A Video: Voters Guide for Serious Catholics !

[megimoo]

I tend to have more respect for Catholics and Christians with a more "reasonable faith" than I do for indefensible literalists, or Muslims for example.

However, I wasnt suggesting a Catholic should choose to go against the church in deciding that the mentioned issues arent important, just that they should make their own decisions about what the role of government in those issues should be. The unquestioned assumption behind the logic in this little video was that the heavy hand of government is the solution to all these issues.

We can all agree that Catholics everywhere find poverty a deplorable thing, yet still believe its not a sin to vote for a politician who votes against welfare programs.

...I would agree with the points that you mention .

We should be guided by our own experiences, consciences and beliefs when we go to vote .Politics has a tendency to corrupt even the most moral of men.Even a Catholic Jesuit Priest, Fr.Robert Drinan, elected to the Congress has voted in favor of a pro abortion bill because of his party's interests .

However for a politician to profess Catholicism/Christianity and vote in favor of abortion or murder of a fully formed fetus /child just before birth is the absolute height of hypocrisy to me.

A non Catholic or any other religion that protests the murder of a unborn child is bad enough but to receive what I believe to be the Body and blood of Christ on a sunday while voting to support abortion on Monday is a grave and fatal mortal sin in my books !

"Father Robert Frederick Drinan, S.J. (November 15, 1920 – January 28, 2007) was a Roman Catholic Jesuit priest, lawyer, human rights activist, and Democratic U.S. Representative from Massachusetts. He was also a law professor at Georgetown University Law Center for the last twenty-six years of his life."

[PoliCon]

Good voting advice should transcend religion, I would think. It sounded at first like it might be something more than the usual prattle that one expects from such a video.

My biggest issue, aside from disagreeing on 100% of the issues they raised (I can at least sympathize with the POV, slightly), and the gross factual errors, is that they, in typical fashion, hammered you over the head with the notion that if you don't vote a certain way on these issues, you are sinning. I guess its a sin to depart with what Catholic theologians think the proper or most effective role of government is? It's a sin to understand that economic issues have far greater consequences for life on this planet than abortion and stem cell research?

It seems extremely immoral and dangerous to coerce the faithful in such a way. Its like spiritual blackmail.

I am a Roman Catholic by birth, but as megs pointed out, I obviously reject it.

If you're not a RC - shut the fuck up and mind your own business. This video is not a message for you. What you have to say about it means bupkis. The RCC teaches that you do not check your faith at the door when you go in to vote - something that most other Christian churches agree with. They believe that if something is a sin - then it is also a sin to support it - again also reasonable. AND you would know that the church is the final arbiter of morality for Roman Catholics. You don't get to make up your own mind about moral issues. relativism is just plain stupid.


BTW - disagreeing with your POV does not make the video full of gross factual errors.

[wilbur]

If you're not a RC - shut the fuck up and mind your own business. This video is not a message for you. What you have to say about it means bupkis. The RCC teaches that you do not check your faith at the door when you go in to vote

Perhaps you should re-read what I wrote.

- something that most other Christian churches agree with. They believe that if something is a sin - then it is also a sin to support it - again also reasonable.

Sure, but what constitutes support?

AND you would know that the church is the final arbiter of morality for Roman Catholics. You don't get to make up your own mind about moral issues. relativism is just plain stupid.

I'm not advocating relativism.

BTW - disagreeing with your POV does not make the video full of gross factual errors.

I pointed out the errors I saw off the top of my head, feel free to deconstruct my points...

[PoliCon]

Among other things - support is voting for people who endorse that sinful position. It is also tacitly or actively allowing others to engage in sinful activity. If you as a person have no power to stop that sinful activity you have the obligation of at least speaking against it - BUT - if you have it in your power to stop a sinful act - such as through your vote - you have the obligation to do just that.