A Strategy Against the Cloning Initiative

I just returned from a meeting with some Missouri Baptist staff members, strategizing about what we can do to help Missouri Baptists understand the coming constitutional amendment, which will legalize cloning by making cloning illegal (yes, you read that correctly). That’s all predicated on the anticipated unfavorable outcome of next Thursday’s legal challenge to the Court of Appeals.

First, there is a slim chance that the Court of Appeals will agree with the legal arguments advanced by our (Missourians Against Human Cloning) lawyers. The operative word is “slim” because the legal argument centers on whether Missouri’s Secretary of State (Robin Carnahan) is fairly representing the initiative petition. The petition is deceptive and misleading which means Ms. Carnahan’s summation of the bill for the ballot in necessarily deceptive and misleading. So, there’s been a legal complaint by us that Missourians are being deceived and mislead. If the Court of Appeals would agree that a deceptive ballot summary based on a deceptive initiative petition is legally impermissible for Missouri voters, we will prevail and the Coalition for Lifesaving Cures, the sponsor of this initiative would have to cease collecting signatures, re-write and re-submit their initiative or they would have to appeal to the Missouri Supreme Court. Either option is time consuming and could potentially create difficult obstacles for this well-funded biotech get-out-the-vote-at-any-cost group.

At any rate, the group I’ve met with this morning is comprised of regular folks. None of them is making much money and none of them will benefit financially based on the outcome of the proposed constitutional amendment. I thought how unlike the folks on the other side. They make big dollars (BIG, BIG dollars), are well financed and well connected. They can re-package the semantics of this issue by manipulating science and the dictionary, but they can’t avoid the truth. Much like the gamblers could not prevail in Missouri by making a case for gambling so they legally renamed gambling by calling it “gaming”, the Coalition for Lifesaving Cures cannot prevail in Missouri by making a case for cloning. So, they’ve elected to make cloning (SCNT) legal by forwarding a document to outlaw cloning. But they’ll be met by common, ordinary Missourians who know truth.

The group I was with are amazing folks. They love Jesus and care about His Kingdom and our society. They gave a part of their day and their brain power and pulled away from their normal responsibilities to help craft a way to reach the minds and hearts of other Missouri Baptists with the truth about this initiative. With folks like this, the Coalition's deceptive strategy will soon be slowed. Common, plain thinking Missourians. That will be a formidable obstacle to overcome; and it may be the very thing that stops the Coalition for Lifesaving Cure’s deceptive initiative dead in its tracks.