Posted on 06/29/2012 3:15:28 PM PDT by Alex Murphy
The bishops released a statement a short time ago:
Today the United States Supreme Court issued a decision upholding as a tax the provision of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that requires individuals to purchase a health plan—the so-called “individual mandate.”For nearly a century, the Catholic bishops of the United States have been and continue to be consistent advocates for comprehensive health care reform to ensure access to life-affirming health care for all, especially the poorest and the most vulnerable. Although the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) did not participate in these cases and took no position on the specific questions presented to the Court, USCCB’s position on health care reform generally and on ACA particularly is a matter of public record. The bishops ultimately opposed final passage of ACA for several reasons.
First, ACA allows use of federal funds to pay for elective abortions and for plans that cover such abortions, contradicting longstanding federal policy.The risk we identified in this area has already materialized, particularly in the initial approval by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) of “high risk” insurance pools that would have covered abortion.
Second, the Act fails to include necessary language to provide essential conscience protection, both within and beyond the abortion context.We have provided extensive analyses of ACA’s defects with respect to both abortion and conscience.The lack of statutory conscience protections applicable to ACA’s new mandates has been illustrated in dramatic fashion by HHS’s “preventive services” mandate, which forces religious and other employers to cover sterilization and contraception, including abortifacient drugs.
Third, ACA fails to treat immigrant workers and their families fairly.ACA leaves them worse off by not allowing them to purchase health coverage in the new exchanges created under the law, even if they use their own money.This undermines the Act’s stated goal of promoting access to basic life-affirming health care for everyone, especially for those most in need.
Following enactment of ACA, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has not joined in efforts to repeal the law in its entirety, and we do not do so today. The decision of the Supreme Court neither diminishes the moral imperative to ensure decent health care for all, nor eliminates the need to correct the fundamental flaws described above.We therefore continue to urge Congress to pass, and the Administration to sign, legislation to fix those flaws.
I sure feel like I am trapped at a DU thread.
They have the Catholic idea that liberalism and socialism is Christian, conservatism is wrong.
The 54% of Catholics voting for Obama is just normal Catholic politics and reflects Catholic teachings and I can’t find a conservative Catholic on this thread.
Catholics are socialist? Tell that to any French socialist and he would laugh in your face.
None of the denominations are political parties, but the Catholic church is immensely political and it's members vote democrat as the leadership agitates for democrat liberal politics.
Other Christian churches fight liberalism.
53% of Catholics voted for Obama in 2008, a similar proportion for Bush in 2004. A bloc would be blacks or Jews, who preferred Obama by 80% and more.
I am very Catholic and also a staunch conservative. I was livid with
the church when they backed the health care bill. WELL THE CHURCH
LAYED DOWN WITH DOGS AND WOKE UP WITH FLEAS!!! The
church is now paying for backing this bill!!!! I also TOTALLY disagree
with the church’s stance on immigration!!!!! NOT ALL CATHOLICS ARE
SOCIALISTS although many of them are!!!!
you wrote:
“Protestants fled Europe to escape socialism imposed by the Catholics.”
The first Protestants who fled here were fleeing other Protestants. Also, there were no socialist Catholics in the 15th, 16th, 17th, or 18th century. None.
Are you a government school product?
Thank God you showed up.
Try to round up some more conservative Catholics and get them over here, this thread is freaking me out.
Other chaurches such as the Presbyterians, congregationalists, and episcopalians? All of the mainstream Protestant Church are liberal theological and support liberal social policies, Even “conservatives bodies such as the Baptists support birth control and easy divorce.
You wrote:
“I can see why Catholics choose people like Obama and Clinton, and Al Gore, it is the left wing political agenda that they embrace.”
So why did tens of millions of Protestants vote for their fellow Protestants: Obama, Clinton and Gore? Can you explain why Protestants put those three men in the White House?
I already addressed that bogus accusation in post #75. Interesting that you haven't yet commented on any of that post. A higher percentage of women voted for Obama than Catholics did. Do you hate women as much as you hate Catholics?
