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COLUMN: How the Catholic church can discourage smart voting

By Theresa Clift on February 20, 2012 7:45 am in Columns / 17 comments

 

Theresa Clift/Staff Reporter

On Sunday, a letter by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops opposing the contraception mandate was distributed at Catholic churches across the country.

The letter opposed the rule on contraception mandate President Barack Obama finalized Feb. 10, which requires private health care to cover sterilization, contraception and morning-after pills.

The bishops stated more religious employers should be exempt from the mandate, such as Catholic hospitals, universities and charities.

In its first paragraph, the letter quickly strays from the facts in an emotional appeal which would discredit all that would follow:

“Ironically, not even Jesus and his disciples would have qualified for the exemption, because it excludes those who mainly serve people of another faith.”

Christians should feel exploited and offended by petty statements like this, especially from religious leaders.

Good priests understand why Catholics go to church: to hear the gospel, worship and receive the body of Christ. If they wanted to hear one-sided political pleas, they might be at a campaign rally or watching Fox News, not kneeling at a pew on a Sunday morning.

According to surveys by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, only about 31 percent of Catholics attend mass every Sunday. Many others have joined different denominations.

Apparently I’m not the only one who feels this way.

Christians often have a deeply-rooted relationship with Jesus. Claims to know where a physical Jesus would be stationed in today’s world and His opinions on political issues are nothing but attempts to manipulate Christians from free-thinking individuals to robots at the voting booth.

One of the Democratic Party’s core philosophies, often accused of socialism, is actually very simple — remembering to help our nation’s poorest, sickest and most needy people. Democratic leaders accomplish this by making health care more available, opposing wars and more.

However, just as it is dangerous to exclusively link the Catholic Church with political conservatism, it is equally dangerous to link it to liberalism, although the argument can be made for both. The right choice can only come from within, through prayer for the religious, and is dependent on the issues and candidates of the time.

There is no way to tell what Jesus would have thought about abortion, gay marriage or contraception. What we do know about Jesus is this — he gave everything he had to those who needed it most.

Earlier this month, GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney told CNN “I am not concerned about the very poor.”

Dear U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, is this the man we should choose to run our country as Jesus would have?

 
 

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About the author

Theresa Clift is currently a Staff Reporter and was fall 2011 University Editor at Central Michigan Life.

 
  • http://twitter.com/vivificat Teófilo de Jesús

    This is a very sad, disappointing column. The author doesn’t wish to understand that before receiving the Body and Blood of Christ, the communicant needs to search his or her heart. In the case of artificial birth control, the Church has a millenary moral teaching about it necessary to form one’s conscience. To set aside as merely antiquated and “anti-woman” is where the real fallacy lies.

    The bishop’s stance is not about protecting the freedom of dissenting Catholics to trash the Church’s teaching, but about protecting the consciences of those who adhere to the Church’s teaching fully.

  • Tron4JC

    One-sided column that can discourage smart voting. Making empty statements about what smart priests know what the church is supposed to be doesn’t prove your point but make you look foolish and spiteful. You don’t interact with why churches, not just Catholic ones, feel this is no longer just politics but involve them in asking them to do things that go against their consciences. And when that happen there is this part of God’s word that say we obey God rather than men. Apparently this one-sided column has enough nerves to accuse the church bishops of being one-sided. Funny but their views are echoed by leaders of many other church denominations as well as of other religions. As well as many other folks.

    And get a grip on what Rommey. He said he was unconcerned about BOTH rich and poor since he is confident his policies will help bring them up. You left out a big part of what he said. And you accuse others of being one-sided.

    Again, a church service always involve preaching God’s word which is not limited to just the things you want and limited to discuss. Only the unthinking would buy your claim, hooker , line and sinker. God’s word does command the church to take a stand against being asked to do what God commands it NOT to do. Sorry as much as you want the church not to make what you deem one-sided political statements we obey God not you. And I’m not Catholic but Protestant.

  • Michmediaperson

    First, Theresa, you misquoted Romney because the liberal, Obama-loving CNN chopped what Romney said in half.  The second half of the sentence was, “since they have a safety net.”

    The Republicans should stay away from the mainstream media since they are all Obama supporters and will chop, delete words to make our candidates look bad.  You got suckered in by CNN.  Go back and listen to the interview.

