![\"\"](\"http:\/\/consistent-life.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/people-Arner-2.jpg\")
Rob Arner<\/p><\/div>\n
I\u2019ve always felt like something of a misfit, like I don\u2019t fully belong. As a person living in\u00a021st<\/sup> century North America, I find myself surrounded by an oppressively exclusive metaphor of the left-right political spectrum. It\u2019s a moral and political environment with two competing \u201ccamps,\u201d in which both claim to be fighting for justice and a better world, but each prioritize radically different things as the hallmarks of the better world for which they fight. I find myself looking at both<\/em> camps and often finding myself in agreement with the goods that they seek. Thus, my conception of a better world is marked by things that are central concerns to both \u201cliberal\u201d and \u201cconservative\u201d groups. In this, I sometimes feel like a mutant hybrid, or better, a chimera \u2013 an amalgam of components of two wildly divergent worldviews.<\/p>\n My first awareness of this difference of conscience came in college freshman Spanish class. We were tasked with debating different moral issues in Spanish. It just so happened that on my debate day the two issues under consideration were abortion and the death penalty. In preparing for the debates, I noticed that those who were opposed to abortion as a violation of human rights were often supporters of the death penalty, and those who advocated death penalty abolition were often the same ones who advocated for the widespread availability of abortion. I also realized that I was opposed to both, for reasons I did not yet fully comprehend. But on debate day, my debate opponent truly shocked me, as she argued for both the death penalty and<\/em> legalized abortion. I vividly remember remarking, rather cheekily, \u201c\u00a1Ella quiere matar a todos \u2013 desde los enfantes a los criminales!\u201d (She wants to kill everyone \u2013 from babies to criminals).<\/p>\n Thankfully, in my experience such blatantly \u201cseamless shroud\u201d advocates are quite rare. Much more frequent is the tension of being embraced in part and pushed away in part. For example, I find that when I\u2019m in more \u201cconservative\u201d company, the fact that I\u2019m pro-life on abortion and oppose involving the medical profession in helping people kill themselves is welcomed, but my opposition to the latest American military misadventure is cause for concern because I don\u2019t \u201csupport the troops.\u201d Likewise, when I find myself among more \u201cliberal\u201d friends, my pacifism and opposition to the death penalty are points of connection, while my conviction that abortion is first and foremost an issue of killing rather than of bodily autonomy prevents me from being fully accepted. So I live in this tension, seeing and adopting many of the moral goods sought by both \u201cconservatives\u201d and<\/em> \u201cliberals,\u201d but finding a home in neither group.\u00a0 Despite the isolation it entails, I like it this way- not being fully \u201cat home\u201d in either popular camp. It allows me to see with eyes of understanding and compassion and make common cause with both in our collective struggle for a better world.<\/p>\n When I first learned about the consistent life ethic (CLE), it gave me words and a framework to articulate what I now realize I had always believed: that human life is too precious, too sacred to be violated. For me as a Christian, this resonated with my conviction that human life is sacred to God, that human beings are bearers of the divine image, and that, as Cardinal Joseph Bernardin remarked, \u201cThe person is the clearest reflection of the presence of God among us. To lay violent hands on a person . . . is to come as close as we can to laying violent hands on God. Each social system \u2013 east to west, north or south, communist or capitalist \u2013 should be judged by the way in which it reverences, or fails to reverence, the unique and equal dignity of every person.\u201d<\/p>\n But I\u2019ve also learned to speak in non-theological ways better fitting the pluralism of the public square. By positing a linkage (not an equivalence) between such seemingly disparate issues as poverty, war, abortion, racial discrimination, and euthanasia, the CLE has given me the conviction to stand up for human rights and dignity wherever and however they are threatened.<\/p>\n So I live in my misfit space, with friends on the right, and friends on the left, working at times with and<\/em> against both. It can be a lonely space, being this consistent chimera. It requires employing critical thinking as well as connected knowing in equal measure; the ability to deconstruct and the necessity of reconstructing and unifying. But as one who is committed to the idea of being a \u201cminister of reconciliation\u201d (2 Corinthians 5:18), it provides the remarkable and refreshing opportunity to build bridges rather than walls, and to bring adversaries together, making common cause in the pursuit of justice, peace, and a better world.<\/p>\n As much as the CLE makes me into an oddity, I know it\u2019s also the best framework for making me into a healer.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Rob Arner is author of <\/em>Consistently Pro-Life: The Ethics of Bloodshed in Ancient Christianity<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n He also wrote our blog post, <\/em>The Consistent Life Consensus in Ancient Christianity<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n ======================================================================<\/p>\n For more blog posts on personal journeys, see:<\/em><\/p>\n Supporting the Dignity of Every Life<\/a>\u00a0(Bill Samuel)<\/p>\n Nukes and the Pro-Life Christian<\/a>: A Conservative Takes a Second Look at the Morality of Nuclear Weapons (Karen Swallow Prior)<\/p>\n Coming to Peace and Living a Consistent Life After Military Service<\/a><\/p>\n Off the Fence and Taking My Stand on Abortion <\/a>(Mary Liepold)<\/p>\n Sharon Long: My Personal Pro-life Journey<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Rob Arner I\u2019ve always felt like something of a misfit, like I don\u2019t fully belong. As a person living in\u00a021st century North America, I find myself surrounded by an oppressively exclusive metaphor of the left-right political spectrum. It\u2019s a moral and political environment with two competing \u201ccamps,\u201d in which both claim to be fighting… <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/consistent-life.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/book-Arner-199x300.jpg\")
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