Gabriel Sechan wrote: >> From: "Christian Seberino" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >> > I think it's fair for >> > a minister/priest/shaman to presch that abortion is wrong. I believe >> it is >> > wrong for them to try to deny abortiions to those who disagree with >> them. >> >> Do you also believe it was ok for the North to be against slavery but >> that >> was wrong for the North to fight the Civil War to "impose" its views on >> the South? >> > > Ignoring your point for a minute- you do realize that the Civil War was > about state's rights and wether a state could secede from the union, not > about slavery, right? The majority of the north wasn't anti-slavery. > THe abolishion of slavery was a republican political move postwar. It > basicly ensured all southern blacks would vote for them, giving them > control of the country. It worked for over a decade too, until the > Tilden-Hayes fiasco.
CS's underlying point (separated from the Civil War aspect) deserves further discussion. I happen to believe that abortion is unfortunate, undesirable, and to some extent morally offensive -- but some people think it very much more offensive, comparing it to murder, even. I happen to _feel_ that slavery is a so morally repugnant so as to compare to the _feelings_ I have about murder. Slavery is certainly ancient, and existed (in a varying way, I suppose) for centuries. Our own charter and founding fathers openly treated slavery in a way that sickens me, but apparently didn't sicken people enough until a while later. Why? Was new world slavery worse than historic tradition? Were people in general becoming more aware and more participatory in matters of their own "environment" (political, social, economic, ..)? I am not much of a scholar on this issue, but it does seem that there was a (world-)widespread growing objection to slavery and that the US was closer to the trailing rather than leading edge of this movement. An economics-uber-alles matter, perhaps. Having said all that, let's get back to CS's point: Sh/W/Could I argue for imposing my moral principles about slavery upon the southern states in the 1860s. Hard to say about Sh/W/C isn't it? But I will claim I would have made lots of (well, some) noise beating the drum. In all honesty, I would have been supporting various pressures in addition to persuasion to attempt a change. I'd like to claim that I wouldn't be _imposing_ my morality on others, but I'm not sure. Is that hypocritical? OTOH, I strongly object to moral arguments for enforcing most sexual prohibitions, and things like birth control education/practices and also, even, abortion. Is that hypocritical? Regards, ..jim PS: a salute to everyone on this thread -- it has been remarkably cordial, even though it is famous for raising people's pulse and temperature (that's just the sex, I suppose .. aww, couldn't help it). ..j -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