    Second, like it or not, there is a first amendment about Freedom of Religion.  Obama and Obamacare have no business telling churches how to run their church doctrine. 

    Hopefully, the Supreme Court will rule Obamacare unconstitutional before the election and this will be a mute point.

    One other comment, when the socialists have taken over other countries in the past, one of the areas they want to take control of first are churches and the media.

    Now, Theresa, you’re very mixed up about one of your other paragraphs.  You need to read Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity’s books. 

    The Democratic Party opposes war??????????  Who started the Civil War?  Democrats.  Who started World War I??  Woodrow Wilson and Democrats.  Who got us into World War II since our military was so weak??  President Roosevelt and Democrats.  Korea???? President Truman and the Democrats.  Vietnam??  President Kennedy and Johnson.
    Democrats keep the country weak and vulnerable and that’s why we have enemies start war.

    Let’s compare the Democratic Party to the greatest President since Abraham Lincoln—President Ronald Reagan, Republican.
    Reagan never fired a shot and took down the Berlin Wall, freed our hostages from Iran, and ended communism in most of the world.

    Theresa, you’ve been brainwashed by Barack Hussein Obama and liberal professors and journalists.

    Democratic Party takes care of the poor???    Wrong!!!!   Poverty right now is at an all-time high.  And, who is in the White House???  Obama and the Democrats!!

    If you’d open up your mind and listen to Limbaugh and Hannity, instead of music….and watch O’Reilly and Hannity on Fox, instead of those stupid reality shows and American Idol, you would know Democrats like to keep people poor so the poor people keep the Democrats in office.

    Case in point, Carl Levin.  Carl Levin has been our US Senate since 1978.  Look at how many jobs have been eliminated in this state since 1978.  Look at how Detroit, Flint, Benton Harbor have collapsed since 1978.  People are poorer thanks to Carl Levin.  The Democrats destroy the economy and jobs and put the people on food stamps, welfare and unemployment.  This way they are dependent on Levin, Stabenow to live.  That’s part of the Democratic playbook nationwide. 

    Finally, health care.  Health care use to be affordable until the Democrats and Big Government got so involved, it’s driven up the price skyhigh!!!!!!!  And, who pays for the 15 million illegal’s healthcare???  You do, Theresa.  Your family and neighbors.  Why??  Because of Democrats.

    Theresa, you failed to mention how you plan to pay for all the deficit spending, caused by Democrats.   Have you been paying attention to Greece and their current economic problems or paying attention to TMZ?  No one has deficit spent more than Obama.  With another billion this year, it will be 5 trillion in 4 years!!!  Who is going to pay for all this?  Even if Obama stole Warren Buffet, Bill Gates and the WalMart families weath, we’d be nowhere paying for it.

    Theresa, the Democrats are spending away your future.  You will never see social security when you’re 62 but you’re paying for it. (By the way, michmediaperson wants to thank you for the free handout)  When the country goes bankrupt, how will the poor get their welfare checks, food stamps, etc.

    See if the Park Library has Limbaugh, Hannity or Mark Levin’s books and read about the evils of liberalism, socialism, communism, facism.

  • Maxi

    Theresa, you shouldn’t write columns on issues that you clearly don’t  know enough about.  How dare you bash the Catholic Church when you don’t really understand what they stand for or their beliefs?

  • I_Was_A_Teenage_McCarthyist

    If the churchs want to turn their sermons into rallys and standpoints into dichotomous battle cries  – then maybe they should pay some taxes.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimen_sollicitationis

    The Catholic Church really doesn’t care about humanity. You can point to any point in it’s history.
    People think the Roman Empire a thousand years ago died out – little do they know.

  • I_Was_A_Teenage_McCarthyist

    You can’t tell me the Catholic Church does not want to use the pulpit to tell people which way to vote- That some candidates are surely more godly than others. That’s despicable.
    You trap people in an feedback loop of guilt and fear then tell them which way God wants their country to run. Hey – maybe they should pay some damn taxes then – seeing how they essentially turn themselves into a PAC.
     
    I’ve said this a few times now but:
    This archaic institution tells people (usually in the third world) with AIDS that using a condom when coupling with their spouse is a crime against god.

