Ice Bucket Morality

There is a growing objection to the ice bucket challenge on the grounds ALSA supports embryonic stem cell research. As a Catholic I believe embryonic stem cell research is clearly wrong. Whether supporting ALSA is wrong is not so clear. The ethical arguments pro and con are closely reasoned and I don't want to wade into them except to say that the issue revives an ongoing debate about whether and to what extent Catholics can or should work with people who disagree with us on serious moral concerns. I generally come down on the side of finding areas of common interest and working to common goals. It happens all the time. I was at a meeting yesterday to promote legislation regulating payday lenders. There were two Jews at the table, two Baptists, one Methodist, and one Catholic, me. I expect some of those there are at some level pro choice. But we could all agree that predatory lending is a bad thing and we will have to work together to do anything about it In odd numbered years when the legislature is in session Lynne and I participate with a group that loads up the parish bus and goes to Austin for Catholic Advocacy Day. We put on tee shirts and call on members of the house and senate in support of the Texas Catholic Conference legislative agenda. Not everyone in the parish thinks we should be doing that. Some don't think the church has any business lobbying at all and some of the issues are quite controversial, like immigration. If you want to start an argument in a room full of Catholics just bring that up. In fact I don't always support everything on the TCC agenda but I bite my tongue and advocate for the things I do support. We never get everything we want but we always get something. Every pope at least since Leo XIII, the pope who founded the Diocese of Dallas, has preached social justice. We are called to get out in the world and do something about the ills that plague our society. Every four years, in sync with the presidential election cycle, the U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops publishes a pamphlet called Forming Conscience for Faithful Citizenship. There should be a new one next year outlining the issues the bishops think are important and what their positions are on them. Some of those will be controversial too and if you want to know what the bishops think it should make for a good read. One thing will stand out. They don't think you should leave your conscience outside when you go into the voting booth. The bishops will also likely reiterate their position that some things, direct abortion among them, are intrinsically evil and can never be condoned. But when I take my conscience into that voting booth I will inevitably be forced to choose among candidates who do condone abortion, at least in certain circumstances. The alternative, to not vote, merely allows someone else to choose for me. Which brings me back to the ice bucket challenge because it involves choosing one life over another. Some will argue it is a false choice because there are alternatives to embryonic stem cell research. That is true but it is also true that the millions being raised through the challenge would almost certainly not be raised without it. Much research that will be done would not be done. Millions condemned to death by ALS who might have had a chance at life will die. Others will argue that it is a choice only God can make. I would argue that it isn't God who is choosing, it is man. So what do we choose?