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Faith is written on hearts, not in stone

Not all Christians praying for Terri Schiavo agree that life is always the ultimate good.

By COLETTE BANCROFT
Published March 24, 2005

From the sidewalks of Pinellas Park to the halls of Congress, many Christians have invoked their beliefs to explain why they oppose removing Terri Schiavo's feeding tube. From evangelical Protestants to Roman Catholic priests, they have argued that keeping her alive is the will of God.

But they are not the only Christian believers who are making their feelings known. Being a Christian, it turns out, does not mean one is against removing her feeding tube.

Many of the hundreds of people who have e-mailed the St. Petersburg Times online guestbook (www.sptimes.com/schiavo/) about the Schiavo case identify themselves in their messages as Christians.

Although some of them support Schiavo's parents in their effort to keep her alive, many others side with her husband. In e-mail interviews, several in the latter group talked about how their faith affects their feelings about the case, and about what impact it might have on similar situations in their own lives.

Donna Lynn Harrell of Ocala describes herself as a born-again Christian. The 33-year-old office manager writes, "I don't like to put titles on my beliefs. I don't have a "religion,' I have a relationship with Jesus Christ. However, the closest religion that I can put myself into is a mix of Baptist and Charismatic."

Harrell has viewed videotapes of Schiavo, thought about the case a great deal and read "everything" about it. "I cannot speak for God, as no man can know the mind of God. However, the Bible says "To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord,' " she writes.

"It certainly appears as though Terri has left her body. . . . After 15 years of poor Terri being left in this state, as doctors tell us there is no hope of recovery, why do we persist in keeping her body alive while her soul is with the Lord?"

Harrell writes that she is adamantly opposed to abortion and considers it "murder, plain and simple." But she believes that the two issues are completely separate.

She writes that the behavior of some politicians and protesters has upset her. "I voted for both Bushes (George W. and Jeb); however, they had no business getting involved in this case. This is none of their business, nor is it something they should be able to overrule, as many other courts have already ruled on this issue.

"I feel just horrible for the way (some) "Christians have been acting. Many of them have such venom and seem to hate Terri's husband and wave angry signs around. These are the same "Christians' who spew hate toward homosexuals. Jesus did not teach us to hate anyone. . . . God in heaven is crying, looking at his children turning their backs on him and teaching a message of hate and anger, and all the while using his name!"

Harrell has never been in a situation similar to that of Schiavo's family, but, she writes, "I believe that I would have to prayerfully consider what it is that God would want me to do. Would he really want me putting my loved one through all of this? Putting her face all over the Internet and TV and having people outside her room with signs? This woman has been through enough already."

Maria Corde, 46, of New Port Richey is a payroll supervisor. She is Roman Catholic. She writes, "As a Catholic I should believe that it's wrong to pull Terri's feeding tube, but I don't. I feel that no one should live the way she does; my personal opinion does not always agree with my religion."

Corde writes that she once worked for a doctor who made visits to nursing homes. "I will never forget the day we walked into a patient's room, and there was a young man hooked up to a ventilator and a feeding tube. He was only 26 years old, and I just broke down and cried.

"I thought to myself, "Dear God, how can his family just watch him live this way?' It was at that moment that I decided that I would not want to live the way this young man did."

She writes that although at first she thought Michael Schiavo was a "dirtbag," once she read more about the case she became convinced he was supporting his wife's wishes.

"My husband and I are in the process of drawing up a living will," Corde writes, "and I would hope that my family would respect our wishes in the event that some tragic accident left either one of us brain-dead, that they would let us go."

Paula Tincher, 32, is a homemaker in Largo. She was raised Baptist and now belongs to a nondenominational church.

Tincher writes that if she were in a situation similar to Schiavo's, "I would want to be safe with the Lord and not put my family through something like this, with it coming down to the federal government making the choice. . . . I just can't see how anyone being so close to being with God would want to spend their life not "living,' but (would want to) be living with God."

She says the case has motivated her to make her feelings known to her family, and she is "working on the paperwork for it to be in writing."

The last-minute action by the U.S. Congress in the case, she writes, "bothers me to no end because they really may not know everything on the case or only know what the parents have told them."

Tincher writes, "I send prayers to Michael for standing up to do this, and for the support and love he has shown Terri during all this time. Yes, he has moved on, but I wouldn't want my husband not to move on in a case like this. My prayers go out to the parents, praying that they can let Terri join God in heaven and just move on themselves."

David Johnson, 57, is a property manager in Asheville, N.C. He is a lifelong Episcopalian who writes that because of his faith, "I feel that God has the power to heal Terri or accept her into his kingdom. . . . Terminate all human medical intervention and the will of God will prevail, as it always has."

Johnson has had a great deal of experience with situations like the one Schiavo's family is in. His mother and two of his sisters ended up on life support, and his family had to make difficult decisions each time.

He writes, "My oldest sister looked very much like Terri does now. She responded to light and touch and nothing else. We all ached for what she had become. Her quality of life was horrible."

In all three cases, "Working together as a family, and trusting in our faith in God, gave us all the strength to terminate all medical intervention and place our loved ones in God's hands. To release them from our grasp and control to finally come face to face with Jesus is what gives us all hope and trust that God is in charge and will care for our loved ones for all eternity."

Johnson writes that although he thinks the actions taken by Congress seem "political and self-serving . . . I can hardly judge anyone whose religious beliefs differ from mine in this very complicated issue. . . . Unfortunately, God does not make all of these problems we face in our lives very clear or with real clear solutions and rules for us to follow. That's why religious beliefs differ so much. But, he did give us a brain to apply common sense to the problems and come to reasonable and, in Terri's case, dignified decisions."

Despite that, Johnson believes that Michael Schiavo should give up his fight. "Common sense tells me that the valiant effort of Terri's husband, regardless of his motives, to spare his wife the tremendous indignity of filling TV screens and newspaper front pages and having all the lights burning in the Capitol building Sunday night, should end. He simply needs to relinquish control to Terri's mother and father. . . . The husband's action will stop the media attention, spare Terri further indignity of being the top news story of the day, and Terri's mom can continue to spend her days hoping for her miracle.

"I have a suspicion that the good Lord will continue to be patient with Terri's family while they attempt to gather strength to finally deal with the inevitable."

John McNeil, of Pinellas Park, did not write to the Times guestbook; he spoke to us by phone. He is a minister at the Fellowship, a St. Petersburg church that he described as "contemporary evangelical."

He is also a Pinellas Park police officer who sometimes stands guard at the hospice where Terri Schiavo resides.

McNeil said he prays that she will awaken so he can ask her if she has accepted Christ as her savior. But he also believes that it was right to remove the feeding tube because, according to the courts, that is what she would have wanted, and it's what Michael Schiavo wants for her.

"I don't think lawmakers need to be stepping in and making decisions for the husband," he said.

- Colette Bancroft can be reached at 727 893-8435 or bancroft@sptimes.com

[Last modified March 23, 2005, 14:09:02]