Security Moms and Faithful Catholics

Security Moms and Faithful Catholics: Deciding The Election of 2004 By: Deacon Keith A. Fournier © Third Millennium, LLC

First, let me give my readers all the careful qualifiers. I am writing as a private citizen, not as a representative of any group that I founded or whom I represent.

Let me be also clear. I opposed the “pre-emptive” war in Iraq. I do not believe there can ever be justification for a “pre-emptive” war under the clear teaching of the so-called “Just War” analysis. Preemption is never self-defense. I still maintain, as a faithful Catholic Christian, there was no “just” war in Iraq, under any stretch of any “just war” analysis.

Also, I, like many, eagerly await these Presidential debates. I must admit, I wish we had a pro-life, pro-family, pro-family, pro-poor and pro-peace candidate. We do not. So, what do we do? We follow a hierarchy of values, inform our participation and we vote!

Frankly, I am relieved. I now believe that President George Bush will win re-election. Why? Because of two groups that very few pollsters or “experts” fully understand, the so called “security moms” and the “faithful Catholics”

First, John Kerry is a disaster on the fundamental human rights issue of our age, the inviolable right to life and the freedom to be born. There has been a “pre-emptive” war in America for decades. It has been waged against the children in the first home of the whole human race, our first neighbors in the first home of the entire human race, their mother’s womb. The weapons used against these innocent victims have been chemical weapons and “surgical strikes”. This evil has been “sanctioned” by a Supreme Court completely out of control.

This position, the one that supports the right to life and the freedom to be born, is NOT a “single issue”. Rather, it is the fundamental human rights issue of our age and forms a lens through which many people view how a candidate really thinks and how they will govern. Without the right to life, there are no other rights. In fact, the entire hierarchy of rights is thrown into question. Without the freedom to be born, there are no other freedoms. There is a hierarchy of values under which we must approach this election and it should inform our approach to deciding this, the most important election of my fifty years on this earth and in this body.

Let’s be honest. We are now in Iraq, and no one in their right mind believes we can leave the freedom loving Iraqis to the militant terrorists, the “Jihadists”, who have seized the moment and set up their evil revolution within Iraq. They are the personification of evil and do not represent the heart of Islam. They will continue to cut off heads and claim to be religious while doing it! They are evil men and women who are blinded by evil.

I am a Christian. I say, bring on the altars, like in the old image of Elijah and the Prophets of Baal. My God, the God who came among us in Jesus Christ is the true God and He will prevail. However, I am also a realist. The emergence of Islam as a dominant force in the contemporary secularized west is due, at least in substantial part, to the weakness of the Christian witness in our age. There is such a thing as truth. God has revealed that truth in Jesus Christ. I am not worried; the true God will take care of Himself.

I have also been very vocal in opposing the initial foray into Iraq. I have also opposed both major parties in many of their positions. However, now I must become even more vocal. It is time to band together around the man who most expresses a concern for the children who have no voice, because their cry is hidden behind the wall of flesh, the first home of the whole human race. This man has also opened the doors to the Church, indeed religious institutions, in their vital mission to care for the poor and needy. This man is also a Christian, an evangelical Protestant, who is at least trying to be faithful even if he does not have the full social teaching of the Catholic Church.

That is not the case with Senator Kerry, partly because some Catholics who have advised him, have also failed to explain it all to him. Let me speak to the Democratic candidate. John Kerry, I am a Catholic. However, you break my heart. How I long for a faithful Catholic candidate! You are not one. You have sold your birthright for a bowl of porridge. You are unfaithful to the truth about life as taught infallibly by your Church and it is time for someone to call you to task. Get right with God. Your concern for the Iraqis and all who have died as a result of this Iraqi action rings hollow precisely because you fail to hear the cry of the poor in the first home of their mother’s womb.

Now, as to the so called “security wives”, I also understand. There is no doubt that a small band of deluded, evil men and women, who hide behind a claim to a feigned “religious” adherence, hate us all. They are cutting the heads off of innocent men and women. They are not unlike those who crush the skulls of children in the womb and call it a “right”. I am with these “security wives”. I have more confidence in George Bush to stand up against the bullying of these new “Islamic fascists” then I do John Kerry.

However, here is the heart of why I will vote against John Kerry between the two candidates who can win. Only one hears the cry of the innocent unborn and has promised to appoint men and women to the Supreme Court who will stop the slaughter. The other, even though he has raised truly vital issues, has also changed his position repeatedly on the Iraq war and makes me wonder about his sincere opposition. In short, I now believe that he is using Iraq to get elected. How can we trust someone who fails to hear our own children in the womb?

President Bush, get us out of Iraq. President Bush, stop the killing of our own children in the womb.

America, vote for the only candidate who has appealed to faithful Catholics and security moms because he appears to be the one who can move us toward a true culture of life, a civilization of love and world of peace.

