I guess one shouldn't expect much from Andrew Sullivan these days, but this second-hand swipe at Robbie George by way of Max Blumenthal just struck me as unfair:
But I was struck by this quote from George about the killing of abortionists. It was the first time I'd read it:"I am personally opposed to killing abortionists. However, inasmuch as my personal opposition to this practice is rooted in a sectarian (Catholic) religious belief in the sanctity of human life, I am unwilling to impose it on others who may, as a matter of conscience, take a different view."George is being funny, of course. But he sees no moral difference between an abortion and the murder of an abortionist.
What got to me about Andrew's comment was that he, himself, starts by observing that Robbie is making a joke (about the pat responses of liberal Catholics like John Kerry and Mario Cuoma), but then proceeds to analyze both George and the "theocons" as though they were seriously proposing the murder of abortionists. Just for the record, Robert George is opposed to capital punishment and would probably be willing to impose that constraint on those who disagree with him if it were legislatively feasible to do so. The real motivation behind Sullivan's attack is today's article in the NYT: "A Religious Push Against Gay Unions"
Just who is being morally inconsistent here?
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