Abortion: Moral Absolutism and Hypocrites

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Is Abortion Wrong?

One of the most cherished beliefs of conservatives is that morals are absolute. If an act such as abortion is wrong, they believe, it is wrong for all time; there are no exceptions. Usually, this absolutism arises from the belief that the law of God cannot be broken under any circumstances.

Yet, not even the Bible considers an act to be wrong in and of itself -- the scriptures are loaded with exceptions and qualifications to the law. To those who believe that the only exceptions to the law should be those that the Judeo-Christian God gives us, then there are three places to find those exceptions: the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the writings of Christian leaders in the 2,000 years since. Unfortunately, there are profound problems with using any of these three sources to qualify the law -- all three condoned slavery, for example. Therefore these are not reliable guides for establishing moral absolutes.

It is very enlightening to read an encyclical written by Pope John Paul II, entitled Veritatis Splendor ("The Splendor of Truth.") In it, the pope wrote that the morality of an act has nothing to do with its result, its social context, its circumstance, its intent, or the process by which a person's conscience comes to his decision. The act is simply right or wrong, in and of itself, and it will always be that way, no matter what the surrounding considerations. Furthermore, the rightness or wrongness of an act is revealed to us by God, through the highest authorities of the church. They cannot be questioned. Humans are not supposed to wrestle with moral dilemmas, but to apply these revealed truths to every situation and problem in life.

The most obvious result of putting this belief into...

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...ieve that the best way to help the poor is to do the opposite: redistribute what little wealth they have upward, by slashing taxes on the rich and cutting federal aid for the poor.

We should not be surprised that any philosophy that preaches moral absolutism is destined to have lots of hypocrites.

Works Cited

Human Life International (Online)

Encarta Encyclopedia (Online)

"Social and Ethical Issues"

Planned Parenthood (Online)

Facts on File (Online)

World News Digest "Key Issue: Abortion"

Johnson, Douglas. "Comforting Myths About Abortion."

http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/pba/wallstreet051401.html

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