins at conception, and you've also voted for abortion rights...
SEN. BIDEN: No, what a voted against curtailing the right, criminalizing abortion. I voted against telling everyone else in the country that they have to accept my religiously based view that it's a moment of conception. There is a debate in our church, as Cardinal Egan would acknowledge, that's existed. Back in "Summa Theologia," when Thomas Aquinas wrote "Summa Theologia," he said there was no--it didn't occur until quickening, 40 days after conception. How am I going out and tell you, if you or anyone else that you must insist upon my view that is based on a matter of faith? And that's the reason I haven't. But then again, I also don't support a lot of other things. I don't support public, public funding. I don't, because that flips the burden. That's then telling me I have to accept a different view. This is a matter between a person's God, however they believe in God, their doctor and themselves in what is always a--and what we're going to be spending our time doing is making sure that we reduce considerably the amount of abortions that take place by providing the care, the assistance and the encouragement for people to be able to carry to term and to raise their children.
This logic becomes rather scary. Much of our own moral code has been codified into our legal system. Anyone who says we can't legislate morality fails to mention that historically, we already have. Granted, we can't MAKE someone moral, that's why we have prisons. But we can legislate what we believe a moral life is to be.
We've legislated several parts of that moral code in our laws against things like stealing and murder. "Thou shall not steal" has been codified into laws defining misdemeanor and felony types of theft. "Thou shall not kill" has also been codified into our murder laws. What if our definition of life drifts further from the traditions we've hold now? What if something strange eventually occurs, that anyone 30 and over really isn't alive? Do we recreate Logan's Run? Crazy, maybe, but look at our current devaluing of senior citizens lives when decisions are being made that lean towards euthanasia.
Joe Biden attempts to split his own personality. He says he can't stand behind his own belief system when it comes to making laws. Granted, we seem to have plenty like him in office, who have such a split personality. If they should ever say, in the future, that they believe in something to the core of their being, should we believe them? Should we allow them to vote then, if they use the core of their being to guide their vote on something else?
Sad. Sorry to see that the people of Deleware, who elected Joe Biden, didn't get all of him. He left some of himself in his church pew.
-Colonel Steve
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