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Why Catholics Can't Vote for Democrats
Yanke Academy ^ | 9/18/2020 | pgyanke

Posted on 09/18/2020 2:12:05 PM PDT by pgyanke

There's been a lot of discussion around whether or not Catholics can support the Democratic Party. I laid out an introduction here and here as a background for examining their platform regarding those things a Catholic can never support: abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research, cloning, and homosexual marriage.

Below, are the major party platforms and policy initiatives on these issues of life.

Abortion

"The common outcry, which is justly made on behalf of human rights—for example, the right to health, to home, to work, to family, to culture—is false and illusory if the right to life, the most basic and fundamental right and the condition for all other personal rights, is not defended with maximum determination"

-- Pope John Paul II, "Christifideles Laici"

Regarding a law permitting abortions, the Church teaches that it is “never licit to obey it, or to take part in a propaganda campaign in favor of such a law, or to vote for it.” Abortion is the intentional and direct killing of an innocent human being, and is therefore homicide. The unborn child is always an innocent party, and no law may permit the taking of his life. Even when a child is conceived through rape or incest, the fault is not the child’s, who should not suffer death for others’ sins.

2020 Democratic Party Platform:

Page 32: “We believe unequivocally, like the majority of Americans, that every woman should be able to access high-quality reproductive health care services, including safe and legal abortion. We will repeal the Title X domestic gag rule and restore federal funding for Planned Parenthood…”

Page 32: “Democrats oppose and will fight to overturn federal and state laws that create barriers to reproductive health and rights.”

Page 82-83: “We believe that comprehensive health services, including access to reproductive care and abortion services, are vital to the empowerment of women and girls. We will support the repeal of the global gag rule (also known as the Mexico City Policy) and measures like the Helms Amendment, which limit safe access to abortion. We will also restore and expand American contributions to the United Nations Population Fund to help guarantee access to health care for women and children around the world and eliminate child, early, and forced marriage.”

[Note: Repealing the Mexico City Policy and Helms Amendment mean that taxpayer funds will be used to promote abortions around the world without concern for the objections of those opposed to this intrinsic evil (such as faithful Catholics).]

“To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical.”

-- Thomas Jefferson, 1802

Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic Presidential Nominee, when asked whether she has a “litmus test” for potential Supreme Court appointments said, “I do have a litmus test… We have to preserve marriage equality,” Clinton said. “We have to go further to end discrimination against the LGBT community, we’ve got to make sure to preserve Roe V. Wade, not let it be nibbled away or repealed.”

Tim Kaine, 2016 Democratic Vice-Presidential Nominee and purported Roman Catholic said, “I strongly support the right of women to make their own health and reproductive decisions and, for that reason, will oppose efforts to weaken or subvert the basic holding of Roe v. Wade.” When asked whether he supports taxpayer funding for abortion, his answer was, “Yes.”

The Biden-Harris ticket of the 2020 election season is one of the most radically pro-abortion presidential tickets in history. Both have sponsored legislation that would uphold the ability to have an abortion beyond the stage of viability… infanticide.

Joe Biden would be the most pro-abortion president in history. Although he was once a moderate, the Catholic former vice president now describes abortion as “essential health care,” caved in to the abortion industry on taxpayer funding, and has been proudly endorsed by Naral Pro-Choice America, an organization that advocates for the repeal of all regulations on abortion.

Biden and Harris are in good company in their party. Virginia’s Democractic Governor, Ralph Northam defended a bill which would allow infanticide with the following statement: “…I can tell you exactly what would happen…The infant would be delivered, the infant would be kept comfortable, the infant would be resuscitated if that's what the mother and the family desired. And then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother.” That conversation is about whether or not the child should live.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has signaled that a prohibition on federal funding for abortion (the “Hyde Amendment”) will be excluded from spending bills next year if Democrats retain a majority in the House of Representatives, setting the state for the end of a 44-year-old bipartisan agreement on abortion funding.

Again, the problem isn’t just the top of the national electoral ticket, when voting. The Democratic Party at all levels supports abortion and has excluded those who are pro-life. A vote for Democrats at all levels of government is a pro-abortion vote.

Euthanasia

Often disguised by the name “mercy killing,” euthanasia is also a form of homicide. No person has a right to take his own life, and no one has the right to take the life of any innocent person. In euthanasia, the ill or elderly are killed, by action or omission, out of a misplaced sense of compassion, but true compassion cannot include intentionally doing something intrinsically evil.

