First, I agree with Mr. Minion that the Republican Party is far from perfect. My point in this exchange is not to defend or promote the GOP, but to emphasize that when it comes to supporting the Catholic Church’s core, non-negotiable “Culture of Life” teachings, Republican candidates (especially at the presidential level) are almost always better than their democratic counterparts. And while I agree with Mr. Minion that “Catholics are not at home in either party,” I strongly disagree with his assertion that “[t]he best we can do is make prudential judgments from a policy perspective.”
No, I am sorry. That is not the “best we can do.” The best we can do is to shame people like Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani for failing to stand up for the most defenseless members of our society, for sanctioning the untold slaughter of millions of innocent lives, and for being the head cheerleaders for a “Culture of Death” in this country. I’ve said it before, and I will say it again: All issues are not equal. The Catholic Church has made this abundantly clear, and no matter how much some folks may want to use the Iraq War as a justification for voting against prolife candidates, that dog ain’t gonna hunt.
And for the record, I am not telling my “fellow Catholics they are bound to support any one party.” What I’ve said repeatedly is that a faithful Catholic is not at liberty to vote for any proabortion candidate, regardless of party affiliation, if there is a prolife alternative. Thus, in a hypothetical presidential match up between Bob Casey, Sr. and Rudy Giuliani, a faithful Catholic would have no choice but to vote for Casey. In sum, this is not a Republican or Democratic issue, it’s a Catholic issue.
It also seems to me that engaging in an analysis of whether supporting a Republican prolife candidate will actually end up reducing abortions is an exercise in consequentialism, which Mr. Minion and others have rightly condemned in other contexts. The bottom line then, is this: it is not my job to play psychic. Instead, what the Church demands of me is that I not cooperate in any fashion with practices that are intrinsically evil. Abortion is always evil. War can sometimes be just. And that’s the end of the analysis, my friends.
Finally, as for the marriage issue, I have little interest in playing tit-for-tat. Mr. Minion seems to think that government is always the answer for any societal problem. I don’t. My view is that sometimes government programs help, but often times they don’t (due to bureaucratic red tape, fraud, etc.). And I think it is probably best to leave it at that for now.
I am sorry to be so brief, but I need to stop blogging and go spend some time with the children before bedtime. I’ve enjoyed my debate with Mr. Minion, and look forward to many more in the near future.
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