Hey. I’m Christina, and I recently joined this site because I felt like I had to talk about this. I’m a Protestant but leaning more towards Catholic all the time.
A lot of people with strong conservative positions call themselves Catholic but ignore what the church teaches. They are probably Catholic because they agree with the Church about things like abortion, gay marriage, and religious freedom. However, they also ignore what the Vatican has said about the Iraq War, illegal immigrants, and affirmative action. Many of these people (Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, etc.) act as if Catholicism lends itself to support of everything America does. If they examined what the church has said about these things, would they accept that by their definition Catholicism is anti-American and globalist, or would they excuse themselves by saying they are not ex cathedra teachings or something like that?
You’re kinda stacking the old deck there. But let’s talk about it a little.
First of all, what, to you, is a strong conservative position? Is it someone who used to be a liberal but is now a conservative? Is it a conservative of any sort or origin? You see the term used all the time, but nobody ever defines it in any meaningful way that I have ever heard. You can share, and I ask you to share, your definition of it.
And what, exactly, is a conservative?
And what, exactly, is “affirmative action” to you?
Now, for a moment, let’s consider the following person:
-She’s a woman.
-She works for an association for retarded citizens.
-She spends a lot of her time “off the clock” helping them, because she wants to.
-She’s a nurse, and spends a fair amount of her time taking care of dying children, for no pay at all.
-She opposes abortion, and once gave a speech as a Democratic party official, to party members, encouraging the acceptance of prolife candidates in the party.
-She does volunteer work for her church.
-She attends the Pauline Mass. Her favorite priests are a Polish immigrant and a Haitian immigrant.
-She works with immigrants. In fact, part of her job is to teach them basic healthcare so they can work for the association for retarded citizens while going to college, then return as healthcare workers to their own countries, which most want very much to do. Most of them are Africans or Carribbean blacks.
-She has adult children and is very generous with her time in helping take care of their children. She has, so far, taught three granddaughters and one grandson to bake pastries quite well.
-She says the rosary every night, and has for years.
-One of her daughters is married to a Palestinian/Iraqi convert from Islam to Catholicism. The grandson who she taught to bake is therefore half Palestinian/Iraqi, as is one of the granddaughters.
-Her views of the Iraq War are strongly influenced by what the Palestinian father and Iraqi mother of her son-in-law, as well as her Palestine-born son-in-law say about it.
-She co-sponsored an immigrant family from Guatemala because the father, who does have a green card, did not earn enough to guarantee financial responsibility for them. That’s a very risky thing to do, financially, by the way. If they go on welfare or Medicaid, she has to pay for it. She took the family’s word, and that of a Mexican nun that they would not fall back on her for support. She had no other guarantee.
-She is very faithful to what the Pope says and is well aware of what he actually said about the Iraq War, and went to the trouble to actually read what both he and JPII said about it.
-Her grandfather was the Democratic Secretary of State of Indiana.
-Her best friend’s daughter is a lesbian who lives with her significant other. She has gone to dinner with the three of them in her own home town.
-What is she? Is she a liberal? A conservative? A neoconservative? A neoliberal?
-For whom did she vote in the last presidential election, and why?
-In what way or ways does her description show that she is faithful or unfaithful to the teachings of the Church?
-Who is her favorite news commentator?
