Too much hoopla, the Catholics Against Rudy site has been launched. But why exactly are they against Rudy? The first thing I noted is that their opposition to the candidacy of Giuliani went far beyond his well-known views on abortion. If you click on the “issues” you will find the following list:
Abortion
Embryonic Stem Cell Research
Euthanasia
On Catholic politicians and voters
Same-Sex Marriage
That’s four issues in total (the fourth on the list is not really an issue in itself). My first thought was: here we go again. The really bad theology that underpins the Catholic Answers political stance refuses to die, and yet again we have what should have been a simple statement about the incompatibility of Mr. Giuliani’s policy positions with core Catholic teachings turned into a partisan policy list. Notice that the choice of these items stacks the deck in favor on one political party. There is nothing on Rudy’s full-throttled support for an unjust war that has reaped great havoc and destruction. Nothing on the great distance between Giuliani’s platform on much of Catholic social teaching.
Of course, if they wanted to restrict the issues to core aspects of the gospel of life, that’s fine by me. But they don’t. Some if these items are not strictly gospel of life issues, and some other obvious candidates have been inexplicably excluded. Most importantly, torture is nowhere to be seen. Remember, torture is an intrinsically evil act that attacks the God-given human dignity of the person, an act that can never be justified, and condemned in the strongest terms by the Church. And yet Rudy does justify it. When asked specifically if he supported the Khmer Rouge-perfected waterboarding technique, he replied without hesitation that “I would tell the people who had to do the interrogation to use every method they can think of”. For a Catholic, this is as beyond the pale as arguing in favor of abortion.
So, Catholics Against Rudy: Where’s the torture? Where’s the consistency?
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