Pro-Life or Pro-Punishment?

Opposition to abortion exists under the title, "Pro-Life." But I think that this slogan, like most slogans, fails to express the full complexity of what it represents.

Taking the slogan at face value, pro-choice believers are often confused by an apparent contradiction: How can someone be "pro-life" yet pro-capital punishment?

I believe this contradiction is an illusion, and the term "pro-life" is the reason for the confusion. Opposing abortion and supporting capital punishment can both stem from a natural philosophy: Protect the innocent, punish the guilty. On this issue of capital punishment, this belief can be very clear -- when someone is guilty of a heinous sin, society metes out the ultimate punishment, death.

How does this same philosophy lead us to oppose abortion? If you believe that pre-marital sex is a sin, then it should be punished. "Protect the innocent, punish the guilty" becomes "Protect the innocent child, punish the guilty mother." As part of the mother's punishment, she must reap what she has sown -- an unintended child.

This philosophical connection exists consciously for some people, though not for everyone. For example, ThePillKills.com, a group strongly opposed to abortion and birth control, offers prayers to "the many uninformed patrons who come asking the staff of Planned Parenthood to provide chemicals, hormones, and sex-education as an answer to their problems with the natural consequences of abuse of sex."

For many who oppose abortion, however, I believe a legacy of this philosophy does exist, though it has largely been buried beneath an acceptance of birth control as a part of modern life, and the debate has shifted from a focus on "punishing the guilty" to "protecting the innocent."

The entire abortion debate cannot simplify down to this one difference in beliefs, but I do believe it is an important part of the philosophical split that exists today. I only hope that in investigating why we believe what we believe, we can better understand those we disagree with.

Movie Review: Slumdog Millionaire

If you aren't familiar with the logline of this movie, I'd summarize it as a dramatic and comic fable of a kid from the Bombay slums whom Fate leads to become an unlikely contestant on India's "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?"

I was blown away by how deftly the director (Danny Boyle, Trainspotting and 28 Days Later) balances levity with gut-wrenching tragedy. It has some scenes so charged that my wife considered leaving the theater. As to life in the Bombay slums, "Just because it's a movie doesn't mean this hasn't actually happened to someone." But the epic journey of the characters, from childhood through adolescence to adulthood (played for each character by three different actors), is an incredible ride.

For at least the first half of the movie, I was in a state of tension -- the music, the moments, everything about the movie, just kept me pulling for these characters, especially as kids. But in comparison, the second half of the movie, though also fantastic, wasn't able to maintain the intensity of the first -- once the characters do grow older, I begin to forgive them less (as one would expect), and their flaws began to make me fall out of love with them just a bit. The epic sweep is part of what makes this movie so amazing, but it also stops it a little short from being a total 5-star movie. The acting is at times transcendental, at times just ok, but it never detracted from the movie for me.

I'd recommend that everyone see this, but be warned that it is a brutal movie.

Babe factor: There's a reason everybody is in love with Latika.
Beer factor: None. Then, afterwards, enjoy some hard alcohol to celebrate/drown your sorrows.