I applaud the sincerity of Roman Catholics for Obama and their desire to use the US Catholic Bishops' guidance on the responsibility of Catholic voters (Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship). I also like the idea that they are 'practicing Catholics' and are truly trying to discern, seemingly at least, which candidate to support for President in 2008.
However, they miss the entire point of the USCCB document, which they quote in order to justify their support of a radically pro-abortion candidate in Obama.
The bishops show us there are eight issues where a candidate can hold an 'intrinsically evil' position. They are abortion, euthanasia, embryo-destructive research, human cloning, the use of torture, targeting of non-combatants, racism, and marriage. The bishops teach us that we MUST evaluate a political candidate's positions on these issues FIRST before we can even look to any other issues. If a candidate supports any 'intrinsically evil' position, there are serious implications on how we can vote.
In the situation presented to Catholic Americans in the 2008 presidential race, we must look at the two front-runners, Obama and McCain, and evaluate them against the eight serious issues.
Abortion: Obama takes the intrinsically evil position of supporting legalized abortion. McCain does not support legalized abortion and is pro-life.
Euthanasia: Obama takes the intrinsically evil position of supporting legalized euthanasia. McCain opposes euthanasia.
Embryo-destructive Research: Obama takes the intrinsically evil position of fully supporting embryo-destructive research. McCain opposes creating/harvesting new embryos and has recently stated, in light of the many advances in using adult stem cells in medical research, that he now opposes using currently-existing IVF embryos in destructive research.
Human Cloning: Obama's position is questionable, as he has opposed human cloning bans, which indicates an intrinsically evil position of supporting human cloning. McCain opposes human cloning.
Torture: Both Obama and McCain oppose the use of torture.
Targeting of Non-Combatants: Obama has stated that he would never use tactical nuclear weapons and that he opposes targeting of non-combatants. McCain has stated that he also opposes targeting of non-combatants but has not ruled out the possible use of tactical nuclear weapons.
Racism: Both Obama and McCain vow to fight against racism.
Marriage: Obama holds the intrinsically evil position that same-sex 'marriage' is legitimate and will strive to legalize it in America. McCain opposes same-sex marriage and has vowed to protect traditional marriage as between one man and one woman.
As you can see, Obama holds an intrinsically evil position on at least four, and possibly five, out of the eight incontrovertible issues. McCain does not hold any intrinsically evil positions, although he may be weak on embryo-destructive research (but better than Obama) and targeting of non-combatants.
It is CLEAR that practicing Catholics, following Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, CANNOT support Obama for president in good conscience.
Another interesting note: IF you go beyond these eight major Catholic issues to the other twenty-two issues brought up as important (but not involving 'intrinsically evil' positions), McCain still outshines Obama, taking a more favorable position than Obama on nine of the issues, while Obama takes a more favorable position on only two of the issues, with them taking equally favorable positions on eleven of the issues.
Applying a scoring system, I allocated a maximum of 15 points to each of the eight major issues and 5 to each of the twenty-two minor issues, and here is how the two candidates fared(maximum of 230 points):
Obama: 50 points for major issues; 64 points for minor issues; 114 points total.
McCain: 104 points for major issues; 90 points for minor issues; 194 points total.
You can see my spreadsheet analysis by clicking here.
But what are points to the more than one million American babies who are being murdered legally before birth each year? When Catholic voters (and the candidates) face them in the next life, will they be able to say, "I did everything I could to save you"?
See also Archbishop Chaput's letter, Thoughts on Roman Catholics for Obama, in response to their use of one of his statements, taken out of context, in order to justify their support of Obama.
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6 comments:
Excellent piece!
It's also worth noting that Obama has said that his first priority as president would be to sign the Right to Choose Act, which would enshrine Roe v. Wade in Federal law, and that his greatest regret was failing to object to the unanimous Senate vote to allow Terri Schiavo's case a hearing in federal court.
This is clearly a man who will consciously, willfully, and as a high priority, advance the culture of death.
well said.
One cannot claim to be a source of hope and change when one basically advocates to women, the right to despair and destroy.
Its impossible for a catholic, or anyone pro-life to vote for Obama, that much is clear. But to say that John McCain is anything like a real choice for catholics is dreadful. The only real pro-life, Just War Doctrine, no nuclear weapons candidates have been deliberately ignored or insulted by the media, and the churches of all denominations have said NOTHING. McCain is like voting for nuclear war. Our only real choices this year are all third party ones, or we're voting for more evil, more of the same, more betrayals.
More abortions would be done in the USA under McCain than under Obama. Obama is clearly more serious about helping poor sexually-active women contracept, which is the most effective strategy for preventing abortions.
Another point: if you are worried about "coerced abortions" which several RTL blogs have been yelling about recently, you should support Obama. He will sign the Freedom of Choice Act, which will guarantee on the Federal level the right to keep a pregnancy, bear a child, and be free of forced abortion. This is NOT currently a Federal or Constitutional right.
SoMG: Interesting points. I am not a McCain fan myself, but I disagree with your claim that the Right to Choose Act would actually reduce abortions. Contraception is the root cause of abortion in the first place; even the Supreme Court has said that abortion needs to remain legal as a backstop for failed contraception (Casey v. Planned Parenthood). In the words of a Nobel Prize laureate, Mother Teresa, "It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you live as you wish."
This is great! Have you seen the piece that came out recently on catholic vote? Go to www.catholicvote.com. It's AWESOME.
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