Here is an excellent rundown of the ways in which the Bush/Religious Right coalition violate the “Culture of Life” and promote “The Culture of Death”. Do tens of thousands of Iraqis and their surviving family members and friends see the United States a “Culture of Life”? I am sick and tired of the utter blindness and the justifications of the “morals” of this President, who would NOT meet with religious leaders from his own denomination, or with an ecumenical peace group proposing some specific steps to achieve the same “goals” (which seem not to have been the REAL goal) without resorting to war.

One life to save, many to squander

In March 2003, to cite the most dramatic example, Pope John Paul II sent President Bush a letter on the eve of the Iraq invasion. “I ask the Lord to inspire you to search for the ways of a stable peace, the noblest of endeavors,” the pope wrote. At the same time, President Bush declined to meet with a delegation of religious leaders, including those from the United Methodist Church, of which he is a member. Some hoped to persuade the president, as an alternative to invasion, to adopt of a policy of mandatory weapons inspections — using force to conduct them if necessary — and to indict Saddam Hussein on war crimes charges.

Through spokesman Ari Fleischer, President Bush insisted that he was the one holding the moral high ground. “The president thinks the most immoral act of all would be if Saddam Hussein were to somehow transfer his weapons to terrorists who could use them against us.”

The pope and those religious leaders were counseling President Bush to act in accord with the culture of life. Not only was his rejection of that advice morally questionable, we now know that those who begged him to follow the culture of life actually were giving him better military advice than his own defense secretary.

The president’s narrow view of the culture of life continues. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops last week announced renewed efforts to end the death penalty. How will President Bush, who presided over 152 executions as governor of Texas, and congressional leaders receive them? What will be the response of Gov. Bush, who tried in 2000 to limit death-penalty appeals, and the Florida Legislature?

There is more. “Torments inflicted on body or mind,” are part of the culture of death that Pope John Paul II warned against. Appointing an attorney general who wrote memos facilitating torture doesn’t fit into the culture of life. The culture of life, the pope explained, also is not compatible with arbitrary imprisonment and deportation to countries that will inflict torture.

The pope also instructs the politically powerful to promote “greater opportunities and a fairer distribution of wealth so everyone can share equitably in the goods of creation. Solutions must be sought on the global level by establishing a true economy of communion and sharing of goods, in both the national and international order.” Tax cuts for the wealthiest and policies that drive manufacturing to the lowest-wage countries clash with that directive. So, for that matter, do policies that extract maximum corporate profit with insufficient regard for the environmental impact or the welfare of employees. Balance a frantic effort to reinsert Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube with a relentless willingness to prolong the time people will breathe dirtier air or cope with contaminated water and soil. Compare the urgency of bringing Terri Schiavo’s case to the forefront with the Legislature’s indifference to pesticide contamination that endangers Florida’s farmworkers and could be responsible for birth defects in their children.

The culture of life is inclusive and broad. The Rovian version championed by President Bush, Gov. Bush and congressional leaders exploits a handful of divisive issues for the political and personal gain of a few. Easter is the perfect time for a more genuine version of the culture of life to be reborn.

Read the whole thing. (I couldn’t find a place to ‘edit’ in this extended piece above becuase it is all so relevant to this case.