Well, I don’t know if this is the complete answer but I assume most Catholics that are practicing and are pro-choice themselves wouldn’t have an abortion or undertake risky hedonist behavior, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they are comfortable with others not having that option.
Again, it comes down to separation of Church and State. For the most part America is in the Secular realm of things that does a balancing act of not imposing religious views on non-believers while maintaining the rights of religion for those that have a religion. This includes non-Christian denominations like Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism.
Also, when I look to the government and their essential function it is to maintain law and order while maintaining individual rights and provide the political landscape for a free economy. I don’t look to the government to solve my own or even posses my own religious views. For me, that’s a private matter.
So, again, I’m not a one issue voter. I’m not going to vote for a president simply because they are pro-life. I would rather choose a president based on stability of governance, Economic Policy, and their agenda on human or individual rights. Again, Trump will win re-election and that’s fine, but I’m not voting for him. I voted for Obama but I didn’t vote for Hillary. This time around I will vote for Biden, who has explained that while he personally is pro-life and wouldn’t want anyone in his family to have an abortion as a representative of the people he has to allow what has been considered legal in America to go on.
But again, in terms of whose Catholic or who isn’t Catholic…well, I never engage in that kind of discussion because it speaks to a very narrow perspective on life. I’ve lived in London and traveled to France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Austria. I very much felt a bond with the Catholics there, who some on here would call cultural Catholics or Cafeteria Catholics. Again, I’m not falling for the line I have to vote for Trump to remain Catholic, or whatever other bullying or shaming is involved for not voting for the guy. All these countries have a different political dynamic that isn’t transferable to America. So, again, I don’t question anyone’s Catholicism. I won’t call them a Cafeteria Catholic or a Cultural Catholic, because again it’s a very narrow view of the world that doesn’t know the culture or have the culture.
And again, I did not grow up in a Red State and I’ve never even been to one. I grew up and live in California, and in America I’ve only been to Manhattan and New Jersey. So, whatever it is like living in a Red State I wouldn’t know. But the Red State isn’t the Standard way of living Catholic life in the rest of the world where there is so much Evangelical Influence. So, just because you live that way, it doesn’t mean the rest of the country lives that way or Europe or world.
