By Matt Friedeman, PhD
May 26, 2005

(AgapePress) - Senator Specter apparently wants a place on your wall. Here's why he shouldn't get the chance.

Pick your poster child: Arlen Specter, bald from chemotherapy treatments for Hodgkin's disease, saying that he is Exhibit A for embryonic stem-cell research ... or those cute little kids in the AP photo with this caption: "President Bush appeared at the White House with babies and toddlers born of test-tube embryos, some wearing shirts that read 'former embryo.'"

"I look in the mirror every day," says Specter, "barely recognize myself. And not to have the availability of the best of medical care is simply atrocious."

Meanwhile, President Bush was busy praising a Christian agency that helps couples adopt frozen embryos. Amidst 21 babies and toddlers who began their lives as frozen embryos left over after fertility treatments, the president said, "there is no such thing as a spare embryo."

So, again, pick your poster child. The man with a disease who thinks there is vast medical potential in destroying babies described as embryos, or the children who developed from their embryonic state to roll around on White House carpet.

One of those choices reflects the culture of death that the House, by a 238-194 vote on Tuesday, decided to embrace. The other suggests the culture of life that at times seems to be waning in this country, at times seems to be in resurgence.

Choices like these are monumental in deciding which culture we really want to be a part of.

The House and even many candidates who are "pro-life" (particularly in election years) failed us. The Senate seems poised to. The president has former embryos laughing in the national mansion.

Hillary Rodham Clinton, during one of her husband's campaigns, declared that we should all ease up on the topic of abortion because, after all, we cannot be sure when human life really begins.

If uncertain, one would assume that the compassionate among us would err on the side of life. And a real man who has long touted himself as a courageous senator wouldn't countenance the destruction of young ones to protect his own life.

Instinctively, in our heart of hearts, we are far more sure than Ms. Clinton and not as self-aggrandizing as Mr. Specter. Such surety and requisite humility ought to prompt cheers for the man in the Oval Office who, unlike some of his "pro-life" friends, has the courage of his convictions on this one.

To life!

Matt Friedeman (mfriedeman@wbs.edu) is a professor at Wesley Biblical Seminary. Respond to this column at his blog at "In the Fight."

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