Catholic Democrats--Someone Please Explain
posted by: Lucky Mom of 7
March 25, 2008
9:07 pm
We live in very Catholic area of the US. We also live in a very Democratic area of the US. I was raise several hundred miles from here in an area that is traditionally Republican. I'm very confused. I don't understand how people can be Catholic and have yard signs for Barak Obama outside their homes. There's a total disconnect there in my mind. Can someone please shine some light on this? I don't get it. How can Catholics support pro-choice candidates? How does that reasoning work? I really want to understand and will respect whatever opinions are shared.
Thanks, Lucky
posted by: pira114
April 4, 2008
5:15 am
I've always wondered this myself. Most of them will give the reasoning of it's okay because they're trying to change the party from within.
I actually think that it stems mostly from the fact the historically in the U.S., most Catholics were working class at best. These people tended to be Democrats as it was supposed to be pro union, pro little guy. Abortion was not an issue many years ago, and I think that it's hard for people to change from what they've always known. By the way, 40 or 50 years ago, Democrats were probably more conservative than Repulicans are today.
Others might convince themselves that "everything" else about the party is better than the Republicans, and they'll pray that the abortion issue goes away.
posted by: Protect the Rock
April 4, 2008
11:05 am
The troubling answer, I believe, is this:
The USA is a Protesant country, so there is no heritage of Catholic thought or Catholic culture.
Many Catholics in the USA were never taught (or not taught very well) what the Church teaches
Many Catholics in the USA were never shown how to live out what the Church teaches.
Many Catholics in the USA have not seen devout Catholics brought to their attention as role models.
Many Catholics in the USA are very confused about the role of their faith in their civic life. They have all been taught there is a separation between Church and state and they believe this concept a primary reason the USA is a great country; they even think it is the reason they are free to Catholics (who don't know the faith, but let's go on).
Many people in the USA, Catholics and non-Catholics, align themselves politically with the party of their parents. And, for most parental generations, the Democratic Party was the party that represented standing up for the working class (most Catholic demographic groups come from the working class). Abortion-On-Demand = Women's Constitutional Rights has only been a dogma, or rather a requirement for all Democrats to accept, for the past thirty years or so.
So the party left the Catholics, but the Catholics did not leave the party.
posted by: Elisabeth
April 6, 2008
10:11 am
I am a former Catholic who does not believe in abortion period.
Perhaps Catholics can tell me what any elected official has done to do away with legal abortion in this country besides talk? They all use 'anti-abortion' platforms to get elected, then ignore introducing any legislation to prohibit abortions and offering an alternative solution to women having undesirable pregnancies.
If we took all of the money used to promote the anti-abortion stance in elections and put it toward supporting/helping spiritually, materially, psychologically the girls with 'undesired' pregnancies to bring their babies into the world, perhaps we would be doing something positive to cut the amount of abortions in this country. We cannot take away the 'right to choose' in a multicultural, free country which Roe v. Wade gives to women.. I suspect most women who get abortions are afraid to have the baby for diverse reasons, and we must do something to alleviate that fear so babies are not cast out as so much garbage.
posted by: Elisabeth
April 6, 2008
10:18 am
I wonder how anyone with half a brain can support a President so incompetent and unfeeling as to invade a country that was no threat to us such as Iraq, killing thousands of innocent civilians for oil? It has been shown the lying and manipulation of information that was done in the administration. The war was planned as has been disclosed by several witnesses before 9/11. To continue to believe in such people who have so little respect for human life is beyond comprehension. The same President ignored the warnings of 8/6 that "Osama bin Laden plans to attack America" and of hurricane Katrina, also, delaying aid for so many who lost everything.
posted by: Protect the Rock
April 6, 2008
10:31 am
Elisabeth,
Although you have apparently left the Church, you agree abortion is intrinsically evil.
So, you remember the criticism the president got for failing to "connect the dots" prior to 9/11, do you? Congratulations. Most Americans have apparently forgotten. It seems to me that the president remembers as well, and it also seems that he has been steadfast in erring on the side of caution since then.
More decisive than the faulty intelligence that both sides of the aisle believed to be true in 2003, the terms ending the first Gulf War in 1991 were neither observed by the Ba'athist regime, nor stricly enforced by the international community. The deportation of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors was one of the "last straws".
Oh, and the USA did not go into Iraq for its oil; Iraqi oil went mostly to Europe, Japan, and China. And it still does.
But 4,000 Americans have given their lives in the effort in Iraq and some 60,000 to 100,000 Iraqis (the vast majority killed by Iraqis and foreign fighters other than Americans in Iraq) depending on whose numbers you believe.
Could we at least agree that the US-led coalition at least tries to avoid killing innocent civilians while the terrorist insurgents deliberately target innocent civilians?
Plus, we agree that the number of those killed in the past 5 years in Iraq are way too high. Heck, they are are slightly more than 1 day's dead from abortion in the USA (for US dead) and some 2-3 weeks' dead from abortion in the USA (for Iraqi dead).