Posted on 11/14/2008 1:55:45 PM PST by Alex Murphy
PORTSMOUTH, UK, November 14, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Following a barrage of criticism from Catholics and advocates for the unborn, the Catholic bishop of Portsmouth in the U.K., Crispian Hollis, has issued a “clarification” on his warm welcome of Barack Obama as the newly elected president of the United States.
Hollis had written a message that was posted to the diocese’s website, saying he was “thrilled” at the election of the man pro-life advocates are calling the “most pro-abortion president in US history.”
“With millions of others,” Bishop Hollis said, “I have been thrilled by Barack Obama’s victory and I thank God for it.” He called it a “rare moment of hope and optimism” with “potential for the whole global community.”
Today, that message is removed and a clarification in its place says, “I genuinely welcome [Obama’s] election because he represents such a different political profile from that of President Bush.”
But, Bishop Hollis said, “I am aware of what he has said about abortion and about the so-called freedom of choice and I deplore his words. There is no way in which I endorse his position on these crucial ‘life’ matters, nor, as a Catholic bishop, could I ever do so.”
He added, “Perhaps it’s naïve to say this but I hope and pray that the realities of the political process will mean that he has to temper his personal policies on these all important life issues and pay serious attention to the outrage with which many view his ‘life’ agenda.”
John Smeaton, director of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children indicated in an email to LifeSiteNews.com that he was less than impressed with Bishop Hollis’ clarified position.
“If, instead of agreeing to kill babies on demand,” he said, “doctors were required by Barack Obama's policies to agree to kill, for example, Catholic priests, would the Bishop of Portsmouth continue to insist on welcoming his election?”
Smeaton had written in a blog post yesterday that Bishop Hollis was suffering from “Obamania”, and that he would be writing to the bishop to ask, “What ‘hope and optimism’ can Catholic medics have following Obama's election, who will abolish conscientious objection to abortion, thereby threatening to destroy Catholic healthcare in the US?”
Hollis did not say how many phone calls and emails he had received after posting his first message that was quoted, along with his contact information and the contact information of the Vatican’s Congregation for Bishops, by LifeSiteNews.com.
Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
UK Catholic Bishop: “I have been thrilled by Barack Obama’s victory and I thank God for it.”
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/nov/08111303.html
This thread is an OPEN thread. Only the thin-skinned are unwelcome.
But at least he doesn't share Pres Bush's 'political profile', which also happens to hold innocent life sacred.
How long will the church put up with these pretenders?
“If, instead of agreeing to kill babies on demand,” he said, “doctors were required by Barack Obama's policies to agree to kill, for example, Catholic priests, would the Bishop of Portsmouth continue to insist on welcoming his election?”
Couldn't have said it better.
As you know, it is more important to hate Catholics than love America.
Oy. As always.
Christians voting for Obama.
Christians thrilled that a baby killer is President of America.
No wonder God is turning his back on America.
If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, pray, seek my face and turn from their wicked ways I will hear them from heaven and heal their land 2 Chronicles 7:14
Unfortuntely with Christians applauding Obams victory it seems that far too m,any are not willing to turn from their wicked ways.
It’s also much easier.
If a protestant posts the same article and leaves it open to discussion, it is "Anti-Catholic fetishism".
Oh well, I guess that is just par for the course.
How's it going Alex?
Anti-Catholic fetishism does in fact seem to be par for this course.
Plenty of Protestants voted for Obama, including many Evangelicals and most black Christians—many of whom support the right to life and traditional family, as the recent vote in California shows. Apparently they also think that electing a black is more important than standing up for their Christian beliefs.
Maybe he found out that the Anglicans wouldn’t have him.
>No wonder God is turning his back on America.<
Tsk, tsk, you should know better than that.
It is not God who turned His Back on America, but it is America who threw up a barrier against God. And because of the Great Gentleman that He is, He will not impose His Will on us because of the great respect that He has for our free will. It’s up to us to reach out to Him. If we don’t, the consequences will be ours. This is how terrifying simple it is.
Tell that to the free will exercising inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah.
You are confusing His great respect for our free will (a gift from Him) and His just anger with our sins.
Free will does not equal sin, it means the ability to choose Him or reject him (in sin).
Lots of foolish, misguided souls like to pretend they have no free will—it’s the lazy way through life—but each of us has free will nonetheless.
They were forewarned and Abraham even tried to bargain with God not to punish the two cities. Yet, by using their free will, they decided to continue with their evil ways. We know God’s response. Had they relented in their wrongdoing, they would have been spared. Read up on Jonah and Niniveh, and you’ll understand what I mean.
