It’s not enough to see things as leaning to left or right wing. As Christians we are called upon to be faithful to Church teachings, period. People who distinguish left or right wings tend to hide behind labels and conventions to advance their true agenda. Was Jesus a right winger when discouraged divorce? Was he left-leaning when he fought against hypocrisy of High Priests? Love, Truth and justice have no leanings.
In case you missed it, Orionthehunter brought up the subject of torture, as a specific scenario for a point of reference. In the spirit of actual discussion, I responded in kind, as did other posters.
A laudable goal, but I will not hold my breath. Only two GOP presidential candidates openly spoke out about torture in the various debates, both were consistantly booed. Remember, we are not talking about a sliding scale of whatever you consider torture, the Church specifically notes compliance with international laws and standards.
Because I take them seriously, yes. It might seem odd to you, since you have already stated that you not only disagree with Rome on some teachings, you challenge the Pope’s authority to even make them. Also, you have previously stated that even compromises on abortion and euthanasia are acceptable to you.
Having strived to fully vote my faith for awhile now, you have my sympathies. Living in California, it is probably easier for me. It isn’t as if I am sacrificing a lot of political clout. On rare occassions we do elect a Republican, they are either pro-choice, pro-gay-marriage types like our Gov., or they seem to wind up resigning in disgrace (if not going to jail like the ‘Dukestir’).It’s hard being a Catholic voter.
I would never vote for a Democrat. But at the same time I would never vote for a neoconservative like the guys I’m seeing come of the of the Republican party today.
I’m staunchly pro-life, but also staunchly against the Iraq war and the death penalty. I like conservative ideas about taxation, but their huge spending plans are too big to match their smaller tax plans.
I think I’ll be voting libertarian this election (which will be my first ever, by the by). It’s as close as I can get, really.
Bravo.
Thankfully, it appears the last of the pro-torture candidates have dropped out – and I agree that there were a couple. I also agree that its tough to vote as a Catholic because no party, and few if any candidates, line up on all the issues. But the Church says that we have to do our best to do so, and that it is not enough to abandon that determination to another. We can’t just sign on to a party or a group or list provided by someone else, we have to think about all the issues, especially those identified as fundamental and inalienable ethical demands, and do our best.
I agree with you on this, which is why I have no problem with Pro-Life Democrats, who believe in more welfare, nationalized healthcare, etc. These are acceptable positions for a Catholic to take, just as a Republican Catholic’s position on subsidiarity and private charity over government is an acceptable position.
I would like to see any party in this country fully embrace the Catholic position on pro-life. Even when Catholics collapse our teachings to just a few issues, we still have to compromise.
I do not agree with the position of subsidiarity as my position on this was based on a book named after a probability density function and its publisher published the Behe books (Guess the name of that book now) as I do not think some people are capable of caring for themselves.
Yeah, some of those rich jerks actually oppose sterilizing Peruvian Indians without their consent (which one of the NGOs Gates funds was doing, by the way).
People are generally opposed to that… but thanks for eviscerating the rhetoric here.
It’s easy. Just create a product which doesn’t always work as advertised, charge a high price for it, limit the usage of that high-priced product to one user, structure it so that upgrades are a near-necessity, and charge users to help them make the product do what you already told them it would do.
I don’t have any medical insurance whatsoever and I have a chronic disease in my brain.
It’s hard being a Catholic voter.
I would never vote for a Democrat. But at the same time I would never vote for a neoconservative like the guys I’m seeing come of the of the Republican party today.
I’m staunchly pro-life, but also staunchly against the Iraq war and the death penalty. I like conservative ideas about taxation, but their huge spending plans are too big to match their smaller tax plans.
I think I’ll be voting libertarian this election (which will be my first ever, by the by). It’s as close as I can get, really.
try not to die of old age in the meantime…A few years ago, when I had some surgery, I brought my own music to the operating room. I had assembled a collection of Weird Al parodies … “Like A Surgeon”, “Living with a Hernia”, and the like.