On Sunday, September 2, 2007, at 12:00 PM, rayilynlee wrote:

> An Unholy Alliance: How Neoconservatives and the Religious Right Have
> Joined
> Forces to Fight Stem Cell Research.
>
> For the past twenty-two years the Labor Day weekend has been a bit
> difficult
> for me. As someone confined to a wheelchair from LMG muscular dystrophy
> (first being diagnosed in 1985) I watch (and contribute to) the MDA
> Telethon. While offering me hope that others are committed to curing
> the
> forty plus forms of this degenerative disease, I cannot also help but
> being
> reminded of those who evoke a rigid form of faith in order to prevent
> embryonic stem cell research-an avenue that may one day let folks like
> me
> walk again.
> Frank Cocozzelli's diary :: :: from the Daily KOS
>
> Neuromuscular disease is often an ordeal that just doesn't adversely
> affect
> the patient, but his friends and family. To provide you with some
> context,
> let me explain what my family goes through to keep my law practice
> going.
>
> Monday through Friday my wife wakes up at 5 A.M. and gets herself
> ready for
> work. An hour later she wakes me up then dresses me for court. As
> since my
> body does not mostly move of it own volition, she must roll me back and
> forth to get my pants on, lift me onto a slide board to get me into my
> wheelchair, lift my arms to get my shirt on and then knot my tie. Then
> after
> she gives me breakfast, she attends to getting our kids ready for
> school.
> She does all this before working an eight-hour day. I usually leave for
> court shortly thereafter driven either by my father my uncle or Chris,
> my
> driver.
>
> While this is a difficult routine, I still am more fortunate than most
> others with degenerative diseases. Many others have no job to support
> themselves, family to help them or even a place to call their own.
>
> One morning during the summer of 2000 my wife was getting me dressed
> for
> court. We heard a promising report on the Today Show that
> then-President
> Bill Clinton was going to allow for the federal funding of embryonic
> stem
> cell research. In December 1998 my neurologist had just told us of this
> then-recent discovery and how it offered so much hope not just for me,
> but
> for countless others suffering from different diseases and
> disabilities. He
> told us that the research was not a guarantee, but at least a real
> hope for
> possible treatments.
>
> But this hope was dashed when the U.S. Supreme Court's decision
> essentially
> handed the presidency to George W. Bush. As a candidate, Bush had
> expressed
> his hostility to the research, playing to a religious right faction
> composed
> of Opus Dei Catholics and fundamentalist Protestants (I would later
> come to
> learn that much of this opposition has been organized by
> neoconservatives,
> using their several think tanks to hone their message). And as I told
> my
> pastor back in 2003, it broke my heart that my own church officially
> opposes
> medical research. I told him that I believe that Jesus, who lived His
> whole
> life on Earth as a religious Jew would not oppose (all four branches of
> Judaism support the research; Talmudic scholar Adin Steinsaltz went as
> far
> to state, ''We believe that mankind is given not only the permission
> but the
> admonition to make the world better.'').
>
> But what I did not understand at the time was how the opposition to
> embryonic stem cell research was being organized and mostly driven by
> the
> very same neoconservatives who helped push this nation into the poorly
> chosen war in Iraq. Too many of us just don't understand that the
> neoconservative movement is just not about foreign policy, but domestic
> policy. The battle over embryonic stem cell research simply emphasizes
> that
> point.
>
> As many of you know, I am a director of a newly formed think tank, the
> Institute for Progressive Christianity ("IPC").  IPC defines its
> mission as
> follows:
> To further awareness and understanding that the progressive tradition
> is
> rooted in core Christian gospel values, and to relate that tradition to
> personal faith, public policy, family, and the common good.
> And this is IPC's vision:
> To create a national Institute for progressive Christian values. The
> Institute will serve as an educational facility to conduct research,
> seek to
> affect and advance policy, educate the public, and influence every
> sphere of
> American public life, including politics, academia, arts, and the
> church.
> To this end, Eve Herold, the author of last year's book, Stem Cell
> Wars:
> Inside Stories from the Frontlines, and I have written a White Paper
> for IPC
> entitled, "An Unholy Alliance: How Neoconservatives and the Religious
> Right
> Have Joined Forces to Fight Stem Cell Research." Here is our opening
> premise:
> Representatives and the Senate took up the issue of stem cell research
> once
> again, re-introducing a bill that had already been vetoed once by
> President
> Bush. The Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act would have expanded U.S.
> federal funding (which currently applies to only 21 embryonic stem cell
> lines) to include about 200 new and superior cell lines. This year's
> version
> of the bill was passed in the Senate on April 11, but it fell four
> votes
> short of a veto-proof majority. Then the bill passed Congress by a
> vote of
> 253 - 174, only to be met once again with the slash of Bush's pen. The
> president has stood stubbornly by his anti-research policy against the
> wishes of the Congress, the Senate, and a large majority of the
> American
> people. His reason: the destruction of embryos, even for life-saving
> research, "crosses a moral line" that shouldn't be crossed. This,
> however,
> is not the consensus among all religious faiths, let alone among
> mainstream
> Christians; it is a narrow proposition held mostly by neo-orthodox
> Christians. The concept that embryonic research is off-limits is being
> furthered not just by religious conservatives, but also by their often
> nonreligious neoconservative allies.
> Click here to download and read the document in PDF format. IPC is
> working
> on a hyperlink to the story for those who are unable to download the
> document.
>
> Please feel free to give me your thoughts on the piece.
>
> Rayilyn Brown (I did not write this article, just posting it)
> Board Member AZNPF
> Arizona Chapter National Parkinson's Foundation
> [log in to unmask]
>
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