Religion must enter this debate

patmatthews says, "GOD is not a voting member of Congress and should not be brought into the discussion within the confines of Congress. Separation of Church and State."

A congressional chaplain leads the members of the U.S. House of Representatives, and the members of the U.S. Senate in prayer to God at the beginning of each legislative day. You can listen to the prayers on C-Span, or read them in the Congressional Record. The idea is to get the people to find some common ground in the Universal Law of God, and in that way, make it easier to cooperate and agree with each other. The same is true in discussions between citizens regarding the operations of their government.

"A law against abortion is a fundamental distrust of God's judgement and power to punish and reward in the afterlife."

An abortion is a fundamental distrust of God's judgment.
You, a flawed sinner, have executed life-or-death judgment on an innocent human that you willingly brought in to being.

"The people are saying they don't trust God to punish the mother for having an abortion, so we must do it here on earth"

No one wants to punish the mother. Is having a child punishment?
Why does the mother want to punish an innocent child?

"just in case He is too kindly in Heaven. Or He might know something about the case that we on earth don't."

If he knew something about a case that we didn't, then doesn't that mean that he would be the one most qualified to make that life-or-death decision?

"In either case, we certainly don't have any faith in his judgement."

No.
YOU don't have any faith in his judgment, or his ability to execute it.

A person has a right to express their views but at the end of the day I don't think any of us should be forced to live under the dictates of any particular religious beliefs. Laws should be created based on the collective values of a society and should demonstrate a willingness to see beyond the particular views of one group of people and recognize the views of everyone. As a non-believer, people who think that any particular religious tradition should be used as a reference for instituting laws restricting the rights of citizens to control their own bodies scares me to death. People have a right to believe any silly idea they want but considering a blastocyst to be a human being borders on the ridiculous or at best deserves only minimal consideration.

WMARKW:

What he said is clearly not obvious to everyone, or else this week's question would not be asked. He straight-forwardly answered the question: Should personal and religious views be allowed to prevent women from having access to a legal medical procedure?

His point of view is "yes" because people's opinions shape our legislation, and religious views shape people's opinions.

You can certainly disagree with him or his logic, but to say his response was obvious also says the question is moot, which is clearly not the case.

Why is this guy a panelist?

He writes two sentences obvious to everybody.

Any why does his photo look like a e-mail postcard from Las Vegas?

Interview with the soul of an aborted fetus:

Me: So... how do you like heaven?
S: GREAT! I couldn't be happier.
Me: Had you the chance to "come to term" as we say, live a full life and then, at life's end, risk the possibility of perpetual torture in hell, would you take it?
S: Do I look like a fool?

"A law against abortion is a fundamental distrust of God's judgement and power to punish and reward in the afterlife."

GOD is not a voting member of Congress and should not be brought into the discussion within the confines of Congress. Separation of Church and State.

BTW, I am Buddhist and Christian Law is NOT the Constitutional Law, as Sharia Law is not Constitutional Law, as well.

EQUALITY!

A law against abortion is a fundamental distrust of God's judgement and power to punish and reward in the afterlife. The people are saying they don't trust God to punish the mother for having an abortion, so we must do it here on earth, just in case He is too kindly in Heaven. Or He might know something about the case that we on earth don't. In either case, we certainly don't have any faith in his judgement.

Also, the father of the child should also be punished if the woman decides to have an abortion. Far too long women have had to run the pain of punishment, while the father gets off. Religion and law should reform itself to accept colateral sin.