In all our discussion about Adam Lanza's unspeakable crime, we should not forget that 40 years ago this nation legally established the right of a certain class of people to kill a certain class of people. It should not suprise us that this radical, fundamental decision has influenced the way many of our citizens view human life at whatever stage of development. The fact that this man, just out of his teens, decided to destroy very young children is really not all that strange. So long as the decision made four decades ago continues to contribute to our definition of human life, we must expect that more people will make the horrendous decision Mr. Lanza made. And, hard as it is to state, so long as that decision stands, there will always be a measure of hypocrisy in the anguished mourning that naturally follows events like that which happened in Newtown.
Posted in: Diagnosing Evil
In all our discussion about Adam Lanza's unspeakable crime, we should not forget that 40 years ago this nation legally established the right of a certain class of people to kill a certain class of people. It should not suprise us that this radical, fundamental decision has influenced the way many of our citizens view human life at whatever stage of development. The fact that this man, just out of his teens, decided to destroy very young children is really not all that strange. So long as the decision made four decades ago continues to contribute to our definition of human life, we must expect that more people will make the horrendous decision Mr. Lanza made. And, hard as it is to state, so long as that decision stands, there will always be a measure of hypocrisy in the anguished mourning that naturally follows events like that which happened in Newtown.