    No more paying penance to the Roman Empire. The Vatican does not deserve your respect.

    Crimen sollicitationis.

    Need I say more

  • I_Was_A_Teenage_McCarthyist

     You are a moron. At best – dull normal. Pretty average for America though.

    You talk so much crap it’s hard to even begin to refute your ego.
    If I remember correctly – this editorial was about the Catholic Church,
    not the false left-right paradigm we are all so fond of. Especially you.

    I’m not even going to give credence to most of your mind drivel by trying to refute it.

    But it is funny how you mention the Regan Iranian thing – but not the drug-running, election-rigging, dictator installing – Contra thing. Star Wars made us all much safer. And an entirely fearful populace will purchase nearly any commodity that is thrown at them.
    -Thusly the only good thing about socialism, fascism and communism is that capitalism tends to make a lot of money by comparing them to pure evil and building up the Military Industrial Complex accordingly.

    What it boils down for me is: Bush jr. started the “war on terrorism” ( whatever the hell that is suppose to mean) and Obama has continued it.
    American Imperialism and Hegemony at it’s best thanks to our Democratic and Republican Parties.

    See, it’s not a ‘left/right’ thing. It’s a ‘politicians are puppets to money’ kind of thing.
    Power corrupts. No one is a safe bet or a savior. Not even you michmediaperson.

  • Creative_destruction

    Cliff wrote:

     ”There is no way to tell what Jesus would have thought about abortion,
    gay marriage or contraception.” What?!  Lets start with abortion : Exodus 20:3-17. The 6th commandment states: ” Thou shalt not kill.” Homosexuality  Leviticus 18:22 is translated: “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.” New Testament Romans 1:26-27
    “For this cause God gave them up unto vile
    affections: for even [1] their women
    did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And
    likewise also [2] the men, leaving the natural use of the woman,
    burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which
    is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense [penalty]
    of their error which was meet [due]” . I do not agree with the Catholic churches position on contraception, nor can I find any scripture which supports the churches position. Nevertheless, the Bible and Jesus are quite clear on the issues of killing human life and the issue of homosexuality. Inclosing Jesus died for our sins. So, that those who accept His sacrificial blood may be set free from the power and suffering of sin. What did Jesus say to the woman after he saved her from being stoned for adultery? :”10 When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none
    but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers?
    hath no man condemned thee?
    8:11 She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.” The modern Christian world does not wish to here the Lord’s final words to her”  ..go and sin no more.” Sadly far to many Christians are now calling sin righteousness and righteousness sin.

  • Grey Area

    Very thoughtful and intelligent article. Thanks for writing this!

  • Grey Area

    It is important for religious institutions, perhaps on the church-by-church basis, to be able to determine where their adherence lies with government mandates. If the belief is that contraception is more morally upsetting than, say, sex education, sex out of wedlock, unwanted pregnancy, a lack of two-sided parental guidance, poverty from childcare expenses, etc. etc., then so be it. There’s a standard to uphold, I guess.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Michael-Towshack/1023297266 Michael Towshack

    Censor much?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Michael-Towshack/1023297266 Michael Towshack

    Let there be no mistake; Obama is a war criminal just as George
    W. Bush is a war criminal.

    Moreover, Obama recently signed the NDAA which allows for
    indefinite military detention of American citizens without charges or trial and
    has already assassinated no less than three (3) American citizens (including a
    16 year old child.) Go search “President Obama Signs Indefinite Detention Into
    Law” and “The killing of Awlaki’s 16-year-old.” 
    Also search “Repulsive progressive hypocrisy” and “Progressives and the
    Ron Paul fallacies.”

    The ACLU stated “President Obama signed the National Defense
    Authorization Act (NDAA) allowing indefinite [military] detention to be
    codified into law.” It went on to state “under the Bush administration, similar
    claims of worldwide detention authority were used to hold even a U.S. citizen
    detained on U.S. soil in military custody, and many in Congress now assert that
    the NDAA should be used in the same way again. 
    The ACLU believes that any military detention of American citizens or
    others within the United States is unconstitutional and illegal, including
    under the NDAA. We are extremely disappointed that President Obama signed this
    bill even though his administration is already claiming overly-broad detention
    authority in court.”

