Guest Post by Morbo
It drives me crazy that some fundamentalist Christians insist that their dogmatic faith bestows upon them a superior form of ethics and morality — and then proceed to act like complete and utter sleazeballs.
Fundamentalists claim to worship an awesome God who holds them to a higher standard of behavior. Time and again I’ve heard them sneer at anyone skeptical of organized religion, any person who dares hew to a secular ethic. Without a belief in God, fundamentalists arrogantly insist, there is nothing to stop men from behaving like beasts.
Recently, I had occasion to hear a speech given by David C. Gibbs III, the Florida fundamentalist Christian attorney who represented Terri Schiavo’s parents, Robert and Mary Schindler. What I heard made me sick.
Gibbs basically accused Michael Schiavo of attacking his wife. Speaking during a right-wing conference in Washington, D.C., Gibbs asserted that no one knows why Terri Schiavo collapsed 15 years ago. Initial suspicions that she had a heart attack or suffered from an eating disorder were ruled out, he claimed.
“The third leading theory — and as you can see, the first two seem to be sort of eliminated — is that there was some form of foul play, that some form of strangulation or violence occurred, and again at the hand of the husband possibly, that actions were taken that caused her for about five minutes to not have oxygen reach into her brain.”
Gibbs asserted that Michael Schiavo then denied his wife any therapy and eagerly sought to collect a $2 million malpractice award he had won on Terri Schiavo’s behalf. Terri Schiavo, Gibbs said, was allowed to die even though she desperately wanted to live.
“Terri Schiavo was as alive as any person sitting here tonight…,” he told the crowd. “I mean, completely animated, completely responsive, desperately trying to talk.”
Note the especially sleazy use of words here. There might “perhaps” have been “some form of strangulation.” Gibbs tried to couch his language, but his meaning was clear. There is no way anyone hearing his speech could have come to any conclusion other than that Michael Schiavo attacked his wife and then sought to profit from that vile deed.
Michael Schiavo, Gibbs asserted, “just wanted to keep the cost down. He wanted to use the money to hire lawyers to kill his wife.” He assailed “all the deprivation and abuse she suffered at the hands of her husband.”
(Gibbs spoke at a conference titled “Confronting Judicial Activism.” It was a far-right nutfest. For more on this cavalcade of crackpots, who, unfortunately, have the ears of some powerful people, see Michelle Goldberg’s excellent piece in Salon. I recommend a stiff drink first.)
I don’t claim to be an expert on the Schiavo case, but I don’t have to be to realize that if Michael Schiavo had strangled his wife for five whole minutes, with his bare hands or some type of rope or belt, there would have been evidence of that. The police would have investigated. No credible authority has ever asserted that foul play occurred.
Two years ago, a court-appointed guardian prepared a report on Terri Schiavo’s case. The guardian, Jay Wolfson, a professor of public health and medicine at the University of South Florida, pointed out that the reason for her slip into unconsciousness remains unknown but noted that there was some evidence of a potassium deficiency, perhaps brought on by unusual dieting practices. Apparently, Terri Schiavo had taken to drinking huge amounts of iced tea in lieu of eating, in an effort to keep her weight down.
The report noted that Michael Schiavo was a loving and caring husband. Far from denying Terri treatment, he once traveled with her to California to try an experimental therapy whereby electrodes were planted directly into Terri’s brain in attempt to revive her.
During the height of the frenzy, various right-wing creeps on the internet accused Michael Schiavo of all manner of crimes and abuse. That’s to be expected. After all, if you give 1,000 monkeys modems and a few hours, several of them will produce Ann Coulter columns. But to hear an attorney intimately involved in the case spread this trash about was jarring. It took things to a new, unwelcome level.
Let’s be clear: Gibbs essentially accused Michael Schiavo of cold-blooded murder and presented no evidence to back it up. He led the crowd to believe that Terri Schiavo could have been cured when in fact a phalanx of experts testified that her cerebral cortex had withered away.
That’s ethical? That’s moral? That’s an example of a superior ethical system?
My inferior secular moral system would not allow me to level such charges against another human being — and not just because I fear a slander suit. I wouldn’t say it because it’s not right. It’s morally wrong to accuse someone of being a cold-blooded murderer when you have absolutely no evidence and are doing it to emotionally manipulate an audience and perhaps make a name for yourself. I could not do that and then get up the next morning and face my family, let alone my own self in the mirror.
And manipulate is exactly what Gibbs did. Gibbs, a well coiffed, good-looking man and gifted public speaker, had this crowd in his pocket. By the time he concluded, some listeners were in tears. The ease of his emotional manipulation said a lot about the crowd. It was not enough for them to simply be angry over the decisions Michael Schiavo made. He had to be turned into a monster, a murderer, an unfeeling, uncaring, money-grubbing killer. In short, he had to be demonized.
Only the most morally and ethically stunted among us would require that such a crude portrait be drawn and served up to them. Only those with the moral reasoning of a child would so eagerly eat it up.
Yet there they sat, sucking it down and asking for more.
I have no doubt that afterwards they went home to do what they always do: Sat in judgment of people like you and me.
To David Gibbs I can only say this: Ask yourself honestly, “What would Jesus do?” And once your answer arrives, if you’re really serious about your faith and not just using it for some ulterior motive, your course of action will be clear: Get down on your knees and beg for forgiveness.