I’ve looked with interest at the anti-religion media that folks such as Richard Dawkins and Bill Mahrer have produced in the past few years. If I may summarize their position, it would seem that all that is going wrong in the world can be traced to religion, particularly religious fanatacism.
I then came across this little piece in the the journal First Things. The writer offers a counterpoint to the atheistic attacks on the Catholic Church:
“On the church’s effect, Rupert Shortt, in Times Literay Supplement, on Ian Linden’s ‘Global Catholicism,’
‘Secularists might be surprised to learn that the Church is the largest single supplier of healthcare and education on the planet, the principle glue of civil society in Africa, the strongest bulwark of opposition to the caste system in India, and a leading player in global campaigns for sustainable living. It provides almost the only charitable presence in Chechnya, and other black spots only forgotten by the world.’”
I think we could add to the church’s effect the propagation of good hospice care. From our point of view, providing hospice in Fort Worth, Texas, requires a knowledge that humans have value because they are made in God’s image. Our value does not come from our ability to produce, our appearance or our power, for if that were the case, our patients would have no value and there would be no reason to reduce their suffering.
Thoughts?
