{"id":874,"date":"2007-07-26T16:27:00","date_gmt":"2007-07-26T16:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/voxnova2.wordpress.com\/2007\/07\/26\/sound-theological-basis-for-saying-that-catholics-cannot-vote-for-a-pro-abortion-candidate-when-there-is-a-prolife-alternative\/"},"modified":"2007-07-26T16:27:00","modified_gmt":"2007-07-26T16:27:00","slug":"sound-theological-basis-for-saying-that-catholics-cannot-vote-for-a-pro-abortion-candidate-when-there-is-a-prolife-alternative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/2007\/07\/26\/sound-theological-basis-for-saying-that-catholics-cannot-vote-for-a-pro-abortion-candidate-when-there-is-a-prolife-alternative\/","title":{"rendered":"“Sound theological basis for saying that Catholics cannot vote for a pro-abortion candidate (when there is a prolife alternative)”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Courtesy of Archbishop John J. Myers<\/a>:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

What are \u201cproportionate reasons\u201d? To consider that question, we must first repeat the teaching of the church: The direct killing of innocent human beings at any stage of development, including the embryonic and fetal, is homicidal, gravely sinful and always profoundly wrong. Then we must consider the scope of the evil of abortion today in our country. America suffers 1.3 million abortions each year\u2013a tragedy of epic proportions. Moreover, many supporters of abortion propose making the situation even worse by creating a publicly funded industry in which tens of thousands of human lives are produced each year for the purpose of being \u201csacrificed\u201d in biomedical research.<\/p>\n

Thus for a Catholic citizen to vote for a candidate who supports abortion and embryo-destructive research, one of the following circumstances would have to obtain: either (a) both candidates would have to be in favor of embryo killing on roughly an equal scale or (b) the candidate with the superior position on abortion and embryo-destructive research would have to be a supporter of objective evils of a gravity and magnitude beyond that of 1.3 million yearly abortions plus the killing that would take place if public funds were made available for embryo-destructive research.<\/p>\n

Frankly, it is hard to imagine circumstance (b) in a society such as ours. No candidate advocating the removal of legal protection against killing for any vulnerable group of innocent people other than unborn children would have a chance of winning a major office in our country. Even those who support the death penalty for first-degree murderers are not advocating policies that result in more than a million killings annually.<\/p>\n

As Mother Teresa reminded us on all of her visits to the U.S., abortion tears at our national soul. It is a betrayal of our nation\u2019s founding principle that recognizes all human beings as \u201ccreated equal\u201d and \u201cendowed with unalienable rights.\u201d What evil could be so grave and widespread as to constitute a \u201cproportionate reason\u201d to support candidates who would preserve and protect the abortion license and even extend it to publicly funded embryo-killing in our nation\u2019s labs?<\/p>\n

Certainly policies on welfare, national security, the war in Iraq, Social Security or taxes, taken singly or in any combination, do not provide a proportionate reason
to vote for a pro-abortion candidate. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

As for the remainder of Morning\u2019s Minion\u2019s post, I will address each of his points in turn.<\/p>\n

First, supporting traditional marriage extends far beyond simply opposing gay marriage, and there are countless examples where the Republican Party is far better than the Democratic Party in this respect (e.g., seeking to abolish the marriage penalty that currently exists in the tax code<\/a>). Mr. Minion seeks to minimize the importance of protecting traditional marriage, and shudders with horror at the prospect of having to vote for a candidate supporting the Church\u2019s non-negotiable teaching on marriage if he also favors \u201cescalating the Iraq occupation<\/em><\/strong> [or] bombing Iran.\u201d But even assuming this is the case, what of it? What if a candidate genuinely believes that the \u201ccommon good\u201d would be better served by allowing the fledgling government in Iraq time to establish itself? What if that candidate genuinely believes that sending American troops home from Iraq too soon might lead to genocide in that country?<\/p>\n

You see, the problem with Mr. Minion\u2019s point is that he, like so many other progressive Catholics, is attempting to make opposing the Iraq War (or supporting any armed conflict for that matter, whether it is \u201cjust\u201d or not) a non-negotiable voting issue, when it isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

In addition to downplaying the importance of supporting traditional marriage, Mr. Minion is presenting his fellow Catholics with a false choice: supporting traditional marriage v. opposing an unjust war. The reality is that all of the leading democratic candidates seeking the presidency not only favor the equivalent of gay marriage, but are also staunch supporters of abortion, euthanasia, and embryonic stem cell research. The Democratic Party has also repeatedly demonstrated a hostility to any and all forms of orthodox Christianity. The notion that both political parties are morally bankrupt, and therefore it is acceptable to vote for a democratic candidate who holds public-policy views in direct contravention of virtually all of the Catholic Church\u2019s core \u201cCulture of Life\u201d teaching is patently absurd. There is a profound difference between the two political camps, as Mr. Minion knows all too well.<\/p>\n

As for torture, it is certainly on my list, and I will refuse to support a candidate who favors torturing anyone.<\/p>\n

But let me be clear with my fellow Catholics, Mr. Minion is attempting to lead you down a dangerous road. Don\u2019t take that journey. It is never, I repeat, never<\/em><\/strong> licit to vote for a proabortion candidate when there is a prolife alternative. There is no room for \u201cprudential judgment\u201d under those circumstances.<\/p>\n

And if we want to talk about being \u201cobscene,\u201d that is exactly what I would call any attempt to give credit to the Clinton Administration for the reduction of abortions during that man\u2019s two terms in office<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Finally, as I\u2019ve stated previously, I am not telling anyone that they cannot ever vote for a democrat. What I am saying is that it is never morally licit for a faithful Catholic to vote for a proabortion candidate when there is a prolife alternative. I apply this standard to both political parties; and that is why I would never vote for Rudy Giuliani in the GOP primary. I won\u2019t vote for Giuliani in the general election either, but that is a topic for an entirely separate post, which I will save for another time.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Courtesy of Archbishop John J. Myers: What are \u201cproportionate reasons\u201d? To consider that question, we must first repeat the teaching of the church: The direct killing of innocent human beings at any stage of development, including the embryonic and fetal, is homicidal, gravely sinful and always profoundly wrong. Then we must consider the scope of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2946,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,99,115,141,42,87,59,13,33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-abortion","category-alexham","category-church-doctrine","category-euthanasia","category-family","category-just-war","category-life","category-politics","category-torture"],"yoast_head":"\n"Sound theological basis for saying that Catholics cannot vote for a pro-abortion candidate (when there is a prolife alternative)"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Courtesy of Archbishop John J. Myers:What are "proportionate reasons"? 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