Culture of selective life

One of the great things about having TV again is to be able to watch the Daily Show. Jon Stewart is probably the best political satirist out there. Though between Clinton's sexual follies and the Bush administration's Orwellianism, the last decade has surely been a golden age for satirists.

Anyways, Stewart highlighted this interesting exchange between President Bush's spokesman Scott McClellan and journalists (some of whom have apparently rediscovered healthy skepticism in recent months).



Q: That the Pope played a big role or a great role in the President's life during his meetings with him?

MR. McCLELLAN: He inspired many, many people, and certainly he was an inspiration to the President and Mrs. Bush, as well.

Q: If I could follow up on that, just for a second. The President is the first U.S. President to go to a papal funeral, from what I understand, as far as I have ever heard. In the abstract, what was the decision process -- what is it that the President feels in kindred spirit with this Pope, even though they differed I guess over the war, they had a lot of cultural issues that they shared in common, cultural views that they shared in common. Can you give us a little bit of the process about why he decided that he would be the first President to do this?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I think it goes back to some of what the President said in the press conference a short time ago, as well as what he said on Saturday. And the President has -- the President met with the Holy Father on three occasions during his presidency, back in 2001, again in 2002, and then last year, in June of 2004. And the President was honored to present him with the Medal of Freedom on that visit to the Vatican. That is the nation's highest civilian award. And the President stated the reasons why he chose to present it to the Holy Father: the Holy Father is someone who stood for freedom, for human dignity and promoting a culture of life. And there are many values that the President shared with the Holy Father, and he had great respect for his moral leadership in this world. And so I think it was a very quick decision for the President to decide to lead the delegation to Rome this week.

[...]

Q: Scott, you mentioned the culture of life. When Pope John Paul II wrote about the culture of life in 1995, he described it also in terms of the death penalty, not just abortion and euthanasia. He said that in these modern times, cases where the death penalty was warranted are rare, if not nonexistent. Now, knowing that the President fully supports the death penalty, used the death penalty, does he see it as a contradiction to use that phrase, "culture of life," and still support the death penalty, which the Pope expressed his opposition to?

MR. McCLELLAN: Elaine, I think the President's views are well known. I don't think now is the time to talk about where they may have differed on one or two areas. This is a time to honor a great moral leader, someone who, as the President said, was a hero for the ages.

Q: Well, wait. Don't you honor a great moral leader and a great teacher, somebody who did engage in debate, whose whole life was about this kind of discussion and wrestling with difficult moral problems, by answering that question: Does the President see it as a contradiction that he adopts only part of what Pope John Paul said was the culture of life?

MR. McCLELLAN: No, let's separate out -- I mean, because I spoke about this issue last week, and why the President's view is the way it is. And that's because we're talking about the difference between innocent life and someone who is guilty of horrific crimes.



Translation: I'm going to take great pains to compare the pope's and the president's moral codes in a way we can make political capital out of. The 'culture of life,' of course, is based how we define it, not how the venerated pope defined it. Where they disagreed, it's "not now the time" to make THOSE comparisons.

As a progressive, I can't say I agreed with all of John Paul II's opinions, particularly on social issues and lack of internal reform in the Catholic Church. But at least he tried to be consistent. He believed in 'the culture of life' across the board, not just when it suited his ideology.