Vincent Tumy spoke to my theology class on Tuesday. He was very conservative. At one point he commended the social value of caring for the handicapped and otherwise disadvantaged, comparing the example of a nomadic society which carried a woman who had been born disabled around the desert for the entire duration of her life to the example of women who have sued hospitals for depriving them of their opportunity to abort their handicapped children by not informing them of the handicaps. I have some questions for the good doctor:
Have you ever carried a handicapped woman around the desert? Have you ever carried any handicapped person anywhere? Have you ever even pushed one around in a wheelchair?
Have you ever become pregnant with or given birth to a handicapped child, and thus been saddled with the rewards and responsibilities of raising one? Have you ever fathered such a child? Have you ever demonstrated your commitment to the commendable values of sacrifice and service, and simultaneously preserved the valuable life of a child, by going to a woman who was planning to abort her handicapped child and offering to assume responsibility for raising the child if she would consent to give birth to it? Have you ever looked into adopting one of the many abandoned or orphaned handicapped children who are routinely passed over in favor of healthy orphans, thereby demonstrating your commitment to these values which you commend?
Or have you simply spent your life pointing to some one's behavior as commendable, and some other's contrary behavior as disgraceful, without actually applying to your own life these lessons that you impart to others through your writing? Have you in any way followed the example of the sacrificing nomadic tribe which you cite favorably? Has your behavior in any way set you apart from the women who decline the opportunity to make similar sacrifices? Do you realize that you too have this opportunity, or are you too busy encouraging other people to sacrifice for the good of the world and their souls?
Also, he distinguished Catholicism from Islam by saying that Catholicism grows and changes.
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