Yesterday afternoon, as I was driving home from Lowe's after picking up some household stuff, Dr. Dean Edell, famous radio and TV doctor, began his show. He normally does this by going through various news stories in the world of medicine, also contributing his opinions on the various stories. This time, however, he decided to rant about the evils of the Catholic church for 5 minutes, as he talked about an embryonic stem cell project and a human cloning project.
On embryonic stem cells, Dr. Edell claimed there had been some progress in using them to treat Muscular Dystrophy, and indicated that he knew how he would vote if he had MD. His point was that it was ridiculous, all this commotion about the research. He didn't consider for a second why people oppose this kind of research; namely, that killing the embryos to harvest their cells is completely immoral. He can believe what he wants to believe, but ridiculing the Church, which leads the fight against this kind of research, started to cross the line, in my opinion.
He continued on by reading a short quote by Pope Benedict about how human cloning is evil and how this latest, apparently successful, attempt to clone human beings is to be condemned. At this point, Dr. Edell went off the rails, ranting about how the Church itself was evil and to be condemned for all its misdeeds over the centuries. He went on and on.
I notified the Catholic League this morning, and sent Dr. Edell an email, which read as follows:
I don't know whether or not he'll ever read my email. Hopefully he will, and hopefully this gets some attention at the League, as well, as they can make more noise than I can.Hello Dr Edell,
I've listened to you off and on for a couple decades, it seems like, and enjoyed your show. Yesterday, however, I was aghast at your offensive 5-minute long rant against the Catholic church to start off your radio show.
When you began talking about an alleged advance in embryonic stem cell research and announced the successful attempt to clone 5 human beings, you qualified the stem cell research twice as "that research you don't like" and you immediately mocked Pope Benedict's condemnation of the cloning. You continued by comparing the Church's position on cloning to a number of alleged misdeeds done by it over the centuries, such as the Inquisition; "enslavement of populations" aka religious persecution and forced conversions; taking positions against birth control and against condoms in Africa (virtually stating that the Church had African blood on its hands as a result); and wrapped up by rhetorically asking why Protestants, Jews, and Muslims don't argue about such things or force people to convert (yes, Muslims NEVER do that...). You were offended that the Church "attempts to manipulate" laws and policies in this country, which affect you, even though you're not Catholic. Your example was abortion, the Church's position on which you apparently disagree with. Though you admitted right away that "we all want fewer abortions in this country," you never ventured to say why, nor what your problem is with the Church's position. Perhaps you realized at that point that you were in uncharted territory, commenting well outside of your field.
I'm not going to spend time defending against each of these insults because the purpose of my email is not to change your mind on such matters, but to point out to you that, first, your remarks were incredibly offensive to me and other Catholics. Second, they were made all the worse because you made them on a nationally syndicated radio program that is successful and listened to by hundreds of thousands of people. Because of these two factors alone, you owe Catholics a public apology.
Finally, as much as I respect and enjoy listening to your medical discussions, I need to point out to you that when you make such remarks, you sound like an absolute fool. You sound foolish because,like many scientists before you, when you start commenting in an area in which you obviously have no expertise, especially to the point of criticizing and condemning others who ARE experts in the field, you make big mistakes like the ones I just outlined. It would be as if I, a software developer, tried to give medical advice. I'm not qualified to do so, and you, sir, are not qualified to give theological or,sadly, moral advice. The fact that you need to keep in mind is that people often make decisions of all kinds (including medical ones)partly on the basis of MORALITY, not just on the science behind such things. Abortion, embryonic stem cell research, condom and birth control use, these all carry moral considerations with them. That you don't see that is something you should consider next time you think about railing against the largest religious body on the planet.
The pope alone has already forgotten more about theology and morality than you will ever learn. Show some respect and keep your dignity by keeping your opinion on these matters to yourself.
Posts
|