Electa Draper, who wrote a story about why Christians should impose more “progressive” taxation, also wrote a story several weeks ago about the Catholic opposition to various civil liberties. The story begins:
Colo. churches fight “evil” in voting booth
By Electa Draper
The Denver Post
Article Last Updated: 11/05/2007 06:11:08 AM MSTCatholic voters can disagree on issues such as immigration policy and health-care reform, but when it comes to the fundamental right to life, church leaders allow no wiggle room in the voting booth.
All three Colorado dioceses and their lobbying arm, the Colorado Catholic Conference, are spelling out to more than 660,000 Catholics in the state what they believe faithful citizenship looks like.
The first thing to notice is that Draper, a news reporter, refers to “the fundamental right to life,” which in this context refers to the alleged rights of a fertilized egg, as though that were just a noncontroversial news fact.
Here’s the heart of the piece:
“Some things are intrinsically evil and must be opposed,” said Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, Kan., at the Gospel of Life conference in Denver in October.
These evil acts, in a guide adopted by Colorado and Kansas Catholic bishops, include elective abortion, euthanasia, destruction of embryos in stem-cell research, cloning humans and, though not an equivalent evil, same-sex marriage.
These things are “intrinsically evil” says Christian doctrine. Christian doctrine is wrong.
The view that all “elective abortions” are evil arises from the Christian doctrine that God infuses a fertilized egg with a soul. The Catholic position would outlaw even the “morning after” pill, when the embryo consists of a bunch of undifferentiated cells. (Of course, many Catholics would also try to outlaw contraception, except that such an effort would never fly in a nation in which most Protestants find no problem with birth control.) The Catholic position would outlaw abortions even in cases of rape and incest. And what counts as an “elective abortion” likely would be narrowly restricted, resulting in more deaths of women.
The Catholic view on stem-cell research derives from the view on abortion. The position against euthanasia — and, indeed, all suicide — even when somebody is in horrific pain, arises from the Catholic view that God forbids suicide. (This doctrine is helpful in stopping Christians from killing themselves in order to enter into Heavenly bliss.) And of course the Catholic position against gay marriage arises from the Biblical claims that homosexuality is sinful.
In all of these cases, the attempt is to impose Christian theology through the political system. (Of course, various Catholics disagree with various aspects of these Catholic views.) The result would be the profound violation of the actual “fundamental right to life” of women and the ill, as well as the right to contract by homosexuals.
The problem the church faces is that of how many Catholics pay attention to what they’re told to do? For example, my parents are Catholic and always make a point to go to church for all holy days of obligation, even when they’re on vacation or one or two happen right in a row and aren’t combined with Sunday mass. Heck, my grandma says the Catholic church is the one true church. How they vote may be influenced by the church but none of them vote as the church is telling them in this case. How many more Catholics like this are out there?