Alan Colmes' comments on how the Santorums viewed the birth and physical death of their son, Gabriel, may be repulsive, but they are revealing of a deeper void in understanding and indicate the shallow body of thought from which they came.
The Santorums loved the child they knew was being formed inside her body, even before they saw it, and to allow their children, who also looked for its arrival, to see the previously "unseen" gave each of those children the kind of reverence for life they will never forget.
Perhaps that child, who was conceived in love, whose body was created by the great Giver of life, and whose soul returned to its Creator after only a short time, may have served the divine purpose for which it was created in just those few short hours. Even now, its life takes on new meaning, as it becomes part of the current political dialogue.
Psalm 139:
"Verse 13: You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb.
14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous--and how well I know it.
15 You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.
16 You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.
17 How precious are your thoughts about me,[b] O God! They are innumerable!
18 I can't even count them;
they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up in the morning, you are still with me!
. . . .
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts.
24 Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting." - NLT
So-called "progressive" thought is not as "progressive" as those who are its advocates believe. Views which would limit the natural loving actions of individuals in a family toward loving, embracing and saying goodbye to a new member in the way which is most desirable to that family are not "progressive" at all.
Gabriel was a loved soul, both by his Creator and by his earth family. His life and death now have a meaning that many who have lived to be 90 may not have achieved.
Thank you for a beautiful and reverential post!