{"id":2732,"date":"2012-02-02T17:17:28","date_gmt":"2012-02-02T23:17:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/?p=2732"},"modified":"2015-03-13T15:03:16","modified_gmt":"2015-03-13T21:03:16","slug":"here-comes-everybody-dont-bet-on-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/2012\/02\/here-comes-everybody-dont-bet-on-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Here Comes Everybody? Don’t Bet on It"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

According to an old aphorism, a little anti-Semitism is good for Jews. Since the Obama administration announced the guidelines for its Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, a new consensus has emerged that a little anti-Catholicism is good for Catholics. On its blog, the USCCB proudly declares \u201ca true \u2018here comes everybody\u2019 moment,\u201d <\/strong><\/a> and dsplays the growing list of Catholic commentators who have condemned the president. <\/p>\n

Everybody \u2014 or at least everybody who\u2019s part of everybody \u2014 seems awfully eager to point out that this new consensus is non-partisan, or at least bi-partisan. Some commentators are all but predicting an end to partisanship, period. With evident surprise, the Bishops\u2019 Conference blog reports, \u201cNational Catholic Reporter<\/em> has even excoriated the administration over [HHS conscience exemption rules] and has said some supportive things about the bishops.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a way, I guess, this is remarkable. Some NCR columnists, like Eugene Cullen Kennedy and Fr. Richard McBrien, come down on bishops so routinely, you\u2019d think they smash their chess sets and storm out of the room whenever the original Oceans 11<\/em> comes on TV. But anyone who thinks everyone is going to remain in formation for long is in for a rude awakening.<\/p>\n

Reading through the various protests against the administration\u2019s policy, you\u2019ll notice drastic tonal differences. Fr. John Jenkins, CSC, the Notre Dame rector who braved flack for bestowing an honorary doctorate on Obama, confesses<\/strong><\/a> feeling \u201cdeeply disappointed,\u201d and calls for \u201ca national dialogue among religious groups, government and the American people to reaffirm our country\u2019s historic respect for freedom of conscience and defense of religious liberty.\u201d Compare that to the Passionate Papist\u2019s prediction:<\/strong><\/a> \u201cI think it is quite possible that Catholics in this country will one day be arrested for simply proclaiming the teachings of the Church.\u201d To some Catholics, this is a regrettable overreach that can be resolved with some common sense; to others, it\u2019s the beginning of the end of civilization as we know it.<\/p>\n

Suggesting that these differences follow party lines would be premature, since I don\u2019t know which party, if any, the Passionate Papist belongs to. Still, ours is a two-party system, and this is an election year. Barring an abrupt reversal on Obama\u2019s part, freedom of conscience, as observers are now calling the issue at stake, would tend to favor his Republican challenger. NCR\u2019s Michael Sean Winters sees the elephant in the room<\/strong><\/a> with perfect clarity. Even while announcing he can\u2019t \u201cin good conscience, ever vote for Mr. Obama again,\u201d he disavows any intention to \u201cgo rushing into the arms of a waiting GOP.\u201d <\/p>\n

Winters never says exactly what he plans to do with his vote. For all we know, he may stay out of the booth altogether. Though I admire his integrity, the times seem not to favor it. If Obama\u2019s narrow conscience exemptions look radical, the Right is pushing just as hard in the opposite direction. Republican hopeful Rick Santorum and former opponent Michele Bachmann both signed The Marriage Vow: A Declaration of Dependence on Marriage and Family.<\/strong><\/a> Items in the declaration include: \u201cSupport for prompt reform of uneconomic, anti-marriage aspects of welfare policy, tax policy, and marital\/divorce law\u201d; and \u201cHumane protection of women and the innocent fruit of conjugal intimacy\u2026from human trafficking, sexual slavery, seduction into promiscuity\u2026and other types of coercion or stolen innocence.\u201d The language is as ominous as it is vague \u2014 when did \u201cinnocence,\u201d in the sense of \u201csexual inexperience,\u201d become part of our legal vocabulary? <\/p>\n

Granted, Mitt Romney, the current Republican front-runner, pointedly refused<\/strong><\/a> to sign the document. (His spokeswoman called it \u201cinappropriate\u201d and \u201cundignified.\u201d) But the voters who supported those who did will make up a sizable part of his constituency. In the meantime, Romney\u2019s heaving hard a-starboard on other fronts. Last Tuesday night, he told Soledad O\u2019Brien,<\/strong><\/a> \u201cI\u2019m not concerned about the very poor.\u201d Though Romney did concede, \u201cIt\u2019s not good to be poor,\u201d and promised, \u201cif [the safety net] has holes in it, I will repair them,\u201d he insisted, \u201cMy focus is on middle-income Americans.\u201d Even the Weekly Standard <\/em>called his remarks \u201cstunningly stupid.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Weekly Standard<\/em> may be a little hard on Romney. Over the past few decades, the political climate has grown increasingly hostile toward any sign of moderation. James Thurber, director of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University, reports<\/strong><\/a> that the percentage of lawmakers who qualify as \u201ccentrist\u201d has fallen from \u201caround 30\u201d in the 1970s to between 5 and 8 today. According to Mickey Edwards, a Republican representative from Oklahoma, re-districting and the 24-hour news cycle have created an environment where \u201cIt\u2019s a lot harder to compromise \u2026 and compromise is seen as a bad thing to do.\u201d When you\u2019re competing in that kind of market, disavowing concern for the very poor represents nothing but good sense.<\/p>\n

So far left versus far right is no longer a false dilemma; it\u2019s a very real dilemma. Though the dismay among Catholics over the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act may seem universal now, I have a hard time believing it\u2019ll last till election day, or even until the Republican National Convention. It helps that those of us loath to pledge support to the GOP, whatever the reason, have an out in the Supreme Court. In National Review Online<\/em>, Ed Whelan points out<\/strong><\/a> HHS\u2019s regulations are incompatible with the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Thanks to good old-fashioned checks and balances, the creeping totalitarianism everyone\u2019s seeing can creep only so far. Obama might still qualify as the lesser of two evils.<\/p>\n

If two viable choices continue to exist come November, so much the better for the Church. The whole notion of \u201chere comes everybody\u201d is overrated, anyway. I\u2019m more inclined to agree with Patton that if everybody\u2019s thinking alike, then somebody\u2019s not thinking.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to an old aphorism, a little anti-Semitism is good for Jews. Since the Obama administration announced the guidelines for its Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, a new consensus has emerged that a little anti-Catholicism is good for Catholics. On its blog, the USCCB proudly declares \u201ca true \u2018here comes everybody\u2019 moment,\u201d and dsplays […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":192,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[27,324,63,163,285,325,188,300,235],"class_list":["post-2732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-barack-obama","tag-catholicsm","tag-contraception","tag-michele-bachmann","tag-mitt-romney","tag-patient-protection-and-affordable-care-act","tag-politics","tag-rick-santorum","tag-united-states-conference-of-catholic-bishops"],"yoast_head":"\nHere Comes Everybody? Don't Bet on It<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"According to an old aphorism, a little anti-Semitism is good for Jews. 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