Most importantly, everyone, let us pray! _____________________________________________________________________ Deacon Keith Fournier is a married Roman Catholic Deacon of the Diocese of Richmond, who also serves the Melkite Greek Catholic Church with approval. He is a human rights lawyer and a graduate of the John Paul II Institute of the Lateran University, Franciscan University of Steubenville and the University Of Pittsburgh School Of Law. He is the founder and Thomas More Fellow of the Common Good Movement. The author of seven books, he recently wrote “The Prayer of Mary: Living the Surrendered Life” .

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That's why I'm of the opinion it's a grey area.

The people who argue that Iraq is unjust would argue, IMO, that the war against the Taliban was justified, but Iraq had nothing to do with the attack on 9/11 so was none of our business.

Ironically, Desert Shield/Storm came closer to Just War than most of our other conflicts. Responding to an attack on self or an ally, all other options had failed, declared by valid authority, no looting, no intentional attacks on civilians, and so forth.

I say ironic, because Desert Storm never ENDED. A cease fire was declared, based on Saddam's compliance (which was not forthcoming). So, one could, IMO, see Operation Iraqi Freedom as a re-engagement of the earlier conflict, based on bad faith on the part of the Iraq Gov't.

I think it all comes down to whether or not you see Iraq as a) an independant conflict, or b) another front opened up in the war against, frankly, Islamofascism.

If you picked A, it's an unjust war. We are the attacker, and so on. If you picked B (my own personal choice), well then, we're opening up new positions in a war we didn't start, but certainly plan to finish.

IMHO, of course.

Bingo. Don't know if you're RC, but from my (RC) perspective, it peeves me to no end that the man closest to Church Doctrine is a friggin Protestant.

(No offense to protestants; I'm sure some of you had similar feelings about ol' Bill (I'm a Southern Baptist) Clinton.)

Yup..sadly I am a more faithful RC than my priest or any of the staff at the church...refuse to leave and give up the ground to them though...working the inside to keep them on their toes....teach middleschoolers, wear my Bush button to class..

Had a student ask if I liked Bush (ahh, yeah honey, hence the pin!!) I said yes and she told me that her parents liked Kerry.

I said, "I'm sorry to hear that sweetie. Take this home for them." and gave her a pamphlet on Voting Catholic that favors Bush.....still waiting for the call.....

seems that most have bludgeoned the Just War argument (It is just) so I'll hit something else.

the “Jihadists”, who have seized the moment and set up their evil revolution within Iraq. They are the personification of evil and do not represent the heart of Islam.

The author is 100% wrong on this. The Jihadists are the heart and soul of islam. If you are not a terrorist then you are not following the koran.

Secondly, the author has a distinct desire for social justice. If it's social then it's not justice. It may be socialist but it's not justice. No where does God command the church to forcibly redistribute wealth and every social justice program uses the force of governement to do just that.

I agree with the author's result (vote for Bush) but I found the article to be unclearly written and full of Catholic 'snobbishness'

If he wanted to write from a Catholic viewpoint he could have done that without slammin all non-Catholics.

I appreciate you zeal...

I am surprised at the amount of Catholics that continue to support Kerry. (This guy Kerry just seems to have a lot of contempt for a good many people.)

Last year I was in a study group discussing Mel Gibson's movie, The Passion of the Christ, and we talked about courage in people, and what it took for our Lord to get through the scourging, and the road to Golgotha.

We compared that to today, and one of the people present said, "Yes... we should pray for the convictions of those holding protests against the Iraq war."

I countered by saying, "Excuse me but what about the convictions of our men and women in uniform overseas that are liberating a country of 23 million people that were being persecuted by a tyrannical government?

She snapped back, "This is not a just war!"

I could see clearly where her allegiance lies, and I am sure she's voting for Kerry. Yet she's active in our parish, and helps teach religious ed., as I do.

I just don't understand why they don't see the contradictions in someone like Kerry who spits on the Catholic teachings.

How in the world do they justify their vote?

I just don't understand why they don't see the contradictions in someone like Kerry who spits on the Catholic teachings.

I think they seem to conveniently forget the part in John where Jesus says:

"If you were blind, there would be no sin in that.

'But we see', you say, and your sin remains."

I had serious qualms about the start of the war, being torn both ways, but I have come to the conclusion we are dealing with a different situation than the just war teaching in it's current form was meant to deal with, just like many other guidelines and international agreements.

Knowing now what we know about how well Saddam was funding the terror war, and other things, I think in retrospect one might make a decent case even for the just war as it is written - because by funding and supporting the terrorists he WAS attacking us, even not getting into the WMD issue, which I think may have been horribly clouded by the MSM, and I haven't taken the time to dig out the truth.

I prayed hard on it, fasted, and I saw all my prayers about the opening of the war come through and answered positively.

The more atrocities of the regime that came to light, the more I wondered if this wasn't in God's hand, after all!

Well, we are there now, and it would be horribly immoral not to finish.

Ultimately, even by the philosophy of the Just War doctrine, it's not really the religious leaders who are given the mantle to decide...it's the political leaders, and I believe Mr. Bush is a man of God, and will do what he feels is correct under that influence, because this is who he is.

One can put God in a box, but he never stays there very long, and if you aren't open to him, he still find a way to reach his goals.

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