How to respond: Catholic thinks neglecting poor worse than abortion

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My MIL thinks that it is ok to not vote prolife because she says it is worse to neglect the poor than support abortion. She also thinks more poor people die from government neglect than babies die from abortion. How do I refute this?
 
aegsemj said:
My MIL thinks that it is ok to not vote prolife because she says it is worse to neglect the poor than support abortion. She also thinks more poor people die from government neglect than babies die from abortion. How do I refute this?
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Well we all know that Jesus talked a lot more about abortion than helping the poor…oh wait, no he didn’t.
 
Jesus never said to use the government to tax people at the point of a gun to help the poor. Jesus said we will be judged by what WE do, not what our government does. God wants our hearts, He doesn’t want us to sit back and yell at other people or government agencies to help the poor when while sit and do nothing. It’s our job to help, not some government agency that will probably do a lousy job of it anyhow.

Abortion kills millions of babies every year in the U.S. alone, it is truly a holocaust. Pagan societies throughout history all seem to have one common thing among them, they kill their children. Scripture pretty plainly says not to murder, I know of no clearer example of murder than killing a baby simply because it’s an inconvenience.
 
Ask her if she would support a government program of euthanasing (spelling?) citizens around her age (stop smiling:D) in order to redistrubute the resources that age group was using to the poor; or if she would support a similar program for the poor since it would eliminate the problem. When she objects, tell her that is exactly what is being done to aborted babies and that she supports this by placing the material needs of the poor above the right to life of the babies. No one has a right to not be poor or in need, everyone has a right to life.
 
FromTheAshes777 said:
Jesus never said to use the government to tax people at the point of a gun to help the poor. Jesus said we will be judged by what WE do, not what our government does. God wants our hearts, He doesn’t want us to sit back and yell at other people or government agencies to help the poor when while sit and do nothing. It’s our job to help, not some government agency that will probably do a lousy job of it anyhow.

Abortion kills millions of babies every year in the U.S. alone, it is truly a holocaust. Pagan societies throughout history all seem to have one common thing among them, they kill their children. Scripture pretty plainly says not to murder, I know of no clearer example of murder than killing a baby simply because it’s an inconvenience.
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Agreed 100%. Too often we want to outsource our faith to the federal government. We want “helping the poor” to be reduced to campaigning for the government to do it for us in order to make us “feel” like we are doing the right thing—without ever having to sacrifice 1 second of our time or 1 cent of our money. Helping the poor is our responsibility.
 
In reference to the couple of posts preceding mine, why can’t people do both? I don’t see any contradiction in supporting government policies that would help the poor as well as volunteering your own time and efforts to helping individual poor people.
 
interestedman said:
Well we all know that Jesus talked a lot more about abortion than helping the poor…oh wait, no he didn’t.
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I always figured murder was the worse sin, though. I don’t remember Jesus spelling that out, but my guess was it was because he didn’t think he had to. :rolleyes:

Seriously, why do you people (“you” is a general you in this case) not get that when Catholics say we’re against abortion that doesn’t mean we’re against a scientific procedure or a woman rights issue? It means we’re against MURDER.

If you’re going to debate us about abortion at least realize how we look at the issue. We don’t look at the Bible and say, “Hmmm, interesting Jesus DIDN’T talk about surgical procedures or women’s rights issues much…go figure.” We look at the Bible and say, “Murder is clearly an evil act.”
 
The choice is easy. Vote Pro-Life. Give generously. Everybody wins.
 
interestedman said:
Well we all know that Jesus talked a lot more about abortion than helping the poor…oh wait, no he didn’t.
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Thou shall not murder was pretty much a given. Same reason he didn’t go on and on about the importance of staying hydrated or getting enough sleep.
 
She is also for same sex marriage because she thinks the biggest sin is to turn someone away from God by judging them. This is from someone who goes to Mass every Sunday and goes to Adoration every week.
 
interestedman said:
Well we all know that Jesus talked a lot more about abortion than helping the poor…oh wait, no he didn’t.
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Given that they already knew that murder is evil, I think Jesus gave his disciples a lot more credit than you do.

Given His credentials vs. yours, I’ll go with Jesus’ route, thanks.
 
aegsemj said:
She is also for same sex marriage because she thinks the biggest sin is to turn someone away from God by judging them. This is from someone who goes to Mass every Sunday and goes to Adoration every week.
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Tell her to bring up these “beliefs” next time she goes to confession. Make sure this isn’t just before a mass, and that she’s in the back of the line. Might take a while.
 
aegsemj said:
My MIL thinks that it is ok to not vote prolife because she says it is worse to neglect the poor than support abortion. She also thinks more poor people die from government neglect than babies die from abortion. How do I refute this?
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Morality aside, thinking more people die from government neglect (what is “government neglect?”) is silly, and undefinable.

