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Peace & Life Connections #281
October 9, 2015
The Interfaith Peace Movement
The Parliament of the World’s Religions first met in 1893, and occasionally meets in various parts of the world. This year it’s expecting around 10,000 people in Salt Lake City from October 15-19. Those who’d like to watch any of it live-streamed need to pre-register.
Consistent Life has arranged an exhibit booth – if you’re there, come on by, Booth #872 – and we’ll have a presence in other ways as well.
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Success of Signature Ad
Our ad on the occasion of Pope Francis’s U.S. visit ran in the Philadelphia Inquirer signed by a widely diverse set of member groups – many Catholic Worker communities and other Catholic groups, but also many secular groups and those from other denominations or religions. A pdf of the ad is available on our web page and you can print as many copies as you might find useful.
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Catch on, Comedians – Consistency Should Be Contagious
On The Daily Show (October 5), the segment “Not So Pro-Life After All” has Trevor Noah (taking over Jon Stewart’s role) replaying the beginning of pro-life statements from U.S. Republican officials and ending them in his own voice with “therefore” opposition to gun violence. He had first shown clips of other Republicans being callous about gun violence, so he was making fun of their inconsistency. This is another instance that shows that if pro-lifers were consistent across the board by opposing other kinds of violence, it would make our opposition to abortion far more convincing as well.
But the segment was preceded by abortion-is-a-constitutional right rhetoric that showed astonishing hard-heartedness toward unborn babies. If anyone wanted to use the same technique on Noah that he was using on others, using clips from his performance to show the inconsistency between his principles, it would be easy to do.
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New Endorser: Ray McGovern
We welcome Ray McGovern as an endorser of the Consistent Life mission statement.
CL board member Rachel Peller reports: “Edward Snowden joined fellow whistleblowers Coleen Rowley and Ray McGovern for a public lecture in Iowa City, IA. They spoke to a packed room about the ways in which the US rushed into war after 9/11. Rather than exploring the rationale for the attacks and solving problems at their root, government officials exploited public fear and used violence as a solution. Valuable, life-saving information was ignored in favor of glory, power, and a tantalizing legacy. They argued that the same tactics are used on US soil, both in regards to police brutality and unnecessary surveillance.”
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Comment on California’s Assisted Suicide Bill
Charles Camosy, a Board member of CL member group Democrats for Life of America, has an op-ed in the Los Angeles Timesabout how the new legislation just signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown is a betrayal of progressive principles: “We've created a culture that worships freedom, autonomy and productivity, and pushes those who don't fit that picture to the margins. Is it any wonder that poll data show that the poor and blacks and Latinos, along with virtually every disability rights group, are skeptical of assisted suicide?”
[In response to Bill Nye “the Science Guy” stating "your interpretation of a book written 5,000 years ago, 50 centuries ago, makes you think that when a man and a woman have sexual intercourse they always have a baby."]
It’s one thing for somebody to live such a politically sheltered life that he isn’t aware of groups like Secular Pro-Life, but does anyone think it’s plausible that Nye sincerely doesn’t know that millions of people’s motivation for opposing the violence of abortion is no more Bible-based than their opposition to war or child abuse or capital punishment?