‘Practicing Catholic’ (a liberal who goes to church discusses politics and "mainstream theology")

The New York Times ^ | April 10, 2009 | James Carroll

[presidio9]

Why am I a Catholic? There are a thousand ways to answer that question, and this book will take up many of them. By its end, there will be one answer.

-SNIP-

...and in America (continuing racism), with the recognition that hatred of the Other (whether Jews, blacks, or, say, Muslims) is still virulent. Women came to a new self-understanding, from the workforce jolt of World War II to the claustrophobia of the suburbs in the 1950s to the liberation of the 1960s (the birth control pill) and 1970s (Roe v. Wade). Sexual sensibility itself was upended, with gay rights, the loosening of marriage, male insecurity, and the eroticizing of mass culture.

-SNIP-

The most striking instance of this new alliance centered on the U.S. Supreme Court, which had long been a hostile forum to Roman Catholics. Only one of the first fifty-four justices was a Catholic. -SNIP-

...But then, under a succession of conservative Republican presidents, a string of Catholic conservatives was appointed, until, with the naming of Samuel Alito in 2006, the Supreme Court had a Catholic majority for the first time, a majority composed of right-wing Catholics who were poised to reverse precedents on antidiscrimination statutes, conservation, women's rights, free speech, and government intrusions in the private lives of citizens.

But the brand of Catholicism represented by the court majority was out of step with the generally progressive social teachings of the Church (the Catholic justices were not, for example, opposed to the death penalty). Indeed, the court's five Catholics could be seen as holding out not only against the dominant current of contemporary American life but also against a new Catholic mainstream that had been set running in the mid-twentieth century,

[presidio9]

54% of American Catholics voted for Obama. Someone is not reading or listening to theological facts in those churches.

Catholicism is not an ethnicity. If you ain't practicing, you're not a Catholic. Given the Church's teachings on abortion, it is highly unlikely that any practicing Catholic would be moved to vote for Obama.

[WOSG]

“Catholicism is not an ethnicity. If you ain’t practicing, you’re not a Catholic”

For some reason, that doesnt apply to Catholics or Jews in these kinds of stats.

There are a lot of secular voters who were once baptized or had a Bar Mitvah but havent been in a place of worship for a long while.

I would guess that true faithful Jewish voters would be more Republican than the secular Jews, just like with Catholics. Just a guess.

[phillyfanatic]

But the fact is, 54% of Catholic voters did support the faux Messiah. And they should be ashamed of themselves. Practicing Catholics should be Christian in their application and that should be following the Scriptures not to harm children, not to support secular leaders ala the Emperor of the Roman Empire 2000 years ago. Those were Jesus’ standards not just the Pope’s and not just Luther’s. So the facts are, when born again Prots and born again Catholics vote for secular humanist socialist pacifists they are not , not following the Scriptures in supporting leaders who should have Godly characteristics.