[QUOTE=scooter1;902700]
I'm having lots of trouble understanding how abortion, which is by definition the destruction of a human being, has become so sanitized that it could be considered a political rather than a moral issue. Etrsyan, you are absolutely right to equate Catholicism with being pro-life, and make no mistake, the Church is the great defender of human rights, not the Democratic Party. There are many very good people in the Democratic Party, I'm sure, but they have become incredibly hostile to the pro-life movement, and there is no way to reconcile that with Catholicism. There is no way to reconcile that with Jesus dying on a cross for each and every human being, including those in the womb and also including those in the abortion industry. I think that we would be better served by taking back the Democratic Party from the pro-abortion lobby, rather than try to justify the Party's stand.[/QUOTE]

Scooter, welcome to these forums... I see you haven't posted anywhere but here, so I suspect you won't even see this reply, but I hope you do!

You quoted the last paragraph of my post #77, but you did not appear to have read the entire first 3/4s of my argument for why religion should stay out of government. Please read back here: http://community.beliefnet.com/forums/s … post853341 since I don't think c/ping would be appropriate. Thanks.

Greenman wrote:

I believe that there is more to being pro-life than being anti-abortion.

I believe you hit the nail on the head.

Welcome, Greenman.

[QUOTE=BrookeC;696183]Can a person not betray their Catholic faith and support the democratic candidate for president at the same time?  I am currently not a Catholic yet but I am about to start RCIA classes soon.  I just wondered does being a Catholic mean that I must vote republican from now on or can I disagree with some stances that the democratic candidate has, mainly his view of abortion, and still support him?  I am struggling with this issue.[/QUOTE]
Political labels do not matter to God; nor should they matter to you.

It is an interesting question, of course, and we can never judge anyone since only Christ, and really only the person themselves know whether they know what they are doing.    It is becoming impossible though to distinguish essential or fundamental differences between the Democratic Party and the positions of historic communiists.  We see that the democrats deny moral norms even related to life and support what teh Church calls in the Catechism "collectivism", which the Church explicitly rejects as wrpmg in favor of "subsidiarity. " The fundamental confusion seems to come in when people justify voting Democratic based on "social justice" teachings of the Church.  But social justice in the Catholic faith works through the localizing principle of "subsidiarity" and recognition of the universal laws of God. Moroever, the atheistic character of the democratic party--which refuses to even posit on the issue of euthanasia, for example,and seeks to keep religion from any serious influence on public policy--the question becomes: given the truth of subsidiarity and the moral anarchist positioning of the Democratic party, do we further want to put social justice in the hands of the communists of our day?  Again, I repeat though, I judge no democrat.  I only see how the democratic party favors collectivism, when the Church explicitly loves what is local and rejects "big government" theories like the Dems endorse constantly as they claim to know how to save us without recourse to orthodox Christianity or natural law principles.

patricius1 wrote:

do we further want to put social justice in the hands of the communists of our day?

Uh, well, seeing what has happened to social justice under the party of unfettered capitalism, it might be worth a try.