2020 Democratic Party Platform: Silent on this issue.

Although the party platform is silent on this issue, the Democratic Party has been working hard to implement “Right to Die” laws in every state. In every state where “Right to Die” legislation has already passed, there has been a Democrat-dominated legislature and/or a Democratic Governor working over the opposition of the GOP. Where these laws advance through the courts, they do so over the opposition of GOP lawmakers and Catholic voters.

I think it’s important to note that suicide can’t be criminalized. The dead are beyond human punishment. These laws are really about changing the medical community’s ethics and understanding of the Hippocratic Oath from its traditional approach of “first, do no harm.” Whereas healthcare providers have normally sought to render aid to those with suicidal thoughts, advocates of “Right to Die” laws seek to turn suicide assistance into medical care.

Embryonic Stem Cell Research

Human embryos are human beings. “Respect for the dignity of the human being excludes all experimental manipulation or exploitation of the human embryo.”

Recent scientific advances show that medical treatments that researchers hope to develop from experimentation on embryonic stem cells can often be developed by using adult stem cells instead. In fact, there have been no beneficial treatments to come from experimentation on human embryos… there have been over 72 cures and treatments to come from adult stem cells. Adult stem cells can be obtained without doing harm to the adults from whom they come. Thus, there is no valid medical argument in favor of using embryonic stem cells. Even if there were benefits to be had from such experiments, they would not justify destroying innocent embryonic humans.

2020 Democratic Party Platform: Silent on this issue.

Although the current platform is silent on this issue, the Democratic Party has not been silent in the past. The 2012 party platform extolled President Obama for issuing “an executive order repealing the restrictions on embryonic stem cell research…

At the 2007 “Take Back America Conference, Hillary Clinton promised, “I will lift the ban on embryonic stem cell research.”

Stem cells use dates back to the 1950s when bone marrow transplants were first used to treat leukemia. In 1996, the Dickey-Wicker Amendment (GOP reps) prohibited the use of federal funds for the creation of human embryos for research purposes. President George W. Bush prohibited the federal government from funding research on embryonic stem cells and vetoed two bills put forth by Congress to overturn these restrictions.

One of President Barack Obama’s first acts as President was to reverse President Bush’s 2001 executive order. Throughout the remainder of his presidency, his administration fought against attempts to change the expansion of federal funding for stem cell research.

Human Cloning

“Attempts… for obtaining a human being without any connection with sexuality through ‘twin fission,’ cloning, or parthenogenesis are to be considered contrary to the moral law, since they are in opposition to the dignity both of human procreation and of the conjugal union.” Human cloning also involves abortion because the “rejected” or “unsuccessful” embryonic clones are destroyed, yet each clone is a human being.

2020 Democratic Party Platform: Silent on this issue.

In 2007, Rep, Diana DeGette, D-CO, introduced legislation to prohibit any person from performing or attempting to perform human cloning. It was defeated by a majority GOP vote. The problem with the legislation was that its definition of human cloning was the “implantation of the product of human somatic cell nuclear transfer technology into the uterus” which would not have covered creating embryos in a laboratory. Critics of the bill said it was a back-door effort to use a deceptively-titled bill to authorize Federally-sanctioned cloning labs.

Homosexual Marriage

True marriage is the union of one man and one woman. Legal recognition of any other union as “marriage” undermines true marriage, and legal recognition of homosexual unions actually does homosexual persons a disfavor by encouraging them to persist in what is an objectively immoral arrangement. Even now, the erosion of the definition of marriage brought on by 2013’s Supreme Court decision has been fully engaged.

2020 Democratic Party Platform: Silent on this issue.

The 2016 Democratic Party Platform was unequivocal in its call for the redefinition of marriage: “Democrats applaud last year’s decision by the Supreme Court that recognized that LGBT people—like other Americans—have the right to marry the person they love. But there is still much work to be done.” Not including this language in the 2020 platform doesn’t end their advocacy.