There was quite a large defection, I would call it, of evangelicals voting for Obama. Part of that owes perhaps to the increasing squishiness of the term “evangelical” which doesn’t mean perhaps as much as it did; these days pretty much everyone is an evangelical, if you ask them. The word “protestant” is falling out of favor, so by default everyone is an evangelical.
But part of it is real, especially with the younger crowd, and with relatively recent converts. Most conservative evangelicals have registered surprise at the numbers of Obama bumper stickers in the parking lots of even conservative churches.
Its not just a catholic thing, the statistics show. Its just this particular bishop has painted a bull’s eye on himself. He’s a senior guy and should know better. There are lots of protestants who made the same judgement he did. If they’re young and dumb, its excusable. If they’ve been in the faith for a while, you’d expect them to know better.
"Large defection"???
With all the talk about the religious right being anti-McCain, Steven Waldman reports that both the number and percentage of evangelical voters was higher for McCain than it was for Bush in 2004.....McCain Beats Bush on Evangelical Vote
2008 Presidential Election demographics, footnoted and annotated
Your "by the numbers" breakdown of vote, with emphasis on the religious voter (as of 11/10/08):
xx% McCain, 23% Obama - White Evangelicals age 30-6411
75% McCain, 25% Obama - White7,10 Born Again5,10,12 Evangelicals1,8,10,12
xx% McCain, 32% Obama - White Evangelicals age 18-2911
65% McCain, xx% Obama - Weekly church-attending Protestants7
65% McCain, 34% Obama - White Protestants7,8
62% McCain, 35% Obama - State of Utah3
59% McCain, 40% Obama - Working-class whites13
57% McCain, 41% Obama - White men13
55% McCain, 43% Obama - Weekly mass-attending Catholics 6,9
54% McCain, 44% Obama - Weekly church-goers1,4,7,12
54% McCain, 45% Obama - Protestants6,8
53% McCain, 46% Obama - White women13
52% McCain, 47% Obama - White "regular-mass-attending" Catholics12
51% McCain, 47% Obama - White college graduates13
xx% McCain, 47% Obama - White independent voters13
51% McCain, 49% Obama - White Catholics1,7,11
46% McCain, 52% Obama - Non-Evangelical Protestants 12
xx% McCain, 53% Obama - Monthly church-goers 4**
45% McCain, 54% Obama - Whites13
45% McCain, 54% Obama - Catholics1,4,6,8,9,10,11,12
xx% McCain, 59% Obama - Semi-annual church-goers4**
38% McCain, 61% Obama - Occasional churchgoers1
37% McCain, 61% Obama - Non-weekly-mass-attending Catholics6,12
30% McCain, 67% Obama - Hispanics13****
xx% McCain, 67% Obama - Hispanic Catholics8,11**,***, ****
xx% McCain, 67% Obama - Hispanic Protestants and other Christians11**, ****
xx% McCain, 68% Obama - Don't attend church4 **
23% McCain, 75% Obama - Unaffliliated with any religion11
21% McCain, 78% Obama - American Jews2,8,12 and other faiths12
xx% McCain, 94% Obama - Black Protestants11,13**,****
xx% McCain, 96% Obama - Blacks13**,****
** No source provided voting percentages for the other party.
*** Associated Press (citation #11) reports this number as 72%, instead of the 67% other media gave it.
**** Note that some media are reporting the same numbers for the Hispanic and Black vote in general, as well as for those same groups with Catholic or Protestant affiliation.
Citations:
1 The Awesome Blue God -- How Obama Forged A New Faith Coalition
2 Exit polls: 78% of Jews voted for Obama
3 Utah's red loses some of its luster
4 Obama's Religious Appeal: Still Missing Evangelicals - which TIME renamed as Obama: Bringing (Some) Evangelicals In
5 The Evangelical Electoral Map
6 What's wrong with Catholic voters? What's wrong with Catholics?
7 Evangelical Voters Favor McCain by Wide Margins
8 Catholic voters heavily favored Obama, analysis shows
9 What Happened to the Catholic Vote?
10 Loyal to the End: Evangelicals Stay the Course
11 Obama results show gains in key religious voters
12 How the faithful voted
13 Exit polls: How Obama won
All numbers cited above are the earliest ones reported in the press. In cases of multiple reports, some percentages cited were not exact. However, the numbers above are within 2% of all sources cited, lending credence to the general number & placement overall.
Other resources:
With the Help of Catholics…Obama’s Victory
Results! Evangelicals
Mainline Protestants and Latino evangelicals surge toward Obama [pre-election article]
Poll: Latino Protestants switching back to Democrats this election [pre-election article]
The Hispanic Protestant swing vote [pre-election article]
America spoke
Believers in the Pews--and the Polling Booth
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