29 November, 2005<\/p>\n
\u00a0I read your essay on stem cell research in the Wilmington Journal<\/i> today.\u00a0 I was happy to see that your vote was consistent with the religious proposition that innocent human life is worthy of protection; I was sorry to read, however, that you would make your vote dependent upon the people\u2019s will.\u00a0 Do you really think that justice ought to be subordinated to the people\u2019s opinion?<\/p>\n
As to the factual matters of this issue, I submit that you have confused items of religion with those of biology.\u00a0\u00a0 The value of human life is, indeed, a matter of religion.\u00a0 We Christians affirm the rights and privileges of human beings over against animals because we believe in the sanctity of human life, created in the image of God (that ancient imago Dei<\/i> doctrine).\u00a0\u00a0 We therefore eat plants and animals for our own pleasure and nourishment; moreover, we experiment on them even to their destruction so that we may improve our own health and wellbeing.\u00a0 This is a matter of religion which informs the foundation of our culture and western civilization. This fact you overlooked or chose not to acknowledge.<\/p>\n
The matter of biology on which you, like the federal courts over the past three decades, explicitly erred has to do with the beginning of each human life.\u00a0 Human life, like all mammalian life, begins at conception.\u00a0 This fact has been brought into ever-increasing clarity this past century by the use of powerful microscopes and extensive developments in the study of genes and DNA.\u00a0 Unfortunately, moral awareness has developed inversely with biological knowledge, so that even as we can observe a child in the womb with a beating heart at eight weeks, we butcher him partial-birth style nine months later as he nears his time to see the sun.<\/p>\n
To say, as you do, that \u201cMany Ohioans believe that human life begins at conception\u201d is a little like saying, \u201cMany Ohioans believe that Ohio State often has a good football team.\u201d\u00a0 What many Ohioans believe has nothing to do with the existence of a fact.<\/p>\n
There are, of course, those who recognize the biological facts, but whose religion or world view permits them to candidly advocate the destruction of innocent human life.\u00a0\u00a0 Take, for instance, the Nobel laureate and co-discoverer of the DNA helix, one Francis Crick.\u00a0 This gent believes that human beings ought not to be declared such until the third day after birth after they have been thoroughly examined for good health.\u00a0 Upon discovery of a clean bill of health for an eligible infant, the newborn can be declared human.\u00a0 Of course, this policy recommendation is not born from anything to do with science; rather, it proceeds from Dr. Crick\u2019s neo-pagan religion.\u00a0 Our Nobel Prize winner, for example, holds to a religious viewpoint concerning origins which postulates that life on planet earth came from aliens.<\/p>\n
Dr. Crick may have become somewhat of a fool even as the Good Book warns concerning those who persist in rejecting Him (Romans 1:21, 22).\u00a0 But his foolishness does not directly affect citizens as does that of a civil ruler.\u00a0\u00a0 You are charged by God\u2019s word to do justice (Romans 13).\u00a0 And how shall you know what justice is apart from His Law?<\/p>\n
Affirm the sanctity of human life as that which is created in His image and legislate accordingly.\u00a0 When research engages in the intentional destruction of human beings, it is wrong.\u00a0 That truth, not the people\u2019s opinions, is the proper ground for your position on the issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
29 November, 2005 \u00a0I read your essay on stem cell research in the Wilmington Journal today.\u00a0 I was happy to see that your vote was consistent with the religious proposition that innocent human life is worthy of protection; I was sorry to read, however, that you would make your vote dependent upon the people\u2019s will.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wilmington-ohio-news-journal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1200"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1200\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1201,"href":"https:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1200\/revisions\/1201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}