{"id":81764,"date":"2009-12-14T16:42:33","date_gmt":"2009-12-14T21:42:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seattletimes.nwsource.com\/html\/northwestvoices\/2010508074_samsperryonbishopshealthcarereform.html?syndication=rss"},"modified":"2009-12-14T16:42:33","modified_gmt":"2009-12-14T21:42:33","slug":"sam-sperry-on-bishops-health-care-reform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/81764","title":{"rendered":"Sam Sperry on bishops, health-care reform"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Catholic\u2019s first-amendment rights<\/strong><\/p>\n

Editor, The Times:<\/p>\n

Sam Sperry\u2019s guest commentary, \u201cBishops take the low road on health-care reform\u201d [Opinion, Dec. 10] is a masterpiece of miscommunication.<\/p>\n

I invite Seattle Times readers to get a better picture of what the bishops are trying to accomplish in health- <\/span>care reform by going to the Washington State Catholic Conference Web site, www.thewscc.org. The bishops are working on a number of issues in addition to liberating taxpayers from having to fund abortions, such as the affordability of heath care for everyone, and access to health care for illegal immigrants.<\/p>\n

What drives faithful Catholics to support these issues is our belief in Christ\u2019s preferential option for the poor. When we speak of pro-life, we are talking about all life issues from conception to natural death. Raising our voices in support of the dignity of human life isn\u2019t easy in our culture, especially when we advocate peace instead of war, programs to feed the hungry locally and globally, and when we celebrate our birthright as Americans to courageously speak up in the marketplace for those who can\u2019t speak for themselves.<\/p>\n

We strive for the higher road. We invite people to join us. Catholics in our country have the same first-amendment right to speak our hearts and minds as everyone else.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Pastor Frank Schuster, Woodinville<\/em><\/p>\n

Believe in abortion? Then you\u2019re not Catholic<\/strong><\/p>\n

I read Sam Sperry\u2019s guest commentary with amazement.<\/p>\n

The bishops don\u2019t want anyone denied health care. They are on record supporting health-care reform in this country \u2014 They argue the immorality of abortion.<\/p>\n

I believe science says life begins at conception. At all developmental levels from the moment of conception forward, the child is fully human.<\/p>\n

Bishops do not promote religious belief concerning abortion. Religious belief concerns God and our relationship with him. The bishops promote a moral fundamental, and have every right so to do in the public forum. Certain nonprofit organizations are allowed to speak freely and influence the course of public policy in the direction of their mission and acts, and so should be the same for the Catholic Church.<\/p>\n

I recommend Sperry recall and act from the tenets and ethics of his Catholic education. Recently, I saw a bumper sticker that read, \u201cBelieve in Abortion? You\u2019re Not Catholic.\u201d<\/p>\n

That Sperry\u2019s byline cloaks him as Catholic and a product of Catholic education, I feel is a masquerade.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Michael J. Ulrich, Woodinville<\/em><\/p>\n

A life for a life, a good for a good<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sam Sperry\u2019s \u201cBishops take the low road on health-care reform\u201d is full of misinformation and poor conclusions.<\/p>\n

Sperry stated the Catholic Church has \u201cno absolute aspect to the sanctity of life.\u201d To prove his point, he argues that the church prohibits abortion in cases of rape or incest, but is less absolute when a woman\u2019s life is at risk. While rape and incest are heinous and tremendously emotionally and physically damaging, they are not in and of themselves life ending.<\/p>\n

As such, they should be treated differently than a life-for-a-life scenario.<\/p>\n

Sperry\u2019s conclusion, that the bishop\u2019s position on abortion may make them responsible for denying health-care coverage to the poor is flat wrong. The same faulty conclusion may be argued by stating that the Democrats position on abortion may make them responsible for denying health-care coverage to all those in need.<\/p>\n

The bishops, in arguing against public funding for abortion, are doing what they must. They are making the point that you cannot create a good, universal health-care access, which the church has long favored, on the destruction of a more fundamental good \u2014 life.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Brian Cummings, Port Orchard<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Catholic\u2019s first-amendment rights Editor, The Times: Sam Sperry\u2019s guest commentary, \u201cBishops take the low road on health-care reform\u201d [Opinion, Dec. 10] is a masterpiece of miscommunication. I invite Seattle Times readers to get a better picture of what the bishops are trying to accomplish in health- care reform by going to the Washington State […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81764\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}