Thursday, March 17, 2005

Approaching D-Day

Tommorrow is the day that Terri Schiavo's court-ordered execution is scheduled to begin. Judge George Greer ordered three weeks ago that the removal of her feeding tube shall begin at 1pm tommorrow.

There are some developments in the case however. A little while ago, the Florida House passed a bill that would prolong Terri's life. But there's still disagreement between the House and Senate on an acceptable bill. A similar dispute exists as the United States Congress debates similar bills.

The Christian Law Association, which is representing Terri's parents, filed a stay with the United States Supreme Court this morning, and have another one planned for tommorrow if that fails. I participated earlier this afternoon in a radio interview with Barbara Weller, one of the CLA's attorneys on the case, and she expressed optimism that Terri's feeding tube would not be removed tommorrow. She put the chances at 9-1 that the tube would stay in, which was encouraging.

Meanwhile, the pastor of Judge Greer's erstwhile church, Calvary Baptist in Clearwater, Florida (which Greer left in a snit over its stance on the Schiavo case), condemns Greer's decision to remove the feeding tube, writing:
Some have wondered about the commitment of our church to the sanctity of human life. There is no need to wonder. Our convictions have been clear and consistent. In this cultural battleground our church arrived early, has fought hard and stayed faithful. For over 30 years, Calvary has sounded a clear trumpet about the sanctity of human life.

...That stand, articulated in many ways – one of which is our enthusiastic support of this publication – has become one of the reasons that Judge Greer has disassociated himself from Calvary and has publicly criticized us in the St. Petersburg Times.

Like evangelicals across the world, we are horrified at the thought that a handicapped woman could be, in effect, starved to death before a watching world.
Greer evidently stopped attending the church because of its support of the Florida Baptist Witness newspaper, which has taken a strong pro-Terri stance. According to that aforementioned profile in the St. Petersburg Times:
Greer is a Southern Baptist who attended Calvary Baptist Church in Clearwater. But his attendance faltered after a Baptist publication the church supported became highly critical of him, he said.

Greer, who said he had other unrelated problems with the church, said he explained to a deacon, "If I don't like what the St. Pete Times writes about me, my only recourse is to cancel my subscription." So he stopped his donations to the church, though he is still a member.
One can be glad that there are still churches in which Greer would feel uncomfortable. But the church ought not stop at mere uncomfortability.

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