I received a blast e-mail from a friend this morning that was a pretty typical anti-Obama piece. It was fairly humorous but, as is my general practice, I didn't read the whole thing and summarily deleted it.
About an hour later, I received a response from someone who had obviously hit Reply All. (I hate the Reply All button.) This person had been included on the blast list and they felt an uncontrollable urge to share their thoughts with all of us on the list. The response went like this (with my friends' names removed): "Please don’t include me in any more of these emails. I love you dearly, but I don’t want anyone to think that my inclusion means that I support your politics. I do not."
Since I have never heard of this person before, I was a bit curious about why I should even give a darn about whether she agreed with my friends' politics. I concluded that I didn't and I responded to her asking her to be careful about pressing Reply All and sending her e-mail to people like me who couldn't care less about her agreement or disagreement.
She also enclosed a link to a website that tries to justify Barack Obama's positions with Roman Catholic theology. Their efforts would be much more humorous if these people weren't serious. I will not forward the web address because I don't want to give them even the minuscule publicity that my mention might cause.
Later I started thinking this situation and was struck by the incredible arrogance and irony of this woman's position. This woman is a Director of Youth and Young Adult Ministry at a large Roman Catholic Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. However, as a Catholic pastoral minister she is supporting the most Pro-Abortion candidate in the history of the Democrat Party. She is supporting a Democrat who even believes that children who survive abortions should not receive medical care.
Now the argument that this women and those who agree with her would put forward goes something like this: Abortion is one of many issues facing the electorate this fall. We really should view the totality of the candidate's positions and vote accordingly rather than base our vote on a single issue. Besides, they say, Barack Obama will make abortion more rare, whatever that means. The fact that Barack Obama has pledged to support the most sweeping legislation lifting all restrictions on any form of abortion, the Freedom of Choice Act, seems to escape her and her friends' notice.
If the single issue were something along the lines of immigration or taxation, then I might be likely to agree that we should be look at the whole picture. But this single issue is far more critical and basic. The issue of abortion strikes directly at the fundamental right that each person enjoys: the right to life.
Since 1973, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that our country has been responsible for the deaths of 44,600,000 babies (through 2006) through the grotesque procedures of abortion. Now think about this for a second: Our country has been complicit by its policies in approximately 3.5 times more deaths than Hitler!
For any thinking Christian not to realize that the issue of abortion is a fundamentally important issue that trumps all others is amazing to me. That a Pastoral Associate for Youth Ministry in a Roman Catholic parish could blindly support the most radical pro-abort in American politics is scandalous. That she would proudly declare her support of this radical pro-abort smacks of incredible hubris.
Further, that a person in a position of leadership in Youth Ministry (where she is, presumably, forming young people) in a Roman Catholic parish could support such a candidate reflects one more reason why serious Christians, such as those of us who are traditionalist Anglicans, find the American Catholic church to be riddled with hypocrisy and unable to be taken seriously. While there are some very strong Catholic Christians, and I know a number of them, there are many milquetoasts out there who are quite willing to sacrifice their faith and lives of the innocent for political expediency.
God bless the bishops, clergy and laity who stand up for life. We must pray for those who work in the churches who show their implicit agreement to compromise life by their willingness to put a political agenda before the the lives of the most innocent among us.
To those who support this pro-abort Democrat, please remember that a person who is willing to deny the right to life can deny any right.
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