Radio talk-show great Dennis Prager analyzes pro-abortion catholic VP Joe Biden’s abortion response during the debate. HERE.
A taste….
Joe Biden’s Religion: Catholicism or Leftism?
In the vice presidential debate, the two candidates, both Roman Catholics, were asked about their religious beliefs, how they impact the candidates’ political positions and specifically about abortion. This was the response of Vice President Joe Biden:
“My religion defines who I am. And I’ve been a practicing Catholic my whole life. And it has particularly informed my social doctrine. Catholic social doctrine talks about taking care of those who — who can’t take care of themselves, people who need help.
“With regard to abortion, I accept my church’s position on abortion as a — what we call de fide doctrine. Life begins at conception. That’s the church’s judgment. I accept it in my personal life.
“But I refuse to impose it on equally devout Christians and Muslims and Jews and — I just refuse to impose that on others, unlike my friend here, the congressman.
“I do not believe that we have a right to tell other people that women, they can’t control their body. It’s a decision between them and their doctor, in my view. And the Supreme Court — I’m not going to interfere with that.”
Let’s analyze this response.
1. “My religion defines who I am.”
If a conservative, evangelical Christian candidate for national office said that he defined himself by his religious beliefs, liberals would be screaming that the wall between church and state was in danger of being taken down.
Here is the rule in American politics: When the left uses religion to promote liberal policies, it is a beautiful thing. When the right uses religion to promote conservative policies, it threatens the separation of church and state and may lead to the creation of a theocracy.[…]
2. “It has particularly informed my social doctrine. Catholic social doctrine talks about taking care of those who can’t take care of themselves, people who need help.”
[…]
3. “I accept my church’s position on abortion … I just refuse to impose that on others.”
This sounds beautiful to liberals. But it is as un-thought-through as it is un-Catholic.[…]
These statements by the vice-president of the United States provide one more example of the fact that leftism — not Christianity, not Catholicism, and not Islam — has been the most influential religion in the world for the last century.
Only when Catholicism agrees with leftism is Joe Biden prepared to impose it. When his Catholicism does not agree with leftism, it is reduced to being a matter of personal matter of faith, no more binding on non-Catholics than receiving the Eucharist.[…]
Read the whole thing there.
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IF we women were REALLY exercising control over our bodies, pills and abortions would be unnecessary. And the sexual revolution which gave us these Peter Pan/Hugh Hefner clones would have withered on the vine before our nation ever reached a 40% bastardy rate. (Take note every Catholic who wishes to “help the poor”, chastity within marriage and celibacy outside of it is the foundation of intact families and intact families are the greatest bulwark against childhood poverty and against social rot.)
So true, AvantiBev
As soon as VP Joe Biden uttered the words, “My religion defines who I am….” I sat there just waiting for the next shoe to drop… the inevitable ‘I can’t IMPOSE my views/ideas/thoughts/morality/religion on anyone else’ to come out of his mouth. Um… so no… you can’t stand up for truth and instead stand up for the party that supports abortion, same-sex marriage and a host of other moral failures. But hey, good thing you’re groovy with the Church’s Social Doctrine Mr. Biden… and that personally, you believe the Church’s teachings. Don’t want to bum anyone out or rain on anyone’s parade by standing up for the truth! That might make someone uncomfortable…
IF we women were REALLY exercising control over our bodies, pills and abortions would be unnecessary.
Horrors! Abstinence? Fidelity? Recognition that sometimes “if it feels good, do it” is the worst policy? And more: actually making an adult decision before indulging mere cravings?
So unrealistic! ;)
I have pondered the manner in which the social charity of the Church has in many places supplanted the Religion of the Church. It’s like when priests put their evangelical efforts before performing the sacraments for which they are ordained. It would be like me leaving my kids to a nanny while I worked 40 hours in a soup kitchen or ran off on missionary work. It’s a distortion of good works. My opinion.
I have pondered the manner in which the social charity of the Church has in many places supplanted the Religion of the Church.
In my view, the “social teaching” of the Church is most often invoked when justifying an action or position which violates Church doctrine.
wmeyer said: “In my view, the “social teaching” of the Church is most often invoked when justifying an action or position which violates Church doctrine.”
Bullseye!!!
So, Mr. Biden, you consider life an “imposition”?
The “I’m personnally opposed to abortion, but I must not impose my religious beliefs on the rest of society” line has been used for decades by American Catholic politicians, and they all continue to be counted as members in good standing of the Catholic Church. The bishops accept this position as acceptable for Catholics and they continue to give them Communion.
There are plenty of actions which are objectively sinful and evil that the government allows. The question of whether a particular evil action should be outlawed by the government is a prudential one. Other examples – drinking too much alcohol, premarital sex, contraception, recreational drug use, worshipping of false gods, blaspehmy. There are countless objectively, intrinsically evil acts that a Catholic in good standing might conclude should not be outlawed by the government.
Liberal Catholics also like to use the notion of being nice to others as a battering ram against conservative Catholics. They characterize all opposition to their opinions as mean-spirited, judgmental, hate-filled, ignorant tirades, to beat them into silence through making them feel guilty. Just go look at the trolls in the comboxes over at CatholicVote.org.
“My whole life is informed by Catholic teaching until it is a matter of life and death. At that point, I refuse to impose my will on someone else. ” You hear this with abortion, you hear this with feeding and giving even minimal health care to preserve the lives of the poor, you hear this with executions that are not the only practicable way to defend human effectively against the aggressor, and the list goes on. If that isn’t talking out of both sides of one’s mouth, I don’t know what is.
This is the other line that kills me: Catholics who are quoted in newspapers saying things like “The No. 1 tenet of our faith is the primacy of our conscience”….as if the Church goes to the trouble of articulating what is and is not objectively moral, but then in the end says, “But honey, you know, the absolute main thing is that you need to do what YOU feel is right. That is Belief #1 for us Catholics.” Wow, I’ve recited the Creed any number of times, and somehow I missed that one. Baltimore Catechism, too….I just didn’t catch that one. The #1 thing when it comes to matters of conscience, and I was never taught that. I feel so cheated.
The other one that gets me is the 80+ year old Catholic–it is ALWAYS some old lady who you KNOW was taught when the catechesis was better than this!- who gets quoted saying that you can’t expect gays to be celibate their entire lives. Gosh, no, the Catholic Church never expected celibacy of anybody. If you’re not heterosexual, moral law doesn’t apply to you. How draconian that would be!
What churches are these people going to? What are they hearing in the homilies, and in the religious education classrooms? Have the seminaries been turning out Unitarians?
Dennis Prager recently had a column entitled, “The World’s Most Dynamic Religion Is … ” and I’ve never seen the topic of leftism treated in a better fashion. It’s a very good column. I found it because it was so good Real Clear Religion, news aggregator-type website, picked it up and posted it online.
http://www.dennisprager.com/columns.aspx?g=02617b1d-659b-4213-85bd-090651e03f18&url=the_worlds_most_dynamic_religion_is