Bernardin's "Seamless Garment of Life" revisited

“Despite its contribution, the consistent ethic manifests several major weaknesses,” said Father Conley. “I think that a certain theoretical haziness has blunted its political effectiveness” in that the consistent ethic of life does not clarify what actions, such as the welfare of a child, are the responsibility of the state and government, and what actions should be left up to the Church and families.

In the contrary, I don't believe that seamlessness rules out prioritization, or different approaches. The political problems faced by seamlessness come from the pro-life movement's uneasy alliance with the fundamentalist right-wing, whose ONLY interest in life is babies - hence their indifference to capital punishment and war and medical access and hunger. If we believe in the SANCTITY of life, then we must believe that it is God's property, not ours. But in our alliance with the right wing, we shy away from seamlessness, because it endangers our meeting-of-the-minds on the key issue of abortion.

The reason nobody's buying seamlessness these days is because no one is selling. Just try to find an anti-abortion anti-war anti-hunger pro-medical access politician out there. They're few and far between, and the dialogue that needs to happen, the one that will turn hearts and minds, is not happening. Sad.

Thanks to Gen X Revert for the link.