Down from the mountain . . .

I've been up in my cave contemplating the ultimate, now I return to the world of humans to find that this Terry Schiavo thing has become inexpressibly disgusting. I must now resort to asking my readers for help. I have some theories about what is really going on here but I'm failing to convince even myself.

Of course the Republicans in Congress are using the issue to favorably impress the right-wing evangelical Christians who are a key constituency. They are mostly hypocrites and some of them may even feel a little bit guilty about what they are doing. No, I take that back. But what is baffling is why tens of millions of Americans now interpret Christianity as calling for society to expend vast resources, without any consideration of limit, on preserving the metabolism of entities that possess human DNA but not human minds. I see photographs of them prostrate with emotion, weeping and shouting, their earthly vessels nearly shattered by the power of the spirit that possesses them, as they make this demand on all of us. In their view, it is never time to die, and this state of affairs they call Human Life -- a cramped, impoverished, vacuous interpretation of what it means to be human -- is as sacred as their angry, vengeful, intolerant God.

Yet they care not one whit that millions of poor, vulnerable, people -- children most numerous among them -- die every single year who would have full lives, full capacities, meaningful futures, if these holy and compassionate people would just spend two dollars on them. In fact, they cheer lustily as their tax dollars are used to drop bombs on living, healthy human beings. Where do these people find their belefs? Obviously not anywhere in the Bible, where modern medical technology is not contemplated. Until the latter part of the last century, people in Terry Schiavo's condition would all have died within a few days, there would be no possibility of keeping them in a quasi-living state for 15 years. That seemed okay with God up until recently. What is making these people think as they do? Somebody help me.