The battle of worldviews

When President Bush exercised his presidential veto yesterday for the first time in five years in office, the reaction was fast and furious.

As expected, he vetoed legislation that would have permitted more federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research - or, to put it less delicately, ghoulish experimentation on unborn human children.

Proponents of the legislation - and there were plenty on both sides of the aisle in Congress - were quick to make the point that Bush was making a decision based on his narrow religious views.

You've heard it over and over again, haven't you? He is imposing his religious views on the rest of us. He is putting religion ahead of science.

Now, I happen to be quite honest about my opinion on this subject. I am opposed to murder, theft, adultery, lying, idolatry and other things because the Bible tells me they are wrong. I believe we live in a world governed, ultimately, by God. I believe there is accountability for what we do. I believe without the immutable laws handed down by God - not just those etched in stone by Moses, but those etched on our hearts - we wouldn't have a clue about right and wrong.

In fact, I will go further. Without God, right and wrong would be meaningless. There would be no such thing - just various opinions.

I'm also honest about the fact that my faith in God shapes everything I do - from my politics to my business decisions to the way I treat my dog.

I don't know if President Bush feels the same way I do. But he made the right call yesterday on this issue. He got this one right. He may have been listening to his heart, or he may have been listening to his constituency - something few politicians, including himself, ever do.

But the point is this: Though I don't know the specifics of what shaped Bush's decision, I do know what shapes the choices and views of proponents of experimentation on human embryos. It is their religion that shapes their worldview.

You see, everyone is religious - even the atheist. Everyone worships at the altar of something - whether it's "science" or money or power or a golden calf.

Everyone has a worldview - a lens through which they see the world and make decisions about it.

Whether it's Ted Kennedy or John Kerry or Nancy Pelosi or Barney Frank or Bill Frist - they've all got all got a religion. It may be a bad religion. It may be a false religion. It may be a perverted religion. It may be an evil religion. But everyone has one - whether they believe in the God of the Bible or not.

Some of these people, however, like to pretend they don't. Others like to pretend that they have a religion, but it doesn't affect their public policy decisions. Others like to pretend that they don't make any effort to impose their religious values on others.

Let me tell you something. In this case, it was the group that was proposing new legislation to broaden experimentation on human embryos that was trying to impose its religious values on the rest of us. The veto merely protected us, momentarily, from that imposition.

In fact, if you think about it, every single effort to pass a new law is an effort to impose somebody's sense of morality on others.

This is a profound point worth some serious contemplation. And a good way to explore it is by reading Ann Coulter's new book, "Godless," which, more than any other popular book ever written, makes the point with clarity and force.

Christians and Jews, the people who created Western Civilization, have permitted the secular jihadists to intimidate them into believing, in many cases, that they don't have as much right as anyone to pass laws that conform with their worldviews. Christians and Jews have been put on defense by this attack - which pretends to be about "separating church and state," but is, in fact, about the imposition of a new state religion.

Bush got this one right. But the issue is not dead. The ghouls will be back again because they feed on death and denial of the one true God.

Remember how this works the next time. Imposition of moral values is a two-way street. The only question is whether good values or bad values will prevail. The only question is whether we walk in the light or darkness. The only question is whether we speak the truth or accept a lie.