Although Bill Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act during his presidency and Hillary Clinton opposed Homosexual Marriage as recently as 2013, she has since “evolved” with public opinion to a position of support

In 2012, during the annual “Gays and Lesbians in Foreign Affairs Agencies Pride Day” at the US State Department, LGBT activist, Masha Gessen made it clear that marriage equality is not the goal of the homosexual marriage movement. She said:

“It’s a no-brainer that [homosexuals] should have the right to marry, but I also think equally that it’s a no-brainer that the institution of marriage should not exist… Fighting for gay marriage generally involves lying about what we are going to do with marriage when we get there -- because we lie that the institution of marriage is not going to change, and that is a lie. The institution of marriage is going to change, and it should change. And again, I don’t think it should exist…

“I have three kids who have five parents, more or less, and I don’t see why they shouldn’t have five parents legally… I met my new partner, and she had just had a baby, and that baby’s biological father is my brother, and my daughter’s biological father is a man who lives in Russia, and my adopted son also considers him his father. So the five parents break down into two groups of three… And really, I would like to live in a legal system that is capable of reflecting that reality, and I don’t think that’s compatible with the institution of marriage.”

The Republican Platform

The Republican Party Platform is quoted below simply to show its support for the issues of human life, not as an endorsement of the Party itself. Must a Christian support the GOP candidate and Party in the current election environment? No. However, the Christian can, with a clear conscience, oppose all candidates from the Democratic Party until the Party ceases its support for the culture of death.

From the 2016 GOP Platform (reaffirmed in 2020):

Page 13, “The Fifth Amendment: Protecting Human Life”

The Constitution’s guarantee that no one can “be deprived of life, liberty or property” deliberately echoes the Declaration of Independence’s proclamation that “all” are “endowed by their Creator” with the inalienable right to life. Accordingly, we assert the sanctity of human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental right to life which cannot be infringed. We support a human life amendment to the Constitution and legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to children before birth.

We oppose the use of public funds to perform or promote abortion or to fund organizations, like Planned Parenthood, so long as they provide or refer for elective abortions or sell fetal body parts rather than provide healthcare. We urge all states and Congress to make it a crime to acquire, transfer, or sell fetal tissues from elective abortions for research, and we call on Congress to enact a ban on any sale of fetal body parts. In the meantime, we call on Congress to ban the practice of misleading women on so-called fetal harvesting consent forms, a fact revealed by a 2015 investigation. We will not fund or subsidize healthcare that includes abortion coverage.

We support the appointment of judges who respect traditional family values and the sanctity of innocent human life. We oppose the non-consensual withholding or withdrawal of care or treatment, including food and water, from individuals with disabilities, newborns, the elderly, or the infirm, just as we oppose euthanasia and assisted suicide.

We affirm our moral obligation to assist, rather than penalize, women who face an unplanned pregnancy. In order to encourage women who face an unplanned pregnancy to choose life, we support legislation that requires financial responsibility for the child be equally borne by both the mother and father upon conception until the child reaches adulthood. Failure to require a father to be equally responsible for a child places an inequitable burden on the mother, creating a financial and social hardship on both mother and child. We celebrate the millions of Americans who open their hearts, homes, and churches to mothers in need and women fleeing abuse. We thank and encourage providers of counseling, medical services, and adoption assistance for empowering women experiencing an unintended pregnancy to choose life. We support funding for ultrasounds and adoption assistance. We salute the many states that now protect women and girls through laws requiring informed consent, parental consent, waiting periods, and clinic regulation. We condemn the Supreme Court’s activist decision in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt striking down commonsense Texas laws providing for basic health and safety standards in abortion clinics.

We applaud the U.S. House of Representatives for leading the effort to add enforcement to the Born-Alive Infant Protection Act by passing the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, which imposes appropriate civil and criminal penalties on healthcare providers who fail to provide treatment and care to an infant who survives an abortion, including early induction delivery whether the death of the infant is intended. We strongly oppose infanticide. Over a dozen states have passed Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Acts prohibiting abortion after twenty weeks, the point at which current medical research shows that unborn babies can feel excruciating pain during abortions, and we call on Congress to enact the federal version. Not only is it good legislation, but it enjoys the support of a majority of the American people. We support state and federal efforts against the cruelest forms of abortion, especially dismemberment abortion procedures, in which unborn babies are literally torn apart limb from limb.

We call on Congress to ban sex-selection abortions and abortions based on disabilities — discrimination in its most lethal form. We oppose embryonic stem cell research. We oppose federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. We support adult stem cell research and urge the restoration of the national placental stem cell bank created by President George H.W. Bush but abolished by his Democrat successor, President Bill Clinton. We oppose federal funding for harvesting embryos and call for a ban on human cloning.

