040: Why Do Some Christians Hesitate to Defend the Lives of Others? Interview with Hon. Bill Redmond, Congressman (Ret.)
27:57 Share

Welcome Back to Life Matters. We are your program on the right to life, on culture and the very real battle of ideas. Today's program is a special program - you know many Christian stations run this program and while we focus on the right to life as a very clear and non-sectarian commitment to the founding principles of this nation, it's actually a commitment to the founding principles, if you will, of Western civilization.

Western Civilization is unique and America is the distillation of the ideals of Western Civilization. That's what happened in 1776. Our Founders took the best ideals of civilization and assertively placed them as their Foundation. There's a Common thread through Western Civilization about the nature of man. He is extraordinary.

After the the fall of the Greek culture and its inheritance by the Roman culture, the rule of law and protection of the innocent continued to be affirmed. This thread was reaffirmed by Christianity as Christianity became the dominant cultural influence. The Hippocratic Oath had spelled out the importance of protecting vulnerable lives, but in other aspects of Western Civilization we see reverberating throughout its history a message- and that is the unique nature of the human person. There's something unique about the human person and that's always been a guidestar for Western Civilization.

If you have other questions about that premise, go to the podcast site and go to the program on Western civilization and why the Hippocratic Oath has been recognized by anthropologists as the dividing line - as the beginning point of Western Civilization. This was specifically because it meant that those who cared for the most vulnerable would care for, but never kill them.  Primitive and savage cultures before this lived under the law of the jungle, the lex talionis, that freely allowed such killings

Under Hippocrates code, those who cared for the most vulnerable human beings swore they would never kill that vulnerable human being because there's something extraordinary about even the most ‘limited’ human life.

Again this ‘rule’ is more often demonstrated and its breaking as Shakespeare said, but that truth has echoed throughout human history, particularly in western civilization.

So on today's program again, because we're aired on many Christian stations, we're going to get into a little bit of Christian theology for the specific reason that you may go to a Christian church and be appalled that people from your church don't understand or support the right-to-life issue.

It can be surprising there's a lot of people, who even though they are Christians and involved in Christianity, it's very clear one of the premises of Christianity is: That you and I are made in the image of God. So not only is there something unique about every human being, but God has endowed us with these unique rights. For Christians to not get that is appalling.

Today’s program comes from a trip I took to Albuquerque, New Mexico. We visit with Congressman Bill Redmond.  While he has served in Congress, he is now very active in the Christian Community in Albuquerque.  I think it's very enlightening  - again in the right to life we approach in a non-sectarian matter because our founders said it is according to the laws of nature and of Nature's God and so they don't go further than that  - but Christians do!! Christians say they have a relationship with Nature's God!!! And so Christians more than anyone else should be able to explain why the right to life is important and it really is disappointing when you find fellow Christians who can't or won’t stand for the vulnerable innocent. Bill Redmond takes a shot at explaining why that is.