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
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