I was on my way to realizing that “pro-life” is an irredeemably rhetorical weapon unworthy of morally serious people already, but I believe I was everlastingly delivered from that accursed way of conceiving self and others when my genius friend, Reva, observed aloud that one baseline starting point for even coming close to the status of “pro-life,” were it an actionable adjective and not a cruel scam, would be to give away your extra kidney.
Ever since then, I’ve tried to engage people who wield the term to think the analogy through with, from what I can tell, little or no success. You can perhaps imagine the joy it is to me to see that writer/filmmaker, Penny Lane, has decided to address this beautiful liturgy of industrial-strength altruism in a film. From what I can tell, she wisely and righteously steers clear of giving any oxygen at all to the aforementioned farce that might yet overthrow the possibility of democracy in America and destroy the humanly inhabitable world, but the trailer, as you’ll see, lifts up the ancient question—which is also the most political and religious question—of all: Who is my neighbor?
Give it a look.
Could you direct me to a slogan on any controversial issue in American politics that isn't "an irredeemably rhetorical weapon unworthy of morally serious [or informed] people"?
I am not sure that the pro-life crowd is particularly out of genre, I guess.
Generosity as “giving yourself poor” seems applicable here. I don’t want to hear “charity” tossed around as applicable alternatives to social justice until I see us giving our kidneys. A kidneyless beloved community... what a different witness. Perhaps a (more) faithful one.