    An article on The Salon a number of weeks ago entitled “The
    killing of Awlaki’s 16-year-old “ goes on to discuss how “two weeks after the
    U.S. killed American citizen Anwar Awlaki with a drone strike in Yemen,  it did the same to his 16-year-old son, Abdulrahman
    al-Awlaki, ending the teenager’s life along with his 17-year-old cousin and
    seven other people. News reports, based on government sources, originally
    claimed that Awlaki’s son was 21 years old and an Al Qaeda fighter but a birth
    certificate published by The Washington Post proved that he was born only 16
    years ago in Denver.”

    He’s an excellent excerpt from an article entitled “Progressives
    and the Ron Paul fallacies”:

    President Obama — himself holds heinous views on a slew of
    critical issues and himself has done heinous things with the power he has been
    vested. He has slaughtered civilians — Muslim children by the dozens — not once
    or twice, but continuously in numerous nations with drones, cluster bombs and
    other forms of attack. He has sought to overturn a global ban on cluster bombs.
    He has institutionalized the power of Presidents — in secret and with no checks
    — to target American citizens for assassination-by-CIA, far from any
    battlefield. He has waged an unprecedented war against whistleblowers, the
    protection of which was once a liberal shibboleth. He rendered permanently
    irrelevant the War Powers Resolution, a crown jewel in the list of post-Vietnam
    liberal accomplishments, and thus enshrined the power of Presidents to wage war
    even in the face of a Congressional vote against it. His obsession with secrecy
    is so extreme that it has become darkly laughable in its manifestations, and he
    even worked to amend the Freedom of Information Act (another crown jewel of
    liberal legislative successes) when compliance became inconvenient.

     He has entrenched for
    a generation the once-reviled, once-radical Bush/Cheney Terrorism powers of
    indefinite detention, military commissions, and the state secret privilege as a
    weapon to immunize political leaders from the rule of law. He has shielded Bush
    era criminals from every last form of accountability. He has vigorously
    prosecuted the cruel and supremely racist War on Drugs, including those parts
    he vowed during the campaign to relinquish — a war which devastates minority
    communities and encages and converts into felons huge numbers of minority youth
    for no good reason. He has empowered thieving bankers through the Wall Street
    bailout, Fed secrecy, efforts to shield mortgage defrauders from prosecution,
    and the appointment of an endless roster of former Goldman, Sachs executives
    and lobbyists. He’s brought the nation to a full-on Cold War and a covert hot
    war with Iran, on the brink of far greater hostilities. He has made the U.S. as
    subservient as ever to the destructive agenda of the right-wing Israeli
    government. His support for some of the Arab world’s most repressive regimes is
    as strong as ever.

     Most of all, America’s
    National Security State, its Surveillance State, and its posture of endless war
    is more robust than ever before. The nation suffers from what National
    Journal‘s Michael Hirsh just christened “Obama’s Romance with the CIA.” He has
    created what The Washington Post just dubbed “a vast drone/killing operation,”
    all behind an impenetrable wall of secrecy and without a shred of oversight.
    Obama’s steadfast devotion to what Dana Priest and William Arkin called “Top
    Secret America” has severe domestic repercussions as well, building up vast
    debt and deficits in the name of militarism that create the pretext for the
    “austerity” measures which the Washington class (including Obama) is plotting
    to impose on America’s middle and lower classes.”

    Another well written article entitled “Repulsive progressive
    hypocrisy” goes on to say “a core plank in the Democratic critique of the
    Bush/Cheney civil liberties assault was the notion that the President could do
    whatever he wants, in secret and with no checks, to anyone he accuses without
    trial of being a Terrorist – even including eavesdropping on their
    communications or detaining them without due process. But President Obama has
    not only done the same thing, but has gone much farther than mere eavesdropping
    or detention: he has asserted the power even to kill citizens without due
    process.”

    I think I’ve made my point. Obama is no different Bush; both
    criminals who show how the left-right
    paradigm is laughable.

    Also, where was CM Life when Obama signed the NDAA? It the indefinite
    military detention of American citizens without charges or trial; its kind of a
    big deal and you are supposed to be newspaper aren’t you CM Life?

