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Grace Church
257 Kendall Street
Burlington, WI 53105

(262) 763-3021

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Pastor Scott Carson

Secretary Patti Hall

PASTOR'S PENS 2006

Grace Church of Burlington August 6, 2006 “Let me give you the definition of ethics: it is good to maintain life and to further life. It is bad to damage and destroy life.”    Albert Schweitzer             For the first time in his presidency President Bush has vetoed a bill. Recently, the President vetoed a bill that, had it become law, would have deeply eroded respect for human life. It was a courageous act because there was enormous pressure on him to agree to fund more embryo-destructive research. After vetoing this bill, the President signed one for funding research into methods of creating pluripotent stem cells, the kind that can be turned into many types of body tissue without creating or killing human embryos.             Not surprisingly, there was an outpouring of verbal acid directed not only against the President but also against conservative Christians. A full-page ad in the New York Times, funded by a liberal front group called DefConAmerica, screamed, “The religious right is imposing its will on all Americans...That loud noise you hear is the wall between church and state crumbling.”             Wait a minute. Aren’t Christians allowed to have a voice in politics like everybody else, or has the First Amendment been repealed? Other critics claim President Bush is anti-science. The bill he vetoed was about funding, not banning research, billions in taxpayer money for something private companies refuse to support. Why? Because the prospects of it leading to any cures are very poor. As President Reagan said when he outlawed stem-cell research, “If private companies won’t put up their money, why should the taxpayers?” Good question.             Another argument we hear is that embryonic stem-cell researchers only want to use so-called “spare” embryos left over from in vitro fertilization. False: Many researchers really want to engage in so-called “therapeutic cloning”—the cloning of huge numbers of embryos in the attempt to find cures for diseases, to which the bill the President vetoed would have opened the door.             Another false claim is that we ought to proceed with this research because everybody else is doing it. That would be news in Canada, Norway, Switzerland, and Australia, where cloning research is illegal. Both Germany and France have embraced the same position President Bush has. The supporters of embryo-destructive research want to cross a great moral divide. They are seeking not only to destroy human life made in God’s image but also to manufacture life made in man’s image. Tragically, we are losing this fight, however, because too few people understand the issues.             Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) receive tremendous media attention, with oft-repeated  claims  that  they  have the  potential  to  cure  virtually every  disease known. Yet there are spoilsports who point out that they have yet to even make it into a human clinical trial. This is even as alternatives – adult stem cells (ASCs) from numerous places in the body as well as umbilical cord blood and placenta – are curing diseases here and now and have been doing so for decades. And that makes ESC advocates very, very angry. How many diseases ASCs can treat or cure is debatable, with one website claiming almost 80 for umbilical cord blood alone. Dr. David Prentice of the Family Research Council, using stricter standards of evidence, has constituted a list of 72 for all types of ASCs.             The bottom line is that research that destroys one human being so that another may benefit is immoral. We should pursue the cure of disease in morally acceptable ways. When advocates of embryonic stem cell research say that we have a moral obligation to save lives and promote cures, what they really mean is that human embryos should be cloned and killed for medical research.  But you would never know it listening to their rhetoric. While believers advocate the saving of lives, we do so BUT not at any cost. And we are even for stem-cell research. But because we are pro-life, we must be opposed to one kind of stem-cell research that requires killing defenseless human beings so that others may (allegedly) benefit.  That’s immoral.             Because the issue is so complex Christians need to educate themselves on this (and other ethical issues). Joni Eareckson Tada has recently co-authored a book, How to Be a Christian in a Brave New World, that addresses this and many other bio-ethical issues. If this is an area that interests you, let me encourage you to buy a copy.  As believers  we must not be deceived by emotional arguments but hold instead to Biblical absolutes. We must courageously stand for what is right and oppose what is wrong!