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Thought for the Day: Church and State Just Cannot Always be Separated -- Let's Admit That and Move On

There is a YouTube star (nebbich...) who has a popular series of her taking to her past self through the pandemic. It's cute. The first one was particularly brilliant and (it seems to me) was the hit that launched her to fame. Part of the shtick is that her future (ie, present) self has to talk in code to her past self in order to not "disturb the space time continuum" more than she already has. The coded messages are part of the fun.

The most recent episode included this jewel: 

<present>Well... let me put it this way: If you order a pizza and it comes with pineapple -- even though you didn't order pineapple on your pizza -- it is illegal for you to remove it. <past>But it's my pizza! What if I get someone else to remove the pineapple? <present>No... then you'll both get arrested. <past>But what if I am allergic to pineapple and eating it could even cause me to die? Then can I remove it? <present>Uh... nope!

My first reaction was, "but it's not a chunk of pineapple!" My second reaction was... hmm... that is how she (and many, many others) view the situation. So then I re-imagined this skit right after January 22, 1973, and the actor on the other side of the controversy. 

<present>If you invite a guest into your house for an evening, and they refuse to leave, you are allowed to kill them. <past>What?! But are they threatening me? <present>Not really; though they are raiding your fridge and making a mess of your living room. <past>But kill them? I don't think I could do that. <present>That's ok; you can hire someone to do it for your. 100% legal. In fact, a constitutionally guaranteed right.

So here's the deal. First, there is no disagreement that you should have a right to have whatever you want on your pizza. Even though having pork or beef with cheese is a Torah violation for us, we do not want the US government getting involved -- separation of church and state is very important to us. Second, there is absolutely no disagreement that no one should be able kill unwanted guests. So by throwing these arguments back and forth at each other, no one is actually discussing the real issue.

Where are the scientifically verifiable facts? (1) The embryo/fetus is certainly alive from conception and before. (2) At some point the embryo/fetus becomes viable outside its current host. (That point is getting earlier and earlier, by the way.) Those are factual statements which can be verified to be true or false by the usual scientific process.

What is the disagreement? One thing and only one thing: Is it a chunk of pineapple, a little human being, or something between? That is wholly and only a religious question. You can find belief systems that hold each of those view; in fact, its a spectrum. Moreover, just as the beliefs of those in the Flat Earth Club don't actually flatten the earth; so, too, the beliefs of the Catholics doesn't change pineapple chunks into babies and the beliefs of the Ethical Humanists doesn't change babies into pineapple chunks.

At the end of the day, there is one law for the land. Whatever your personal beliefs are, it seems to me that the very least you can do is to appreciate the passion on both sides and why the one and only solution is to bring the world to the realization HaShem and His Torah are the actual definers of reality.

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