When I say normal....I mean average people who aren't drawn to politics and causes the way WE are. I AM NOT NORMAL. :)
If we had employed more successful tactics, and been thinking about PR and how to reach people who don't think the way we do, NOT only would the babies who have been saved, been saved...but many more.
Too many conservatives are to egocentric and think what appeals to them, appeals to people who don't think the way they do. We must learn to be able to see things through the eyes/minds of people we're trying to persuade.
Thank you for the opportunity to clarify that statement.
Thank you for your direct and unequivocal response.
...If we had employed more successful tactics, and been thinking about PR and how to reach people who don't think the way we do, NOT only would the babies who have been saved, been saved...but many more.
It seems that what you are saying is that for political and public relations purposes certain non-violent tactics that have saved and do save individual persons from being killed ought to be opposed. Your argument seems to be based on the utilitarian presupposition that moral rightness in these instances is determined by what leads to the greatest good for the greatest number of people. It assumes that good PR and politics will save more children.
A utilitarian ethic such a this requires us assess what the outcome of each choice will be before we make it and the moral value of our actions is determined by the outcome, ie, the greatest good for the greatest number of people.
I object to a purely utilitarian ethic, if indeed that is what you are driving at, because our choices ought to be made out of wholehearted obedience to God’s revelation, not merely because we might think that there is a more efficient way to go about bringing the greatest good to the greatest number of people. If you make the perceived benefits of an act the sole basis of its moral value then we are essentially forced to rely on our own finite knowledge to determine the greatest good for the greatest number of people, which is impossible for our unaided reason precisely because we are finite and we are simply unable to calculate all the variables.
The group numbers do not always seem to be the determining factor:
10 “Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven. 11 For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost.12 “What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying? 13 And if he should find it, assuredly, I say to you, he rejoices more over that sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray. 14 Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.
Matthew 19: 10-14
Cordially,