The Democratic Party is extreme on abortion. Democrats’ almost limitless support for abortion, and their strident opposition to even the most basic restrictions on abortion, put them dramatically out of step with the American people. Because of their opposition to simple abortion clinic safety procedures, support for taxpayer-funded abortion, and rejection of pregnancy resource centers that provide abortion alternatives, the old Clinton mantra of “safe, legal, and rare” has been reduced to just “legal.” We are proud to be the party that protects human life and offers real solutions for women.

President Trump was a relative unknown on these issues prior to his election. Although he had sympathized with the “pro-choice” view in the past, he claimed the “pro-life” position in the 2016 election due to a “personal experience.” Since his election, he has fulfilled his promises with the nominations of Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court and stopped indirect taxpayer funding of abortion through Title X family planning programs.

He has gone even further. Since taking office, President Trump has taken many steps to ensure tax dollars are not used to subsidize the taking of innocent human life. He got a record number of conservative judges confirmed during his first year; allowed states to defund Planned Parenthood; defunded the pro-abortion United Nations Population Fund; restored and expanded the Mexico City policy banning taxpayer funds for groups that perform abortions overseas; and exempted organizations with moral objections against providing abortifacient drugs from the Obamacare Health and Human Services mandate.

In 2020, President Trump also became the first sitting president to speak in person at the annual March for Life. Although some critics say his pro-life stance is political posturing, he has done more for the pro-life movement than any of his predecessors.

In a recent Supreme Court ruling, Justice Gorsuch joined the majority in deciding that labor unions may no longer require contributions from non-union workers. This is a just outcome for laborers (James 5:4) whose forced contributions were extorted without consent or representation. Getting more judges who don’t meet the Democratic litmus test on abortion has been a positive outcome on more than just abortion.

One of the charges leveled against President Trump is that he is a racist. Bishops have used this accusation as a means to balance the scales with the Democrats and not be seen as biased. See in their guide where “racism” is repeatedly mentioned as a counterbalance to intrinsic evil. Critics normally mention three things as proof of President Trump’s racism; his speech about the Charlottesville, VA protests, family separation at the border for illegal crossings, and his ban on entry from seven predominantly Muslim countries. I think truth is important, so I will address them here.

The actual transcript of President Trump’s speech:

Those who take issue with his words parse them to say that he called neo-Nazis and white nationalists “very fine people.” He did not.

On the subject of family separation at the border, I would ask an honest person to consider one simple question… when are families not separated when parents commit a crime? That aside, the policy and facilities were actually constructed during the previous administration. The photos of kids in cages is from 2014…during President Obama’s administration. Bishops are wrong to participate in disinformation.

Lastly, the Muslim travel ban… again, this policy was constructed during the prior administration. In 2015, President Obama signed a law that limited travel to the United States from the same countries identified by President Trump. What wasn’t considered racist under President Obama was made to be so by an oppositional Press and President Trump’s political opponents. The bishops are wrong to participate in such an obvious smear campaign.

I don’t highlight these issues to praise President Trump or the GOP. I do it only because the bishops have made these issues points of contention which allow left-leaning Catholics latitude for supporting Democrat politicians. Where I was once told “the Church doesn’t get into politics” or the clergy must “protect the tax-exempt status,” it’s clear that bishops may play politics when it fits their ideological worldview. Now, is a time for clarity. It is time for simple truth. It is time to stand firmly against evil in public policy.

The GOP may not be considered the “Catholic Party.” It is clear, though, that it does not stand in opposition to Catholic doctrine and dogma. That can’t be said for the sponsors of the culture of death.

Taken from: Defeating the Culture of Death: the Pro-Life Vote


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Politics/Elections; Your Opinion/Questions
KEYWORDS: abortion; democrats; evil; notnews; platform; tldr
This is from Defeating the Culture of Death: the Pro-Life Vote.

Consider the following Demographics:

Christians 65% (in general)
Catholics 20% (in particular)
Hispanics 14.2%
Black 13%
Homosexual 4.5%

If shifting the bottom three is a disaster for the Democrats… what about a shift in the top two?

Help me get the bishops to speak out! It's good to have priests like Fr Altman speaking out but the authority in the Church rests with the bishops. It's time they spoke up about real evil in this country.

