ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, April 3, 1996 TAG: 9604030002
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A10 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: LETTER
CAL THOMAS' columns of March 13 (```Right' to die is first step to euthanasia'') and March 27 (``To respect life, society must kill those who take it'') left me confused.
First, he makes a case against allowing doctor-assisted suicide, saying it contributes to a dangerous ``culture of death'' started by legalized abortion. Then, he makes a case for the death penalty, claiming it ``establishes a high standard for human life.''
Against abortion and doctor-assisted suicide, Thomas argues that once society sanctions a way to kill people, the darker side of human nature will gradually expand it to dangerous proportions. The desire to save public money becomes a rationale for the expansion.
But this argument can be applied to state executions as well. We all know there are political factions working to extend the death penalty to crimes other than murder. Next to deterrence, saving public money is the principal justification.
Who can we trust to decide when it's OK to kill a defenseless person? In sharp contrast to his apparent distrust of the medical profession, Thomas places an almost religious faith in the justice system. I'm afraid that anyone who views the justice system the way he views the medical profession isn't going to see executions as a life-affirming statement by society. ANDREW AKERS SALEM
No compromise on church's teachings
WHEN YOU quote Monica Appleby in your March 12 article ("Can faith affirm right to abortion?'') as saying the Catholic church has "consistently taught that individual conscience is primary ... the ultimate arbiter of decision making," you correctly state the church's position. What is problematic and misleading, however, is what remains unstated.
If a person makes a decision in conscience that deliberately and objectively rejects a central teaching or belief of the church, that person has an obligation in conscience, arising from a sense of fairness and honesty, to find a setting for worship more in keeping with where his or her conscience has led him or her.
Our faith teaches that abortion is an absolute wrong because it takes the life of a human being. There are really two teachings at stake, each of which is highly important, particularly insofar as they involve the sacredness of human life. One is that the life of the new person begins at the time of fertilization; the second is that we don't have the right to take human life, self-defense being the exception.
If a Catholic rejects the time of fertilization as the beginning of a person, he or she rejects the consistent teaching of the church since our beginnings. If a Catholic believes that a parent has the right to decide to end the life of that person in the womb, he or she has rejected the Fifth Commandment and the teaching of Christ. Our defense of the unborn is consistent with our special concern for the poor and voiceless.
The press has a sacred role in our democracy. To avoid confusing your readers, Catholic readers in particular, you need to, in fairness and good conscience, tell the whole story. J. MORTON BIBER Pastor Saint Patricks Catholic Church LEXINGTON
Gays deserve freedom of choice
REGARDING the March 3 article (``Gays launch TV-ad war'') about Pat Robertson and his anti-gay sermons:
What gives him the right? Can we tell them whom to love, spend their lives with, feel their love, their pain?
Too many people and their beliefs are discrimated against. If we could feel their love or pain, maybe we could be a little more supportive instead of judgmental.
In other words: Mind your own business. Let our children and others decide their own destiny.
I'm sure if many of you looked at your own life, you could find some faults to spend time correcting. BONNIE H. CHATTIN SALEM
View insulted abortion foes
I WAS disturbed by your March 4 editorial (``Expect more lives to be lost''), not only because of the views expressed, but also because of your apparent misunderstanding of the pro-life movement's basic philosophy.
Do you understand why millions of people oppose abortion? We believe every abortion causes the death of the child who is aborted. Why are you so sure that we're wrong?
Yet your editorial urges Congress to preserve abortion and funding for abortions to ``save lives.'' That's an insult to every person who believes that millions of lives have been lost to abortion. It also shows that you don't understand what motivates the opponents of abortion or their arguments. PAUL ROBERTSON BLACKSBURG
Make it the end of a sorry story
REGARDING your March 4 news article, ``For ex-inmate, life changed inside and out'':
Those of us who were victims of Cheryl Benson Perry's manipulation, as well as those poor elderly customers who entrusted their life savings to her safekeeping at Charter Federal, would like to think that this story belongs in the archives at The Roanoke Times after nearly six years - not on the front page, again! This isn't news - it's history!
If indeed the human-interest feature was necessary, and if indeed she's sorry for her actions, it seems to me that this would have been the perfect opportunity for Perry to apologize to all the customers, fellow employees, former friends and family members she hurt so badly. She failed to mention, when speaking so sentimentally about the ``traditional family celebration'' last Christmas, that the celebration didn't include her mother and father, with whom she has had no contact for nearly five years.
I hope this is the last of the Perry story. Enough is enough! SARAH ROBERTS ROANOKE
Evolution is not real science
IN YOUR March 14 editorial, ``Teach kids real science,'' you encourage acceptance of evolution as if it were fact.
Your use of ridicule, fear tactics and name-calling really doesn't fit in an appeal to logic and truth, foundations of scientific endeavor. Both models - evolution and creation - deal with the same physical data to arrive at different conclusions, but you label one a sham.
Perhaps you can answer some pertinent questions that cast doubt on evolution.
* In 150 years of searching and identifying 250,000 different fossil species, why is there a complete absence of transitional forms? Evolution says they should be there; creation says no. Which theory is supported by the findings?
* Using the uranium-lead dating process, igneous rocks known to be only a few hundred years old, are assigned ages of 100 million years. Would this cast doubt on the accuracy of such a process?
* The Earth's population is about 5 billion. Using a growth rate of one-half percent per year, man's appearance is calculated as 4,300 years ago, consistent with the great flood. If man has been around for more than 1 million years, the population would be 10 to the 2000th power. That's more than the number of electrons in the universe. Which model sounds believable?
If you want to teach kids real science, teach evolution as no more than a weak hypothesis. LARRY NECESSARY DALEVILLE
Visitors enjoyed Southern hospitality
OUR ILLINOIS Wesleyan basketball team and close to 1,000 of our fans spent two weekends recently in the Roanoke Valley playing in the National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament. We didn't win the championship, but we certainly received championship-level hospitality from people at Roanoke College, the Salem Civic Center and the community.
We will always remember the friendly treatment, and hope to return soon for another visit. DENNIE BRIDGES Athletic director, basketball coach Illinois Wesleyan University BLOOMINGTON, ILL.
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