Posted on 09/13/2011 4:06:15 PM PDT by Alex Murphy
Michael Voris is the favourite talking head of the Catholic Taliban, that motley crew of traditionalists who believe in way-out stuff like “abortion is evil” and “Jesus rose on the third day”. He runs his own online TV station in Michigan and has hair so unreal it could be miraculous. In an age when the average priest seems to get the life – and the theology – sucked out of him at seminary, Voris speaks with clarity and humour. This is the man who dismissed liberal nuns as Marxists “embracing lesbianism”, “yoga” and “witchcraft”. He became a viral sensation after he posted a video arguing that democracy had been corrupted by the stupidity of the voters. It even caught the attention of professional talking monkey Richard Dawkins. Upon first seeing it, the evolutionist thought, “Surely nobody could be quite so blatantly arrogant, saying more or less explicitly that 'Nobody should be allowed to vote unless they agree with me!' But [evidence suggests] that Michael Voris is a bona fide Catholic activist, not a satirist lampooning Catholic idiocy and arrogance.” What a breakthrough for modern science! We now know that apes can appreciate irony. [SNIP]
It's only recently that political scientists have identified a coherent conservative reaction among the laity. American Catholics have traditionally voted Democrat; when Catholic Jack Kennedy ran for the presidency in 1960, he took 78 percent of his coreligionists’ votes. But since the 1980s, that percentage has dropped (to 54 percent in 2008) and the Catholic vote has splintered....
[SNIP]
....studies of the 2004 results identified a new hardcore vote of roughly 16 percent of Catholics (nearly 10 million people) who attend church more than once a week and identify as ideologically “conservative”. George Bush targetted these people and increased his percentage of the conservative
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.telegraph.co.uk ...
See related threads:
Catholic Government [Michael Voris video]
CatholicTV calls for "Benevolent Dictatorship"?!
Okay, he may have a point there.
What a day this has been! Amanda Marcotte of the Guardian chiming in with a stupid column about the death penalty in Texas and little Dr. Tim of the Telegraph chiming in about American Catholics. It must be a full moon.
For those who are intellectual Catholics, please read this column carefully. Little Tim often gets his facts wrong and sometimes makes things up out of whole cloth. I’ve complained about him to the powers that be at The Telegraph but they, of course, ignore me.
FWIW, I'm pretty sure he got the part about the hair right.
I didn’t look at the picture. But I know Little Dr. Tim - he’s a complete idiot who is currently writing the bio of Pat Buchanan. Why Pat would let this know-nothing near him is beyond me.
And, of course, it makes perfect sense for the Catholic crowd to endorse abortion promoting, homosexual revering, fiscally insane, anti-American Democrats because they...wait a minute. Why do these guys vote Democrat in the first place?
I was personally charmed by the idea put forward by the Time Traveler in Dan Simmons’ “The Century War”:
“. . .every man or woman in America who wishes to vote will be required to read Thucydides on this matter [the Athenians not being ruthless enough in their conquest of Syracuse]. And others as well. And there are tests. If you don’t know some history, you don’t vote . . . much less run for office.”[second ellipsis in the original indicating a spoken pause]
I'm afraid a lot of Christians -- Latin, Protestant, and Orthodox alike -- labor under the delusion that Our Lord's injunction "In as much as ye do it to the least of these, ye do it unto me" somehow makes it spiritually beneficial to support government-run programs to succor the poor out of tax revenues. Strangely, observing the baleful effects of such programs in practice, does not seem to convince them otherwise.
Non FR links:
President Bush: Shares Our Catholic Values
President Bush and John Kerry: On the Issues Important to Catholics
"Seismic" Catholic Shift to Bush [Insight ]
Analyst cites abortion stance as some Catholic voters shift to Bush
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FR LINKS
Former President Bush's memoir will highlight influence of Pope John Paul II
Bush Memoir Says He Returned to His Faith, Time and Time Again in Office [Bush's Closet Catholicism]
Poll: Catholics Favored Bush Over Kerry
CHRISTIANS EAT LIONS IN 2004 ELECTION
Evangelicals Say They Led Charge For the GOP [GOTV effort = 79% Evangelical, 52% Catholic to Bush]
People of Faith Deliver the Election
Kerry Loses His Faith
PRESIDENT BUSH WON CATHOLIC VOTE
Blame the Republicans? No, This Time It's the Christians
Election Reinforces U.S. Religious Divide
Faith Factor Proves Key in U.S. Elections
Poll: Catholics Trending Towards Bush
Kerry Losing Ground Among White Catholics
Voting Our Conscience, Not Our Religion [Catholic Prof Says "Vote Kerry"]
Vatican: Kerry guilty of heresy; incurrs automatic excommunication
Should a Catholic Vote for Bush or Kerry?
