Column: The New Pharisees

Terri Schiavo may not be able to sit up, move or respond to anything, but lately she's managed to stir up some heated emotions.

Schiavo is the Florida woman who's been in a "minimally conscious" (or perhaps "persistent vegetative") state for the past 13 years. She suffers from permanent brain damage and has no chance of recovery, although her body can indefinitely be kept alive with a feeding tube.

Following Florida law, her husband Michael was appointed legal guardian and was charged with carrying out what he believed were Terri's wishes. Michael says that Terri had urged that she never be forced to remain in such a condition indefinitely, and would rather have the feeding tube removed. Terri's parents disagree, claiming that their daughter told them nothing of the sort, and that she still has a chance of recovering.

Without a doubt, the questions raised by Terri's ordeal are deep, difficult and heart-wrenching. Does feeding Terri affirm the sanctity of her life, or does it diminish life to its bodily functions while prolonging the grief of Terri's family?

I won't even pretend to be able to answer these questions. But though I cannot say whether Terri is alive, I am certainly quite suspicious of the right-wing proselytizers who recently became involved in her family's ordeal.

Led by Randall Terry, the charismatic founder of Operation Rescue, they insist that the feeding tube remain, regardless of what Terri, her husband or the law might say. Like the Pharisees of Jesus Christ's time, the Operation Rescue crowd is "confident of their own righteousness and look[s] down on everybody else" (Luke 18:9).

If these activists have any doubts about the questions I raised, they don't seem to show it, preferring to zealously demand that the feeding tube remain--at all costs. My problem with them is not that they're wrong--for all I know they were really divinely instructed by God as to whether such a patient should be kept alive.

But I searched the Bible online and can assure you that the phrases "vegetative state," "minimally conscious," and "feeding tube" don't appear anywhere in the Good Book. So even if one accepts the Bible (a big if), how can the right wingers be so sure of what a person in Schiavo's situation should do? Their refusal to acknowledge that others may morally disagree with them is not faith but arrogance.

Furthermore, Operation Rescue's supposed zealousness for life does not seem to extend beyond the lives of those who make news. Terri Schiavo was white, middle class and young--exactly the demographic that appeals to the national media. She also had an interesting story that raised all sorts of controversial questions.

Since the culture wars have faded from the nation's attention, Operation Rescue needed a big issue to put itself back in the spotlight, and the Schiavo family was perfect. Not only did Terri stir up the press, she even got the Florida legislature involved.

Whatever one thinks of the feeding tube, isn't it a bit odd that Operation Rescue "sanctifies" Terri Schiavo's life more than the lives of those who die without a good story? Take the 24,000 people who died of hunger today--yes, 24,000 people worldwide. All precious lives, but not news, because the same number died of hunger yesterday, and the day before and probably will tomorrow too.

So for all the religious zealots, reporters and politicians who have enhanced their careers fighting over a feeding tube, I just have one question: why are you struggling so hard to feed one half-dead woman when the same energy (and a little food) could undoubtedly save thousands?

One quick caveat: In criticizing the Randall Terrys of the world, I mean no offense to Christians in general, most of whom have no interest in controlling others, but only seek to humbly live as Christ instructed. In fact, thousands of missionaries have eschewed the culture wars in order to help the neediest and most neglected people in the world.

Moreover, I have no problem with those Christians who have an opinion on when life ends and urge their congregants to act accordingly. Religion is supposed to help us answer the biggest questions in life, and churches who teach moral relativism don't offer any answers their congregations.

But when a church goes beyond persuasion and uses the government to force its views on everyone else, it threatens the values that make this country a democracy.

When a right-wing political group takes a family's tragedy and turns it into a media circus, it does no service to the family, to the nation, or to Jesus.

Zach Klughaupt is a second-year law student. His column appears every third Friday.