The rate of abortions is not: numberofabortions.com/

I’d ask her to give you some numbers to support her erroneous assertion.
 
aegsemj said:
My MIL thinks that it is ok to not vote prolife because she says it is worse to neglect the poor than support abortion. She also thinks more poor people die from government neglect than babies die from abortion. How do I refute this?
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The unborn babe is the poorest of the poor. They are utterly dependent upon the mercy of others (especially their own mother) for mere survival. If anyone wants to claim that taking care of the poor is a higher priority than ending abortion, they need to face the reality that abortion takes away the only thing the poorest of the poor actually possess - their God-given right to life.

Blessed Mother Teresa said that the worst kind of poverty is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. Babies who are discarded by their own mothers are the victims of the worst kind of poverty.
 
My wife is Vietnamese. In Vietnam, she lived in a hut with no running water (go to the well down the street), no toilet (go to the outhouse), electricity only sporadically, no TV, no phone. In fact, she didn’t learn how to use a phone until she came to the US in 75. Her toys were a bunch of rocks and some rubber bands. There was barely enough food each day for the widower and his 9 kids.

But she wasn’t poor. And she’s glad she’s alive and not aborted.

There are those in power who want almost everyone to think they’re poor, but “I’ll fix it for you. Put your faith in me. Elect me. Re-elect me.” Look over there…somebody with more than you have. You deserve some of that. They didn’t actually earn it anyway.

The politics of envy.

Envy used to be one of the cardinal sins. Now it’s the main plank of one of our political parties platform. How sad.
 
aegsemj said:
My MIL thinks that it is ok to not vote prolife because she says it is worse to neglect the poor than support abortion. She also thinks more poor people die from government neglect than babies die from abortion. How do I refute this?
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Perfect example of why I have decided that instead of voting, I will pray!
 
ricmat said:
There are those in power who want almost everyone to think they’re poor, but “I’ll fix it for you. Put your faith in me. Elect me. Re-elect me.” Look over there…somebody with more than you have. You deserve some of that. They didn’t actually earn it anyway.

The politics of envy.

Envy used to be one of the cardinal sins. Now it’s the main plank of one of our political parties. How sad.
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This is so astute. I never realized this before. However, now that I have read your points here, I see that you are right. 😦
 
I think your MIL has her heart in the right place but doesn’t see the costs.

She wants to see the poor & marginalized assisted which is a wonderful thing. I would point out absolutely we should be doing everything to help the poor & marginalized then lead on to the vulnerable and the weak those who can’t defend themselves refer to scripture “do it to the least you do it to me” I would also point out the fact that being complicit in an evil act can not be atoned for no matter how many good works you do.
She is also for same sex marriage because she thinks the biggest sin is to turn someone away from God by judging them. This is from someone who goes to Mass every Sunday and goes to Adoration every week.
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This one also seems to be driven by a good motivator. Your MIL wants people to feel welcome no matter how damaged by sin and Christ wants us all to come to him.

I’d point out that saying it’s ok to do something wrong to make a person feel better is not really loving them at all and would create a bigger disaster. Then equate it with saying we should allow insert extreme socially distasteful activity here because we would be judging them.

Just my $0.02
 
slotty said:
I think your MIL has her heart in the right place but doesn’t see the costs.

She wants to see the poor & marginalized assisted which is a wonderful thing. I would point out absolutely we should be doing everything to help the poor & marginalized then lead on to the vulnerable and the weak those who can’t defend themselves refer to scripture “do it to the least you do it to me” I would also point out the fact that being complicit in an evil act can not be atoned for no matter how many good works you do.

This one also seems to be driven by a good motivator. Your MIL wants people to feel welcome no matter how damaged by sin and Christ wants us all to come to him.

I’d point out that saying it’s ok to do something wrong to make a person feel better is not really loving them at all and would create a bigger disaster. Then equate it with saying we should allow insert extreme socially distasteful activity here because we would be judging them.

Just my $0.02
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Agree 100%.

When a person is spiritually destroyed by grave sin those who encouraged them to remain in that sin are partially culpable. I have no desire to stand before God and have Him ask me why I encouraged someone’s spiritual destruction.

If an alcoholic comes into our local parish should we go and buy him or her a bottle of Jim Beam, pat them on the back and tell them it’s all ok?
 
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