Tag: Pro-Life

St. Thomas Aquinas: Pro-Choice?

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A friend of mine recently referred to the book “Good Church, Bad Church” by Tom Kane, a former Catholic priest. I read the synopsis on Amazon and read the extract on the author’s website.  In the extract, a couple came to Kane while he was still a Catholic priest and he counseled them to have an abortion, calling upon St. Thomas Aquinas as justification:

“The great Catholic theologian, Saint Thomas Aquinas, whose theological reasoning is the foundation of Catholic morality, said that a fetus does not contain a soul until several months because there is not enough development yet to hold a soul, so the fetus, Thomas says, is not a person,” I said. “Yet the Vatican and the Vaticans of Protestantism would sacrifice an endless number of lives for a miniscule embryo that resembles an amoeba.”

“But the fetus has life,” he said.

“Yes, but what kind of life? Plant life? Animal life?” I said. “A fetus has a very primitive form of life—not yet a human life.”

AquinasInTheLouvre

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March For Life Discussion: Live and let live

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Today I’m continuing my series of posts in response to the Facebook discussion a couple of weeks ago concerning the March For Life.

In my previous entry I briefly looked at what I think can be done to raise the standard of dialog between pro-life and pro-choice advocates. I would now like to start looking at some of the particular issues which were raised during the exchange. Today I would like to focus upon the opening comment from a former schoolmate:

“I kinda just wish people would stop telling other people how to live their lives….I’m pro-CHOICE, not pro-telling-people-what-to-do….”

As a pro-lifer, you hear sentiments similar to the one expressed above with considerable regularity and, on the surface, such a position seems extremely commendable. In fact, it is one of the sacrosanct secular doctrines in contemporary culture.

Live and let live

I think that respecting other people’s opinion is a good thing, I do. I mean, nobody likes to be told what to do, right? However, there are some immediate problems here. For a start, the statement self-refuting. As soon as you tell someone that they should mind their own business, you’re attempting, at least in some measure, to impose your own will on another person. That means you’re breaking your own rule and not minding your own business!

In the remainder of this post I would like to look at whether the live-and-let-live ideal is consistently applied…

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March For Life Discussion: Better Communication

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As I previously mentioned, over the next few days I’m going to be publishing some posts in response to a discussion which took place on my Facebook wall while I was at the March For Life in Washington DC.

pro-life-vs-pro-choice

Some of my friends had reacted negatively to the fact that I was at the March, while others defended my presence at the demonstration, as well as the pro-life position in general.

As I sat in Ronald Reagan Airport at 1am, catching up on this Facebook thread, it was clear that there had been a certain amount of miscommunication between my friends. Now, I think a certain amount of miscommunication is somewhat inevitable, but I would suggest that we can be proactive in ensuring the discussion is productive. This is the subject that I’d like to address in this post.

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March For Life Discussion: Introduction

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As my friends (and Twitter followers!) will know, I was in Washington DC last week for the March For Life. While I was there, I posted the following meme on this blog:

Screen Shot 2014-01-22 at 9.29.28 PM

The blog entry in which the picture was posted was shared on Facebook and received a certain amount of negative feedback from some of my friends. A lively discussion ensued. Since I had quite a full itinerary while on the East Coast, I didn’t really have much time to monitor the conversation thread over the course of the week.

My final night in Washington DC concluded with an Audrey Assad concert and a night of swing dancing, after which my mate John dropped me off at Reagan Airport to catch my 6:30am flight home. Now with some time on my hands, I was able to review the Facebook discussion thread…

Coming a little late to the party, it was clear that some tempers were already frayed. Although I offered a few comments on the thread, I decided that it would be good to sit down and write a series of blog posts, addressing some of the features of the discussion and some of the issues which were raised.

I’ll be posting these posts over the next few days…

Pro-Life March and Christian Unity

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Today is the March For Life in Washington DC. This past Sunday, my priest noted the providential intersection between this event and the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity which began last week.

Although it can sometimes be a source of conflict, protection of the unborn and the pro-life cause is really an issue which can unite Christians of all denominations together, as well as with people of good will…

Catholics and Protestants

Addressing the reasons for abortion

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As the 40th anniversary of “Roe v Wade” draws to a close, I thought I’d post another video from Trent Horn‘s recent segment on Catholic Answers radio where pro-choice callers were invited to call in with their questions.

I would really recommend that you watch it as it’s apologetics at its best – clear, logical and cordial. If you do watch it, please watch it right until the end as the final comment is simply  priceless.

(It’s also worth watching because at 6:20 Patrick, in true Canadian style,
uses the phrase “couldn’t care less”)

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