In ancient times, large, important construction projects began with the laying of a cornerstone. The stone itself had to be carefully hewn with precise dimensions, angles, and surfaces. The ground it sat on had to be perfectly level. Depending on the intended purpose of the completed structure, the orientation of the stone would also be precisely calculated. Why? Because all the other stones laid for the project would be placed in reference to that single cornerstone. For a building intended to last for centuries, the fundamental importance of the cornerstone could not be overstated.
The history of the cornerstone—one might say the fate of the stone—can be likened to the great debate raging across our country in the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling that the U.S. Constitution does not provide a constitutional right to abortion on demand. Although widely anticipated as the Court’s conservative-liberal balance has shifted in recent years, the decision at present has left the nation in a state of great joy and relief on the one hand and equally great confusion, anger, and fear on the other.
I am under no illusion that my few words here will have a measurable impact on this issue going forward. At best, they might take some of the heat and emotion out of the debate and allow cooler minds to prevail.
I firmly believe that we have let the issue get away from us. We give it a variety of names: the abortion issue, pro-life, pro-choice, women’s rights, reproductive rights. We cloud the issue with inflammatory slogans and rhetoric on both sides and demean one another with vicious insults. A woman who has an abortion is a murderer, anyone who opposes abortion is a moron. And a man has no voice in this issue at all!
My thesis is this: the emotional and rhetorical upheaval surrounding the Court’s ruling—along with the issue itself—has drawn our attention away from the fundamental, immutable cornerstone essence of our shared humanity: Life!
To state the obvious, we are nothing without life. Like the cornerstone, everything else—all the conversations, arguments, rulings, debates, and actions—must be considered in relation to that fundamental truth: Life is!
Our founding fathers, a decade or more before they began work on the Constitution, wrote in the Declaration of Independence, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Note carefully that Life is listed first, even before Liberty and Happiness.
As an ordained Roman Catholic Deacon, I firmly believe the “unalienable right to life” to be true. But even if we were to take God out of the equation (as if that were possible!), the truth of the argument would not change. Life comes—must come—before all else. It is a fundamental tenet of the natural law. For many people, myself included, life is sacred. It must be upheld and protected above all else. Above all things human.
The recent Supreme Court ruling moves authority for laws and regulations concerning abortion from the federal government to the fifty individual states. Already this seems certain to prolong the debate for years to come.
But as the states take up the challenge, the fundamental, cornerstone truth that life is, and that it begins at the moment of conception, must be upheld. Acceptance of this premise necessarily changes the debate from one of “rights” to one of “responsibility.” Protecting life above and before all else imposes huge moral, religious, societal, economic, and civic burdens on us as citizens, not to mention as people of faith. Unintended, unwanted and crisis pregnancies will continue to occur. And just as our society provides assistance and services for people facing a host of life’s challenges, we must ensure that compassionate assistance is available that will enable women to carry their babies to term and become responsible mothers.
As a person of faith, I am constantly awed in knowing that I am a beloved child of God, created in God’s own image and likeness. And I am further awed at sharing this distinction with every man, woman and child on earth.
Regardless of one’s religious or spiritual beliefs, though, there can be no denying the cornerstone truth that all life is precious. For an unborn child, a terminally ill person, or a prisoner on death row, life is a gift that cannot be taken by any other person or institution.
As our communities, our states and our nation begin the hard work of formulating abortion legislation, may we all work to move from heated confrontation to responsible debate to tolerant conversation.
May God bless us and may God bless the United States of America.
Deacon Peter Kuhn ministers at St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church in Brookfield, CT. He can be reached at dnkuhn@diobpt.org.
