On Thursday, Pope Francis amended an element of Catholic doctrine that governed the church’s view of the death penalty. It went from being a punishment reserved for the most stringent of circumstances to not being permissible at all. Of course, the liberal media were eager to seize on the change to browbeat pro-life conservatives for not being pro-life enough if they supported the way it was. CNN’s Chris Cuomo did exactly that during that night’s Prime Time.
Aside from pretending that Pope Francis spoke for all Christians instead of just Catholics, Cuomo lectured pro-life conservatives about their belief system. “The smart part is squaring the logic of being pro-life. If you believe you don't mess with life in one area, you don't mess with it period. It’s logical. And it plays to an inconsistency that we see here in America,” he opined. “Many who call themselves pro-life are also pro-death penalty.”
“So the question for you is are you pro-life? And if you say yes, do you mean just when it comes to a fetus? How about when it comes to a grave felon,” he pompously wondered. “Now, you may answer quickly and say ‘yes,’ but do you see that in the choices of your politics?”
Cuomo’s condescending pontifications about the morality of pro-lifers must also go the other way. For instance: On Thursday, Chris’s brother, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, announced that he would push a bill that would eliminate the death penalty for the state. But the Governor is also a staunch defender of abortion. Where’s Chris’s declarations of moral turpitude for him?
The Pope’s latest decision was quickly twisted by Cuomo as he tried to apply the pro-life philosophy to many other conservative policies. “How about when it comes to color,” he asked. “In our collective choices about our economy, our institutions, our justice system? Do we see it on the border with all this us versus them? Christians and Muslims? For many now, with how men treat women?”
While Cuomo acted like he knew what he was talking about, his depiction of the conservative position was a severely outdated one. Conservatives vary greatly on the issue of the death penalty. While there are many conservatives that put stock in the death penalty, there’s a growing number who do not. CNN regular, Van Jones had actually teamed up with some conservative organizations like FreedomWorks for criminal justice reform efforts.
Cuomo appeared to suggest that you weren’t really pro-life if you were a supporter of capitalism because it created rich and poor people. “How laws like stand your ground make killing so easy. That let white men go free and black men die without an arrest,” he continued. But laws like stand your ground were not systemically racist and were not akin to the death penalty. Deadly self-defense in the moment in order to protect yourself or someone else from being killed is not the same.
The ranting CNN host also tried to apply the Pope’s death penalty ruling to our immigration debate:
It happens in a system where fairness under law is too often not the reality. You look at the border. People are not valued the same. We know what their homelands have been called, how their illegal entry has become a judgment on their soul.
“The Pope is just as strong on respecting those lives as he is an unborn baby. Are you? Because if you are not, then you may have to reconsider your quick answer of being pro-life,” he sneered as he wrapped up the program.
He really doesn’t know what it means to be pro-life.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
CNN
Cuomo Prime Time
August 2, 2018
9:57:10 PM Eastern [2 minutes 48 seconds]CHRIS CUOMO: Please tweet me or two to my Instagram page and give me your take on the closing argument.
Il Papa, the Pope, says the death penalty is no good under any circumstances. It is now inadmissible as part of the catechism because it undermines the dignity of that life. Paragraph 2267 of the catechism. Now, this is different. It used to be okay as a last resort if it was to avoid safety from the unjust. Now he changed it. So, even person who does something horrible can be redeemed, deserve dignity. That's the point that he's making. No longer just a last resort for safety. This is smart on one level, stunning on another.
Here's the argument. The smart part is squaring the logic of being pro-life. If you believe you don't mess with life in one area, you don't mess with it period. It’s logical. And it plays to an inconsistency that we see here in America. Many who call themselves pro-life are also pro-death penalty. Now, that's always struck me as odd regardless of any arguments about innocence of the actor and biblical assertions of eye for an eye. Because for believers, either the big man calls the shots of who lives and who dies or we do. Which is it?
But then I read a little bit more into Bergoglio’s words and thoughts, and I thought about it a little bit more, and I see something that's not just smart but stunning. In Argentina, the Pope, then Bergoglio (that’s his name), he was only a huge opponent of the death penalty but of inequities of how we treat the living. His argument has always been, if you're pro-life, then you're pro-all life equally.
So the question for you is are you pro-life? And if you say yes, do you mean just when it comes to a fetus? How about when it comes to a grave felon? How about when it comes to color?
Now, you may answer quickly and say “yes,” but do you see that in the choices of your politics? In our collective choices about our economy, our institutions, our justice system? Do we see it on the border with all this us versus them? Christians and Muslims? For many now, with how men treat women? Look at the yawning gap of rich and poor in this country. How laws like stand your ground make killing so easy. That let white men go free and black men die without an arrest.
It happens in a system where fairness under law is too often not the reality. You look at the border. People are not valued the same. We know what their homelands have been called, how their illegal entry has become a judgment on their soul. The Pope is just as strong on respecting those lives as he is an unborn baby. Are you? Because if you are not, then you may have to reconsider your quick answer of being pro-life.
