Curated topics for a disillusioned church
Resources to learn about the consistent life ethic, also known as the whole life ethic or the seamless garmet.
What links abortion and euthanasia? War and poverty? The death penalty and embryonic research? Racism and environmental damage? Violence. Specifically violence against human beings. Through a collection of excerpts from books, journals, articles, and speeches Consistently Opposing Killing focuses on the key tenets of the consistent life ethic (CLE), details some of the history of the movement, and provides a way to talk about the CLE with others.
If you asked a random person who identified as a Christian what a Christian ethic of life is or what the basic tenants of a consistent ethic of life are they would likely focus on abortion for the first question and not be able to answer the second question. Author Rob Arner, in Consistently Pro-Life: The Ethics of Bloodshed in Ancient Christianity, hypothesizes that, in general, modern Christians' approach towards the ethic of life has been "sloppy, ad hoc, and piecemeal at best" and that the ancient church has a blueprint for how to approach the ethic of life in modern times.
The vast majority of humanity tolerate some form of violence towards their fellow human beings. We are pro-abortion, but anti-death penalty or pro-war, but anti-euthanasia. There is a distinct lack of consistency in our value of life. In Rehumanzie Aimee Murphy does a marvelous job of explaining the values and origins of the consistent life ethic (CLE) while showing the interconnectedness of issues associated with life. For example, the amount of money America spends on the military directly affects how much we contribute to fight poverty. Another example is the same drugs that are used in abortions are used in euthanasia.
What would the world look like if Christians, and non-Christians, lived a life focused on a culture of hospitality and encounter? What if we rejected the pervasive consumerist culture that sees humans, especially the poor and the vulnerable, as commodities to be used? Professor of Medical Humanities at the Creighton University School of Medicine Charles Camosy, building upon the Consistent Life Ethic (CLE) advocated for by Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, Pope St. John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI, and Pope Francis, provides a compelling framework and well-reasoned arguments for approaching sex, abortion, climate, non-humans, and violence, among other polarizing subjects, in Resisting Throwaway Culture.
The majority of humans would agree that murder is wrong and yet human history is littered with genocide, whole populations being kidnapped and enslaved, and wars replete with ghastly atrocities. How is it that we can say the murder of another human is terrible, but in an instant dehumanize a fellow human and perform, or at least allow, dehumanizing acts? In Less Than Human author David Livingstone Smith pulls from history, biology, philosophy, and anthropology to perform an in-depth analysis of dehumanization and why we seem predisposed to dehumanizing others.
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