#117 bogie wheel: “quashing the views of religious conservatives is a highly effective means of increasing the influence and political power of the left, especially those with totalitarian tendencies….” After reading many of the posts on this thread, I can easily conclude that the far right is equally oriented towards absolute political power. I fully support freedom of speech, but some of the threats being made by absolutists on this thread are real, real scary.
“religious right is not the biggest threat to your freedom today…” As one who tracks the writings & speeches of the likes of James Dobson, Gary Bauer, Donald Wildmon, Franklin Graham and others of that nature, I beg to differ. I have a much larger fear of the religious right gaining power in this country than I do the far left. After all, won’t Rush protect us from the left?
#161 Righwinghippiechick: “it’s better to figure out why women don’t want kids anymore (or can’t afford them) and change the actual problems…..” Of course, that assumes that the private lives of women who don’t want kids becomes your business, or the business of the many anti-abortion men posting on this thread.
See what Vivo says in #162. How do you deal with religions who strongly oppose contraception of any kind except “abstinence.” Do those persons just give up sex? Some of the “problems” you discuss involve poverty, lack of education, lack of appropriate sex education in the schools, job training programs for poor women, etc. In other words, we’re talking welfare programs here, which many on the right don’t like (tea parties come to mind here). Sort of reminds me of another generalization about some “pro-lifers:” life is sacred only between conception and birth.
“women who don’t want kids will always resent them and those unloved, neglected kids…….” A bit of a generalization, but one that makes some sense. Women can’t be forced to bear children, altho some on this thread would have it that way. Recall what happened in Romania under communism, where abortion was banned as it interfered with creation of new workers.
I have to wonder how many of the anti-abortion posters on this site have adopted unwanted children (great kudos to those who have practiced what they preach). How many “pro-lifers” support church & secular programs oriented towards taking care of unwanted kids? Any of you guys involved in Big Brothers or Big Sisters programs? Do any of you guys support battered womens’ shelters? How do you guys feel about adequate sex education in schools, or the Catholic Church’s position on contraception.
Moral of the story: how many of you anti-abortion posters are really walking the walk today? And I don’t mean making threats against those you disagree with?
