<em>"Kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out."</em>
<strong>-- MERCENARY SLOGAN</strong>

Most of us have never killed anyone, nor would we ever kill anyone.

Yet over the last 40 years, most of us have slipped into America's live-and-let-die culture to the point where we support at least one sort of killing.

What do I mean? Well, how many of us will say something to the effect of "I don't believe in -----, but I don't want to impose my morality on other people" and really mean it?

Think about it. There are at least four -- maybe even five -- different issues that I would call "life issues," and very few of us are truly consistent on them. It took me decades to get to the point where I feel I have a consistent position that is morally sound.

The issues are abortion, capital punishment, assisted suicide, euthanasia (admittedly pretty close to the third one) and thanks to George W. Bush, pre-emptive war. In all five of them, we make the choice to kill -- or at least to terminate the lives of -- people.

Let's start with the toughest one.

It's obvious that abortion is a difficult issue, and there is a legitimate question at stake over whether unwanted babies have lives worth living. It's also doubtful that making abortion illegal would end all abortions, although advances in birth control are certainly making it easier for intelligent women to avoid unwanted pregnancies.

But tens of millions of lives have been ended by abortions since <em>Roe V. Wade</em> in the early '70s, and the worst thing about it is that they have been sanctioned by the government. No matter what people argue about women and the right to choose to have an abortion, I believe that if abortion were illegal, there would be fewer of them.

<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/LifeMattersBlueLogo.jpg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-377" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/LifeMattersBlueLogo-300x250.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="250" /></a>I think the tide is turning on this one, although very slowly. I have known plenty of women who have said they would never personally have an abortion, but others should have the right.

That's innately illogical, and let's leave it at that for now.

Capital punishment is also a tough one for some people, but I prefer the New Testament point of view and believe that an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind. I'll hang my hat on the saying that only God should decide who lives and who dies.

When I think about assisted suicide, I think of how hard Christopher Reeve fought to live until a cure for paralysis was found, and when I think of euthanasia, I think of how my late father rejoiced in every additional day he had with his family.

Pre-emptive war is the easy one for me. America used to be John Wayne, and the Duke never shot first. You worry about someone nuking us, and all you have to realize is that if we lose one city, whoever nuked us gets their country turned into a parking lot.

To me it's all about respecting life, about making decisions that come down on the side of exalting our life force instead of cheapening it.

These days our whole culture is about death and dying. Wouldn't it be nice to get back to a point where it was about life and living?