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[GandalfTheWhite]

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=118330

I just read thins and I have to say that I had no idea that it is our obligation to vote. Now, I guess that right now this doesn’t really apply to me since I’m away from home (studying abroad) and I believe that no one would ask me to buy a plane ticket and fly home just to vote for someone.

Anyways…I created this thread to ask a question. What if you do not believe in any of the candidates or you simply feel that you don’t have enough knowledge to choose?

Also, somewhere I read that we should choose a pro-life candidate. Do you, as a catholic, need be voting a pro-life government even if you believe that this government is just bad for various reasons. Now, what if you are pro-life but for “atheistic government” (that means that government should consider every religion equal)? That means you will very likely support a government that allows abortion.

 

[Liberian]

Gandalf the White,

Implicit in the duty to vote, I think, is that the vote should be an informed vote. On the other hand, we should support the process even if we don’t have enough information to vote wisely for every race. (There was one election here a few years ago in which there was only one measure on the ballot and I had not been able to make up my mind as to whether or not I supported it. I showed up at the polling place and cast a blank ballot. It didn’t make much sense to most people, but I felt that it was necessary for me to do my bit in the electoral process.)

The right to life is an issue that trumps all other issues. If somebody is willing to support your right to vote but not your right to live, then he is willing to deprive you of your right to vote simply by not allowing you to live. As such, you don’t find “a pro-life government” that is “just bad for various reasons.” The anti-life government is “just worse” because it is not pro-life. There are no other reasons.

I would add that in voting for a pro-life government that has other flaws in it, you are not voting for that government as much as you are trying to prevent the other government from taking power. It is not so much voting for the lesser of two evils as it is voting against the greater of two evils. A couple of generations ago it was called a “clothespin vote.”

• Liberian

 

[McKevin]

I just read thins and I have to say that I had no idea that it is our obligation to vote. Now, I guess that right now this doesn’t really apply to me since I’m away from home (studying abroad) and I believe that no one would ask me to buy a plane ticket and fly home just to vote for someone.

Anyways…I created this thread to ask a question. What if you do not believe in any of the candidates or you simply feel that you don’t have enough knowledge to choose?

Also, somewhere I read that we should choose a pro-life candidate. Do you, as a catholic, need be voting a pro-life government even if you believe that this government is just bad for various reasons. Now, what if you are pro-life but for “atheistic government” (that means that government should consider every religion equal)? That means you will very likely support a government that allows abortion.

To paraphrase our priest from last Sunday’s homily…not to vote is to waste the blood of our soldiers who died to protect your freedoms…not to love God and put Him first in everything you do is to waste the blood that was shed for you by Christ on Calvary.

If there’s not a good candidate, then write somebody in! Your write-in might not stand a chance but your vote still counts.

Peace.

 

[GandalfTheWhite]

(There was one election here a few years ago in which there was only one measure on the ballot and I had not been able to make up my mind as to whether or not I supported it. I showed up at the polling place and cast a blank ballot. It didn’t make much sense to most people, but I felt that it was necessary for me to do my bit in the electoral process.)

Ye, but what is the point of casting an uninformed vote. That is the same like not voting at all.

I would add that in voting for a pro-life government that has other flaws in it, you are not voting for that government as much as you are trying to prevent the other government from taking power.

So you would vote for a pro-life government about which you though that would rule in a corrupt way? I’m going to give you an example - a hypothetical situation. Let’s say that in some country you would have to choose between Bush (pro-life) and someone else (pro-choice). I can’t even think of the possibility of me having to vote for Bush.

The anti-life government is “just worse” because it is not pro-life. There are no other reasons.

So a “pro-life Hitler” would always be better than any pro-choice government?

not to vote is to waste the blood of our soldiers who died to protect your freedoms.

How? Especially when we are talking about freedom to choose not to vote?

If there’s not a good candidate, then write somebody in! Your write-in might not stand a chance but your vote still counts.

Right, but what if there are two main pro-choice party and I really support one of them (because I think it would be better for my country and people) but believe that the other one is corrupted. Should I not try to help the country instead wasting my vote on a candidate that has no chances of winning?

Thank you for answers, God with you all!

 

[Ron_Conte]

There is no absolute moral obligation to vote. Catholics are free to choose to refrain from voting.

The prolife issue is very important, but it is not and should not be the sole determinate of who a Catholic votes for.

It is not necessarily a sin to vote for a proabortion candidate, as long as one is not voting with the intention of promoting, preserving, or widening abortion.

Ron