LifeNews claims that a new voter guide by the Kansas Bishops says, “Voting for a Pro-Abortion Candidate is evil.”* However, LifeNews is not portraying what the voter guide said (nor is it so new, but from 2006; it’s just being re-issued). LifeNews is interpreting the text with questionable hermeneutics, adding words not in it to undermine other portions of the text itself. The guide says:
Notwithstanding a possible diversity of prudential judgments, each of us should guide our decision-making on such issues by a fundamental respect for the dignity of every human person from the moment of conception to natural death.
This is not controversial; it’s basic Catholic teaching. The document points out that in our political activity, people will try different methods and means to reach the same end, thus prudential judgments are going to be made when acting out one’s civil responsibilities. Obviously some means are wrong; but we can’t say they are wrong just because they differ from our method — you have to do more work than that to show a suggested method is invalid.
When making our decisions, we cannot dismiss the value of the human person — at any stage of life. From conception to death, life is sacred, and the person who is alive deserves human dignity. Notice, as the guide rightfully points out, pro-life issus are not merely ones dealing with abortion (and euthanasia), but include those dealing with the human dignity. “It is also the basis for the right to those things needed live with dignity, for example, productive work and fair wages, food and shelter, education and health care, protection from harm, and the right to move from one country to another when these things are not available to us at home.”
The guide, like many, lists a non-exhaustive list of intrinsic evils, including: abortion, embryonic stem cell research, pornography and racism. It makes it clear we cannot support intrinsic evil (we must remember, this includes those intrinsic evils not listed in the document; making an example some does not make them more important). “Concerning choices that are intrinsically evil, Catholics may not promote or even remain indifferent to them.” But it does not say that making a specific vote in an election is necessarily a support for intrinsic evil. That’s because it can’t. One’s prudential reasoning might lead to a candidate whose policy includes an intrinsic evil, but voting for them inspite of it is not supporting that evil. Promoting evil takes a higher level of cooperation. And to vote for someone inspite of their support for an intrinsic evil is not an act of indifference; indeed, one could make that particular vote with disgust for that evil which points out why it is not indicative of indifference. Of course, one must have proportionate reasons for their choice; but those reasons are an issue of prudence, and one’s conscience must be followed in making them, as the Kansas Bishops’ guide makes clear, “We have a serious duty to follow the guidance of conscience. To act against the judgment of conscience when it is certain about what is good and evil has the same seriousness as disobeying God.”
I hope that if people limit discussion of intrinsic evils to the issue of abortion, they are not doing this so as to allow themselves to be indifferent to other intrinsic evils. They could be, but they don’t have to be. Just as a Catholic focused on a different evil does not have to be indifferent to abortion. It’s never right to be indifferent to evil even for the sake of a greater good. Obviously, some Catholics will vote for Obama indifferent to his stand on abortion, others will vote for McCain indifferent to his support for ESCR. Both will be wrong when they do so. But that doesn’t make one who votes for either is necessarily indifferent to abortion or ESCR, or that they support abortion or ESCR. What it means is that they are doing what always happens in choosing a candidate in a democratic election, voting for someone who has both good and bad, but whom the voter believes will end up promoting more good and less evil than any other candidate.
*LifeSiteNews says “Kansas State Bishops Declare Voting For Abortion Candidate is ‘Evil.'”
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