You are confusing Socialism with the Catholic teaching about the common good, charitable justice and our Christian duty to others, especially the poor. To say that the Government has no role in promoting the common good is not Catholic teaching.
The Catholic Church does teach the principle of subsidiarity which is describe as “This tenet holds that nothing should be done by a larger and more complex organization which can be done as well by a smaller and simpler organization. In other words, any activity which can be performed by a more decentralized entity should be. This principle is a bulwark of limited government and personal freedom. It conflicts with the passion for centralization and bureaucracy characteristic of the Welfare State.”
Unfortunately you are correct in that the USCCB does promote a more centralized means of health care reform. I think they are wrong in this. But they are not wrong in teaching that access to health care should be considered essential to the dignity of the human person.
Progressivism is not socialism. Progressivism is statism, but the model they follow is that of Otto von Bismarck Germany. His policy aimed to reduce the appeal that socialiism had for the working classes. The same was true in England, whose liberal government adopted policies later supported by Teddy Roosevelt in 1912 was Gene Debs. Research him,look up his speeches, look up the speeches of the “Wobblies”of the time. That is socialism—pure, unadulterated collectivism.
The question for conservatives is what does the Roman Catholic church do or teach that makes the majority of it’s baptized members vote democrat?
As a presumably conservative voter, don’t you find that a disturbing fact?
This thread topic and the responses is clearing up a lot of the mystery.
Natural Law,
I have demonstrated to ansell2 many times that many more Protestants have voted for Obama then Catholics. Protestants, in fact, put Clinton and Gore and Obama in the White House. This is clear. Irrefutable.
Well, there it is.
That is the most incredible thinking.
Non-Catholic Christians become majority republican voting conservatives, and something about the Catholic church is producing members who become majority democrat voting liberals, and your reaction as a supposed conservative is to point out that Protestants out number Catholics?
You wrote:
“The question for conservatives is what does the Roman Catholic church do or teach that makes the majority of it’s baptized members vote democrat?”
No. The question for conservatives is why are Protestant sects producing people who win the White House like Clinton and Obama and Jimmy Carter?
People generally vote for the party their parents did - so there is no question there for conservatives.
“As a presumably conservative voter, don’t you find that a disturbing fact?”
As a conservative, no. I already understand why people vote as they do. What is disturbing to me as a conservative is the fact that Protestant sects routinely produce national candidates like Obama, Clinton, Gore, Mondale, and Carter.
Look at the candidates in the most recent primary - Santorum and Gingrich are both Catholics.
“This thread topic and the responses is clearing up a lot of the mystery.”
There is no mystery.
This is from Archbishop Naumann of Kansas City. This is taken from an article at the Acton Institute.
“Part of my concern, which I expressed at the bishops’ meeting (earlier this month in Atlanta) is that people – who have good intentions and motivations – have too often looked to massive government programs to help the poor,” he said, “yet we have a history now of almost 50 years with these programs and we don’t have fewer poor and we don’t have more people empowered. But we do have a weaker family life and weaker public morality. And so we have to look at it and ask, ‘Are these really the best ways to go about addressing the problem?’”
Here is a link to the Acton Institute site, which is Catholic and Conservative. http://www.acton.org/
You might also like the “Distributist Review.” which also concerns it self with economics and politics from a Catholic view point. http://distributistreview.com/mag/
There is not one size fits all Catholic approach to applying Catholic teaching to the sphere of public life. But any approach must be centered in Jesus Christ and uphold the dignity of the person from conception to natural death.
Yet even with all of those liberal denominations, the Protestant vote is far to the right of the democrat Catholic vote. We all are battling liberalism among those small denominations and members are encouraged to leave them because they too think that God is a democrat.
As far as Baptists, we can only pray that everyone votes like the Southern Baptists.
I hold that any church whose members are voting 54% for Obama is mistaken in something that they are doing.
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