1 posted on 09/18/2020 2:12:05 PM PDT by pgyanke
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To: pgyanke

Sad to say you are not going to get 80% of Bishops to say anything. They owe their allegiance to Pope Frankie and his Social Justice Gospel.


2 posted on 09/18/2020 2:15:43 PM PDT by Buckeye McFrog (Patrick Henry would have been an anti-vaxxer.)
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To: Buckeye McFrog

I’m praying. Bishop Strickland of Tyler, TX came out with a very strong endorsement of Fr Altman’s message. Unfortunately, Fr Altman’s bishop, Bishop Callahan, “corrected” him for his tone.

Endorsement is a good start... it must go to the next level. I pray he has the courage to make a bold statement from the authority of his See. Just today, he tweeted the following:

“GET OVER IT....this election is about the Sanctity of Life,true marriage between a man & a woman, supporting the nuclear family and sexual morality based on biblical truth....all other issues depend on this moral foundation...choose the party that supports these MORAL TRUTHS”

I’m praying this means he’s close...


3 posted on 09/18/2020 2:21:24 PM PDT by pgyanke (Republicans get in trouble when not living up to their principles. Democrats... when they do.)
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To: pgyanke

No true Christian or Jew can vote for Creepy, Sleepy Joe, unless they are cursed with a very low IQ.


4 posted on 09/18/2020 2:24:18 PM PDT by alstewartfan (One day he just washed up on the shores of his regrets. May his soul rest in peace. Al S.)
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To: alstewartfan

The truth is that nobody should vote for the evil Democrat agenda, but sad to say, many people do. They vote against their own interest but apparently don’t get it.


5 posted on 09/18/2020 2:40:03 PM PDT by Pining_4_TX (“It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” Yogi Berra)
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To: pgyanke

Kamala Harris Sponsored Bill to FORCE Schools To Let Male Athletes Compete In Girls’ Sports...

24News ^ | 08-12-2020 |
Samantha Foster http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3873820/posts
Democratic California Sen. Kamala Harris sponsored a Senate bill that would that would force funding public schools to allow biologically male athletes who identify as transgender on girls’ sports teams. . In March 2019, Harris cosponsored the Equality Act, which would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 . Among other things, the bill would force public schools to expand female athletic teams to include biological males who identify as transgender girls,..Also did this http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3877896/posts and this http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3880192/posts

HERE’S HOW THEY TREAT CONSERVATIVE CONGRESSIONAL DEMOCRATS WHO DONT SUPPORT STUFF LIKE THIS

And why there is no such thing as a Conservative Dem in Congress an example is Illinois 3rd district

Todays Democrats weren’t happy with his funding votes against abortion and on being the only congressional democrat to vote NO on allowing men to to call themselves a women and compete with women in college sports.
Those who live in Chicago already voted at their local public library. But in the reshaped 3rd Congressional district Daniel Lipinski lost because of redistricting. Of a district which had previously included adjacent Chicago city wards to his 23rd.

That was a district where those city wards were predominatly composed of traditional value family oriented Catholic/Christian communities opposed to funding such things as abortion and LGBT activities rather that dealt exclusively with city issues such as a subway L service and the Stevenson Expressway. Those Wards were reliable William O Lipinski supporters of Dan’s father. But since most had areas with hispanic last names those areas were redistricted and assigned to the Gutieriez’s district. Those results are posted below which actually tear up the concept of a neighborhood and pit people against each other by using division.In some of those wards areas of city blocks which were zoned exclusively for single family dwellings residents suddenly found their neighborhood having houses torn down and being replaced with multiple apartments with the units not required to furnish parking facilities and many renters were illegals. Much of which fit the plans for the suburbs
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3881650/posts


6 posted on 09/18/2020 4:26:23 PM PDT by mosesdapoet (mosesdapoet aka L.J.Keslin posting here for the record hoping somebody might read and pass around)
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To: alstewartfan
No true Christian or Jew can vote for Creepy, Sleepy Joe, unless they are cursed with a very low IQ.

They have been educated since birth that WASP Republicans are actual Nazis - so they stop thinking and vote against Hitler.

7 posted on 09/18/2020 4:31:27 PM PDT by Mr. Jeeves ([CTRL]-[GALT]-[DELETE])
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To: pgyanke

bkmk


8 posted on 09/18/2020 4:50:11 PM PDT by Sergio (An object at rest cannot be stopped! - The Evil Midnight Bomber What Bombs at Midnight)
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