Why is Bush getting the bishop's blessing?
Ambassador Ray Flynn in Cleveland 10/16/2004- "Vote 2004: The Catholic Factor"
John Kerry Flip-Flops on When to Use His Catholic Belief on Politics
Abortion is Turning Democrats Off to Kerry
Planned Parenthood Unveils TV Ads Backing John Kerry on Abortion
Catholic bishops should beware of Kerry's 'respect'
Monsignor Jude O'Doherty and President Bush
Kerry Scolds Vatican Over Gay Marriage
Kerry's Catholic Supporters
Some attempts to sabotage Catholic voters
Priest: It's a sin to vote pro-choice
America at the Crossroads
(Clinton Apointee Raymond)Flynn: Catholics must vote for culture of life
The army of God marching for Bush
Kerry’s Auxiliary Bishops
The Catholics for Bush website is now live!
Thank you for all those lists! I really appreciate it. My family was Catholic and voted Republican since FDR. I was the only kid in Catholic school with a Goldwater button. Thanks, mom, you really made my early days a breeze, lol.
You have captured much of the problem right here. Morphing the words of Jesus has been the, pardon me, lame excuse for backing perceived champions of a State-run welfare system. They now have more baggage than they bargained for.
Some people have a hard time differentiating between voluntary associations: a church is a group of people who have come together to form a church, and a country (in the American model) is a group of people who have come together to form a country. Since a church can (and should) collectively perform acts of charity, they see no reason a country cannot do the same.
This is a categorical mistake. Churches exist to express love; governments exist to express political power. Chairman Mao famously said, “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.” Love is not coercive. Therefore, acts of charity (love) cannot be performed by government. The same act performed by both church and state cannot not have the same moral effect: the loving act is voluntary, and the official act is an act of force.
Not all liberals are lazy and greedy jerks who want accolades for acts of charity performed by other people. Some liberals are merely kindhearted but confused.
I have long felt, largely due to my personal experience, that this group of Catholics is much bigger than people realize.
I stopped reading at “Catholic Taliban”. Screw him and the people who write his paycheck.
Alex, You’re totally enamored with Catholicism. I swear you probably know more about it than yours truly here. When are you crossing the Tiber? :)
Thanks to Democrats like your crowd giving the GOP a bad-name. Congratulations.
I'll take the compliment.
The best part about Free Republic is how (borrowing a phrase from Rush Limbaugh) I get to live rent-free inside the heads of so many Catholics.
-- Alex Murphy, April 27, 2011
This is the first article I've seen that actually puts a number [12%] to it. I did an extensive survey of the religious vote for the 2008 Presidential Election, and then matched up my results to the categories given in an article titled Bare Minimum Catholicism. Here's what that looked like:
—“Ex-Catholics. Solid for the Democrats.”Note that I didn't include any numbers for the "sweats the details" Catholic (the author of the article said it would be a "very small slice"), because I didn't have any. This article still fails to provide the actual breakdown, but it does give us a good start of sizing that slice:xx% McCain, 68% Obama - Don't attend church4 **
—“Cultural Catholics who may go to church a few times a year. This may be an undecided voter, but this vote leans to Democrats.”
37% McCain, 61% Obama - Non-weekly-mass-attending Catholics6,12 > 45% McCain, 54% Obama - Catholics1,4,6,8,9,10,11,12
—“Sunday-morning American Catholics. This voter is a regular in the pew and may even play some leadership role in the parish. This is the true Catholic swing vote.”
55% McCain, 43% Obama - Weekly mass-attending Catholics 6,9
—“The ‘sweats the details’ Roman Catholic who goes to confession, is active in the full sacramental life of the parish and almost always backs the Vatican on doctrinal matters. This group is a small slice of the American Catholic pie.”
[Exit poll numbers from the 2008 Presidential Election demographics, footnoted and annotated on my profile page.]
....studies of the 2004 results identified a new hardcore vote of roughly 16 percent of Catholics (nearly 10 million people) who attend church more than once a week and identify as ideologically “conservative”. George Bush targetted these people and increased his percentage of the conservative Catholic vote....
I plead guilty as charged, but keep in mind that ladies don't sweat: we glow.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.