Latest News on Terri Schiavo

Child of Reagan ^ | March 25, 2005 | Vince Haley

[M. Espinola]

Honourable motives and Michael Schiavo do not belong the same sentence.

He fits the profile of brutal thug. Another Scott Peterson type.

[Bosco]

What utter nonsense.

I did not say that the deaths of Christian martyrs are meaningless. To be a Christian martyr, one must die for the Gospel. From what I can gather, Mrs. Schiavo was not and is not persecuted for her faith or preaching the Gospel. Please present evidence to the contrary. To make it more clear: Terri Schiavo is no Christian martyr. Here's a definition of a martyr from a Roman Catholic site.

You and others may try to make her into one, but the circumstances of her life and, in my belief, early demise, does not fit the definition of Christian martyr.

She went into a coma and experience brain trauma as the result of bulemia, not because of any anti-Christian act.

Is she a victim of a medical condition and a husband and a legal system that didn't take into account all of the evidence? My answer is yes.

Tragic death? Yes.

A wake-up call to the rest of us as to how much power a court has? Yes.

Now, as for your statement: "Terri's death is redemptive, as is the suffering and the death of every Christian."

Please define what you mean by this statement. I disagree with your statement - that all Christians' suffering and death are redemptive. Some Christians do some pretty silly things and suffer as a result. Is that redemptive? Some Christians do some pretty deadly things and they die as a result. Is that redemptive?

I do agree with your last sentence in paragraph 2 - in that we cannot participate in God's life without dying to ourselves.

But placing Mrs. Schiavo in the camp of Christian martyrs due to her circumstances doesn't hold water.

The idea that the suffering and death of everyone but Jesus is meaningless is contrary to Scripture.

Thanks for putting words in my mouth, but that's not what I said. I said that the parallels that the author was trying to draw between Terri Schiavo's imperfect life (and primarily her death) and the Lord Jesus's sinless life and substitutionary death and subsequent resurrection were pointless and demeaning. Can Terri's life or imminent death pay for anyone's sins? No. The only death that can do that is Jesus Christ.

Her death meaningless? Terri Schiavo is very precious to God, as is every human. That's why Jesus came and paid our sin debt. I hope that she has made her peace with God at some point in her life for her soul's sake.