  • http://twitter.com/stanchaz stan chaz

    I’VE HAD ENOUGH! In this Holy War on Religion, of Religion, and by Religion – I SURRENDER! ‘Cause I’m a lover, not a fighter.  Instead…I’m gonna start my OWN religion, and get in on the good stuff: tax exemptions, and lots of taxpayer money to do what I want, in the name of religious liberty. AWESOME! 

    Hey NEWT -wanna join? We’re gonna have open marriages and multiple wives and all SORTS of neat stuff that you’re just gonna love! But don’t you worry Newt: we’ll have no – I repeat – NO nasty stoning of adulterers in OUR religion. None of that stuff. I Promise! As for SANTORUM, he just LOVES to tell other people how they should live. He’ll make us a REAL fine preacher-man. In fact, if he joins we’ll make him Saint Santorum….AND fix his Google search results! As for Mr. Obama, it’s obvious that we’ll need to (severely) demonize him, even further than now!  Last but not least: MITT and RON. Hmmm… Hey, I know. Just for you two guys and the rest of the 1%: we’ll insist on NO TAXES AT ALL for our members…AND human sacrifice of illegal aliens. Tear out their hearts! Televise it live! WHAT A COUNTRY!  :-)

    By the way, the fact that Mitt Romney’s DAD was born in Mexico is quite relevant here. The reason is that Mitt’s Mormon GRAND-dad LEFT the United States and went to Mexico in the 1880‘s because  laws against polygamy were passed in the U.S.; And being a Mormon back then, Mitt’s grand-dad just wanted to keep his multiple wives. Hey, who wouldn’t? Therefore, IF we follow the “logic” of the people crying crocodile tears about a non-existent “war on religion”, THEN the U.S. should have allowed polygamy back then (and religious racial discrimination, and who knows what else) – just because a particular religion claimed it as their cherished belief. GIVE ME A BREAK! Or better yet… give me a TAX-break…for my new religion!

    Seriously: The bottom line is that absolutely NO ONE is coming into our Churches or places of worship and telling believers what to believe…..or forcing them to use contraception. BUT If the Bishops (and other denominations) want to continue running businesses outside of their places of worship…businesses that employ millions of people of varying faiths -or no “faith” at all- THEN they must play by the same rules and rights that other workers live by and enjoy (especially if their businesses use our tax dollars, and skip paying taxes, in the process). This is not a “war on religion”. Never was. It’s a war BY some religions… on women and men who simply want to plan their families, to control their futures, to keep their jobs, and to have health insurance that allows them to do that. The churches (or the IRS) need to decide whether these are gonna be political organizations proclaiming partisan politics from the pulpit…or….tax-exempt places of WORSHIP.  Not both. 

    p. s. I come from a religious background. I know that their are many good people out there in various faiths (AND outside of those faiths)…many good people searching for answers, searching for community, searching for a way….in this all-too-harsh world. There’s only one thing I can say to you: think for yourself, be yourself, trust yourself. Don’t just accept something because it comes from a “voice of authority”. For ultimately YOU are responsible for your life, and how you try to live it. That’s why you have a conscience: to choose, not just to follow….

  • Creative_destruction

    Do yourself a favor and read  the quotes and at least pretend your attending a University.

  • Creative_destruction

    Well, Stan if you stop fighting for what you believe to be true then you are weak and you will make a very nice slave.

  • Ron

    “There is no way to tell what Jesus would have thought about abortion, gay marriage or contraception.”

    Is this serious? Have you read the Bible? If you want to argue this point from a secular point of view that is one thing, but if you have not read the thing, do not write as if you have.

  • Tonyint

    Thanks, Maxi. The column’s author knows little; the Gospels’ writings do indeed define marriage as permanent bond between a man and woman and that which is forever joined under God. The bishops, in their communication, are simply asserting the freedom to design and pay for health care insurance in line with Church teaching about the moment when life starts. Crucially here, it is the political system that has interfered with the relationship between the institution offering the insurance and the employees who are seeking that insurance. No one is compelled to work for a Catholic-affiliated institution. If employees want sterilization or other such coverage (or paid family leave, dental insurance for kids…), then in a free market and free society, they are free to seek employers who include that coverage. It is a simple point that the writer is incapable of understanding.

    AI