With the arrogance of youth, I determined to do no less than to transform the world with Beauty. If I have succeeded in some small way, if only in one small corner of the world, amongst the men and women I love, then I shall count myself blessed, and blessed, and blessed, and the work goes on. -- William Morris

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Candidate for Worst Analogy...of All Time

A lot of virtual ink is spilled over the notion of analogy around here. It is important to me and my comrades both as a tool of good reasoning and as the manner in which the metaphysical relationship between God and creation is most aptly articulated. So I thought a new game might be fun: try to come up with a worse analogy than this set of gems...

Abortion doctor LeRoy Carhart compares the murder of Dr. Tiller to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. (as well as to the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the sinking of the Lusitania). Pro-life protesters are thus compared to the KKK. Quoted in the Washington Times (linked above)...
"I think there is absolutely no difference in putting a cross in front of a person's home because of what race they belong to than there is putting a cross in front of our homes because we do abortions."

I mean, wow. Such rock solid reasoning truly astounds. I suppose we shouldn't be surprised: the abortion debate brings out some of the most heated exchanges, and since comparisons to Hitler and the Holocaust have been throw around by the Pro-life side, I suppose it was a matter of time before those on the other side came up with something of equal inflammatory caliber. But while the Hitler analogies are certainly inflammatory, they don't suffer from the vice of being one of the worst analogies I have ever heard.

Luckily, MLK's niece, Aveda King, has responded to the comparison eloquently, noting that the basis upon which Cahart wants to compare them actually serves to drive them ever more radically apart; making even the thought of such an analogy simply laughable.

Maybe this was taken out of context. Maybe Dr. Cahart moonlights as a standup comedian?

Pax Christi,

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