There is something I just don't get and maybe someone can explain it to me. My sister-in-law is a very strong Catholic and a very strong dem. How can this be? Doesn't the abortion issue alone make this an oxymoron? How can one overlook this ultimate moral issue and vote for SKerry?
By making a clear decision between your faith and your politics.
[CAluvdubya]
> There is something I just don't get and maybe someone can
> explain it to me. My sister-in-law is a very strong
> Catholic and a very strong dem. How can this be? Doesn't
> the abortion issue alone make this an oxymoron? How can
> one overlook this ultimate moral issue and vote for
> SKerry?
If my experience is any indicator, there are three main reasons:
1) The state of Catholic education in the United States is worse than abysmal; the average "pew potato" doesn't know even the rudiments of his Catholic faith, or what they mean; hence the mind-boggling comments like "Yeah, Kerry is pro-abortion, and that's not very good, but hey... he's really good on health care!" Even if that were true (and it's completely bogus), the comparison would be insane; the slaughter of 3000+ unborn children A DAY simply has no parity with socialized medicine. (And I, for some stupid reason, find that rather obvious!)
2) Since the days of Herbert Hoover, who was largely a scapegoat for the outrage over the Great Depression, the Catholics of the United States largely went to the Democratic party in order to support "the party of the little guy", and to protest Hoover. By now, the current baby-boomer Democrat Catholics have forgotten why they're Democrats; all they know is that their parents were Democrats, and their parents were Democrats.
3) The scandal given by a torrent of dissenting priests, nuns, lay people, and (sometimes) even bishops--most notably in their rebellion against Humanae Vitae (the encyclical which repeated Catholic condemnation of artificial birth control... much to the chagrin of the gaggle of liberal priests who were sympathetic to the "free love" philosophy of the 1960's and 1970's). In short, liberals swamped the seminaries, and tried to hijack the Church; they haven't succeeded, but they've caused terrible damage in the process.
There's *so* much more, but that should do for starters...
Well really, how strong of a Catholic can she really be if she puts a pro-abortion candidate in office?
It can't. "Catholics" who are liberal Dems are either confused or they are morons or their claims to holding the "Catholic" faith are fake and phony. You be the judge which category applies.
Your sister-in-law is a very strong Dem, PERIOD.