Thursday, April 23, 2009

Miss USA and Cloning

OK, I know.  I was going to wrap up my series today on the demise of Christianity in America, but there is something in the news that is REALLY irking me.  I am not a fan of the Miss USA pageant, but something happened during it on Sunday night that is receiving a lot of national news attention -- more so even than the winner, Miss North Carolina Kristen Dalton.

During the contest, Miss California Carrie Prejean was asked a question by openly gay pageant judge and "celebrity" (I've never heard of him) Perez Hilton.  His question was whether every state should follow Vermont in legalizing same-sex marriage.  Now, is that a political question?  If not, what is it?  I ask that because of his comments below.

Prejean responded, "I think it's great that Americans are able to choose one or the other.  But in my country, and in my family, I think that I believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman.  No offense to anybody out there, but that's how I was raised."  Her wording was a little clumsy, but certainly not offensive.  She stated her opinion.

Hilton has referred to her as ignorant.  Tuesday on the Today show, he said that his question was relevant (of course it was to him and his agenda).  He added that Prejean should have "left her politics and her religion out because Miss USA represents all Americans."  Huh?

Question for the totally unbiased Mr. Hilton:  How could she have answered that political question without letting her politics enter into it?  It was a political question.  Now, if she had happened to agree with you, suddenly she would not have been political in her answer.  Right?  

Mr. Hilton, your political bias is showing.  Not only that, but you are showing a total lack of class and reason.  To disagree with you does not make a person ignorant.  And yes, many of us do make decisions in this life based upon our religious (or nonreligious, in your case) beliefs.  Prejean did not try to force her opinion on anybody, nor did she get "preachy."  YOU, Mr. Hilton, are the one showing intolerance here.

This is totally ridiculous.  Mr. Hilton is the one who should be taken to task here by the media.  Not Ms. Prejean
____________________

On another moral subject, I read yesterday that an American doctor who is now in hiding claims that he will clone a human within two years.  I have concerns about this, but I am not sure why our culture is drawing a moral line here.  I admit to ignorance on this subject, but how different would cloning a human be from invitro fertilization (I am not saying invitro is wrong)?  I really am hoping someone can enlighten me here.

And interesting:  As a culture, we are saying abortion is not immoral.  Euthanasia is becoming more accepted.  Stem cell research is OK.  But we are going to draw a line in the sand on this one:  No human cloning.  Again, the idea is unsettling for me, too.  But what is the rationale?     

2 comments:

Jeff said...

It's too bad the young lady wasn't praised for her honesty instead of being berated because a gay person asking a politically-loaded question in an inappropriate venue got mad.

I don't watch the pageant shows but would like to see a boycott of the program by all Christians who do watch it if it is being used to advance the agenda of a segment of people to the exclusion of others. It appears Mr. Perez would only favor a contestant who agrees with him.

I don't understand the cloning issue or the benefits of it. I'm initially opposed to the idea simply because, in my limited knowledge, I can imagine more bad uses than good. Maybe I will learn more in the future that would change my mind but it just doesn't seem right to me today.

Unknown said...

I found this quote by Christian philosophy professor Douglas Groothuis as I was researching for the 'What is truth?' class: "Human subjectivity untethered from objective constraints is a shallow and shabby thing. When it reaches a certain stage we call it stupidity or even insanity."

To me, "same-sex marriage" is an oxymoron. Gay marriage is no more of a reality than a flat earth is. Just because there are people that still believe the earth is flat or homosexuals can marry does not make it so.

Speaking of intolerance, isn't it so ironic that the politics of tolerance breeds intolerance?
_____________________________

As far as human cloning: if this doctor succeeds in cloning a living/functioning/sustainable human being with all tissues and organs functioning properly (and I doubt he will), will this cloned "person" have a soul?

To this I will paraphrase a quote from the movie Jurassic Park: Just because we can [do something] doesn't mean we should.

Again, I doubt that anybody has the technical capability to currently clone a sustainable human life. But I guess we'll find out.