Culture of life has become such a hollow political ploy

[Maranatha]

At this time last year, there were Catholic Bishops urging their followers to vote for the ‘culture of life’. I wonder how their ‘culture of life’ is working out for them as we saw an inept Administration (you know the one that purports to support the culture of life) respond to our own citizens in the wake of Katrina.

Also, that culture of life thing really has to be a bit tedious given our inept handling of Iraq and watching the death toll rapidly rise because of it. Culture of life has become such a hollow political ploy that I would hope, the Catholic Bishops have seen the light and understand how badly they have been punked.

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[MikeinSD]

“Culture of life” has nothing to do with religion and everything to do with current US politics. And dressing up politics in religious dress disgraces both religion and politics.

 

[Jennifer123]

Feel better? :ehh:

I suppose having mothers watch their children getting eaten by wild dogs is a better situation for Iraqis. That I read by the way in 2002 in the New Yorker. Hardly a conservative rag. I’m not trying to uphold Iraq as that’s not necessarily the point of your rant. For whom should people considerate of the rights of the unborn vote?

 

[tmn379]

It seems to me that any phrase that gets attached to someone’s political agenda will eventually become a hollow ploy (especially in U.S. politics, but I suspect it’s true elsewhere, as well).

As politically conscious Catholics, we need to pay attention to more than just the party platforms and the sound bites generated by the media and the politicians themselves.

OK, that said, my point is that the Culture of Life has not become an hollow ploy. It is still the substantive model of societal behavior that it was when it was first presented. However, the Republican Party has found a way to milk one or two aspects of the culture of life while ignoring others to score a few political points. The popular media have managed to turn culture of life into a catch phrase for “anti-abortion” or “anti-choice”.

But none of that changes the fact that we need to recognize that none of the current political parties accurately portray a Catholic perspective on culture, society or politics. And so we have a duty to evaluate political candidates on an individual basis, not on party affiliation alone.

As for the Catholic Bishops of the United States, I don’t think they made a mistake in advocating that we vote for a culture of life. But I do think, on the whole, they did a poor job of presenting what that means. It also doesn’t help their cause very much that very few of the political candidates in US politics support more than a couple culture of life perspectives.

Anyway, that’s my rather wordy two cents…

 

[Guar_Fan]

Yes, the Culture of Life has been ignored by both political parties. They have selected a couple hot button issues and discarded the rest.

I think the seamless garment described by Cardinal Bernadin is still a useful image and desireable policy goal. We, as a nation, should embrace life and pass policies which promote the well-being of its citizens.

But so far neither of the two parties seem interested in it. Perhaps we need to be more organized?

 

[Seattle.RC]

I praise God for our pro-life President George Bush. I pray for the day we will see a true Catholic run for president who doesn’t feel the need to apologize for claiming to be a Christian.

I thank God for our new, young, brilliant, pro-life Supreme Court justice. Who knows George Bush and still doubts that He knows that his next nominee is also pro-life?

People who use the war to attempt to say that George Bush is not pro-life disingenuously seek to promote their own selfish political goals. These people don’t care about defending life. They are just thinking: “What’s in it for me? And what sounds like a good argument for me to get what I want.” The fact that the cause for life is the only social justice cause that has no pay off for it’s promoters, save that of doing God’s will, shows so transparently how self serving its opponents are.

Pray, hope and don’t worry. God demands that we be faithful, not successful. I will leave the success and the glory to Him.