The Republican Party likes to claim to be the political party of Life. When it is in fact the party of death, anger and pain.

A recent example of that premise comes from the REDSTATE blogs reaction to the Republican Congresswoman Renee Ellmers actions in Congress. Congresswoman Ellmers led the fight along with other Republican women in Congress to thwart the effort to pass the bill entitled, “Pain-capable Unborn Children Protection Act.”

A Mr. Aaron Rogers responded, on behalf of the blog, REDSTATE, to her efforts by asking the question is the Honorable Renee Ellmers worthy of life?

Congresswomen Ellmers is still supportive of  a ban on abortions. She objected to part of the bill requiring a woman to report a rape to the police if a woman who had been raped wanted an exemption under the 20 week period upon which abortions would have to end.

It is outrageous to basically threaten the Congresswoman by asking the rhetorical question is she worthy of life? But this almost expected from the far right extremists who care more about cells in a petri dish than they do about women who have been raped. They care little about whether a woman has become pregnant as a result of an act of incest. And the far right’s religious fundamentalists care little if at all, about the life of a mother, whose life may very well be at stake if she is forced to have her pregnancy go forward. The fetus, of potential life, is valued more than a living person. They claim to be about life but in point of fact they are about a culture of death.

Abortions are controversial and the goal should be to have as few as possible. There is nothing more intrusive than a government attempting to step in and tell a woman that government has control over a woman’s health and body. The issue of whether or not to have an abortion should be between she and her doctor, she and her family,or between she and her priest or minister. It is not something government has a place in. There is no freedom or liberty when government seeks to control a person’s extremely personal decision, it is in fact tyranny.

Men who can never be pregnant presume to have power over a woman.  We hear that old sexist refrain now. A woman’s place is in the home. A woman should know her place. It is not good for a woman to be the breadwinner. We hear that having an abortion is a sin. This comes from self-righteous men who claim that the Bible says as well as biology that men are meant to dominate over women. Who elected these people God? It is arrogant to pretend to know what God intends or wishes. But yet we have arrogant men assuming that they know God’s will trying to lord over women to the possible detriment of their health.

I can remember a case just around the time when Roe V. Wade was decided. A woman who was pregnant and her family was told that there was a very good chance that she would die, if she did not have an abortion. People outside the family attempted to place an injunction against the procedure happening. The woman almost died as she and her family had to wait for a court to decide whether to issue an injunction to stop the abortion. To my way of thinking, is the injunction would have been granted, those individuals involved seeking the stoppage would have been guilty of murder.

Taking a mother’s life instead of the fetus is unacceptable. A potential Mom can have more children.

Georgia now has a case that was filed in 2012, where the doctors have said that there is no way that the baby will be born alive. Are we going to force the mother to bring it to term knowing the truth? What cruelty and pain Republican right to life people want to force on women, who are the victims of acts and bad luck that we should help them with and not make their lives more difficult

Murder has been committed in the name of life. The fact is murder is murder. Rape is rape, and incest is incest. Are we going to force a woman to have a child who will always remind her of the rape or the act of incest? Nothing but excruciating personal pain and trauma can result from such tyranny. A woman should have the right to choose. A woman is not a possession of man, she is another human being who deserves life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as mush as any man.

Life, real life should be sacred, not potential life but actual living things. English common law, provided a standard for society to decide these things. It has been a long held belief that when a fetus is capable of sustaining life outside the womb is when life begins not at conception. All of us should value all life.

The so-called Right to Life advocates, want a law with a 20 week gestation period. They make the wild claim that fetus’s feel pain at that point. How the heck would they know?

Science will tell you that there is a very small chance of a fetus surviving at 22 to 23 weeks. Science has not made a breakthrough on any chance of success for a possible life making it at 20 weeks.

We will probably never solve the emotional issue of abortions. But we are a nation of laws and not of men. We, the people of this nation, are governed by the Constitution and not what someone perceives to be God’s laws. We have a code of conduct, laws based upon a long history. We have a separation of church and state for a reason. Which sect of a religion would govern if we would all of a sudden decide to have a theocracy? One religion will always claim to be THE ONE, to know what God intends.

The inconsistency of Republican thought regarding life, is amazing. They fight like all get out for potential life but they support war, and the death penalty. The result is more pain, death and destruction. If your having a tough time with life, well tough it out. You are on your own.

The religious right has a tremendous influence on the values and social agenda of the Republican Party, but do not be fooled. They remind us of all these Old Testament sayings and ignore the New Testament. There is a reason why it is called the New Testament. When someone like the new Pope teaches about the Teachings of Jesus, Fox News and others call him a Communist or Marxist.

Erick Erickson, the head of the Blog Redstate, claims to be religious. He teaches Sunday School in Macon, Georgia. He is an absolutist, very influential in Republican Party circles regarding policy. He is against any compromise. Where is God’s mercy in his thinking? How can he claim to be so all knowing about morality and insist that we live according to his beliefs. His views echo a famous sermon by Jonathan Edwards, “Sinners at the Hands of an Angry God.” In those days when society needed order, fear was used, and the dangers of sin were pronounced and those who were deemed to not be God fearing would be punished by the prospect of going to hell.

In contrast to the fear that is taught by the far right, the irony is that Jesus taught us that God is a loving and forgiving God. The New Testament does not teach us about God being a vengeful God.

Republicans support the death penalty. They support it even though it is more costly than life without parole. They support revenge while the rest of the world has abandoned the barbaric act of an eye for an eye, except for the countries that we claim to be rogue nations, our enemies.

Erickson worries about what he perceives to be the anger in the midst of so-called conservatives. So why are they so angry? Could it be because of the fact that change is taking place so quickly. Could it be because it makes you seem powerless? White men in particular seem determined to maintain power. The fact is though that all of us are powerless to stop change. Fear can be the result of the feeling that things are out of your control. Stop being so angry over disappointment and things we have no control over.

The anger seems to be against everything. Take a breath America, these times are a changing and we have no power to stop it. The last thing we should want though is to encourage and act out on our fears to make other people’s lives more painful and miserable. We should be against war, especially religious wars, we should be a good custodian of the earth and we should feed the hungry.  It is frustrating to feel the anger and hate against those who look different or who are in trouble, assuming that it must be their fault. Let us love our neighbor as we would love ourselves. Give peace and love a chance.