To be sure, America's Catholic population is heavily concentrated in states that have a liberal political tilt. But is that a coincidence? Are those states hotbeds of liberalism despite the heavy Catholic presence, or because of it?
....Among Catholic voters who attend Mass weekly, McCain won majority support: 54- 45%. Among those who do not attend weekly Mass, the margin for Obama was an overwhelming 61- 37%. Thus Obama drew his support from inactive Catholics. And unfortunately, most American Catholics are inactive.
They might be Catholic (or baptist, methodist, presbyterian, etc..), but are they Christian?
A lot of the Catholics I know are in unions and they definitely vote Democrat every time.
their 401K’s. they are wrong blaming the administration, but they believe that it is the cause of their lost money
they will take care of their families FIRST. then worry about the nations moral issues.
There are people out there who were raised Catholic, but like the rest of American society, have become secular, liberals who have been brainwashed by Hollywood morals, the absence of any religion taught in government re-education camps, er, public schools and mainstream media. These people are still identified as Catholics which sways the polls.
If you no longer practice Catholic doctrine in your life, you are not a Catholic. John Kerry, Nancy Pelosi, Tom Daschle, all these self-proclaimed Catholics, do not practice nor live a life as a Catholic should. They embrace everything that we oppose—abortion, euthanasia, gay marriage, secular education, moral relativism, etc.
Because anyone can CALL THEMSELVES Catholic, that’s the problem. i constantly tell people you can say you were raised Catholic, you can say you attend a Catholic Church, but you cannot say you ARE CATHOLIC if you do not accept and hold to the teachings of the Catholic Church.
In Washington/Versailles, we have Democans and Replicats. So too, we have in America Catholants and Protestics.
Until Catholic bishops start kicking the Catholants out,PUBLICLY, this will continue. I am fed up with this “ipso facto” excommunication. Put up public notices that those who support sucking the brains out of babies skulls are heretics.
Less than 50% of "Catholics" attend Mass every Sunday.
I noticed several weeks ago, during the prolife week when the homilies are to be about the pro life issues, that the church wasn’t as full as normal. I started wondering if the pro choice dem catholics stay home every year during this week. It was an excellant homily.
Something 'effective' means a articulating a way to rein in the courts, possibly threatening the SOB's with arrest for abuse of power and misappropriation of funds when they legislate from the bench.
Any "pro-life" candidate who doesn't have a plan to deal with the courts is a sham and a fraud, which I think a lot of people have finally figured out.
Someone will have to be willing to call their bluff regarding Judicial Supremacy or not. And if not, then kiss goodbye to the Republic.
I personally know two Southern Baptist missionary kids (40+ yr olds) who voted for Obama. Neither would respond with anything resembling logic when I asked about the abortion vs. Bible teachings issue.
Largely because of it. The Catholic Church has been very supportive of socialist schemes, including unions that are given huge power by government. And of course, Catholics who marry early, don't use contraceptives (or abortion), and have lots of children tend to be heavy users of the socialist schemes, having rendered themselves unable to support their families without government/taxpayer handouts. I don't think you'll find a lot of "believing Catholics" voting against the various universal health care proposals. "Free health insurance from the government for my 7 kids? Awesome, of course I'll vote for the candidate promising that!"
What’s wrong with Catholic voters? What’s wrong with Catholics?
They choose to SIN(as do many others who also call themselves “Christian”). ;-(
Even the Catholic church acts as a sanctuary for these illegals, and the Catholic church here in the U.S. has taken a weak stance on abortion.
Those are two reasons why I'm a non-practicing Catholic.
If people don’t accept the real Presence, they are not Catholics, and should quit identifying themselves as such.
The Church needs to spend more effort on instruction in the heterodox Catechism and purge itself of priests whose enthusiasms are for social or political causes rather than the Faith.
Even though many would vote against abortion backers, they diminish the issue in favor of helping out the poor.
History hasn't been taught in this country for a long, long time, clearly.
Reason: Too many Catholic churches and too many Catholic schools worship Marxist “social justice” instead of God.
So?...When a Marxist presidential candidate comes along is it any wonder that 45% of Mass attending Catholics think he is God?
“Abortion is not an isolated issue. Lackadaisical American Catholics are not ignoring Church leadering on this issue alone, but on the entire range of Catholic teaching. Most Catholics skip Sunday Mass regularly. Most Catholics rarely if ever go to Confession. Most Catholics use contraceptives. Most Catholics do not believe in the Real Presence. Most Catholics no longer accept Church authority on any issue.”
I am a Catholic, and would never consider voting for a baby killer. I see the problem is with the Church itself. When Catholics see Catholic politicians voting for infanticide, and the Church does nothing to punish them, such as allowing them to receive Holy Communion, and not excommunicating them, many feel like it must not be that big a deal.
First, while it is true that the bishops, pretty much across the board, are on public record as pro-life (and many, of course, go far beyond the minimum in this), it is also true that many of them share a lot of the other aspects of the "progressive" social agenda of the Democrats. They are often in lock-step with the liberal notions of the "War on Poverty," and feel it is a matter of justice for the poor that society spend large sums on welfare programs, misguided education schemes and other hand-outs in an effort to alleviate poverty. In this, I believe most of them mean well, even if they are misapplying the words of Christ with regard to the poor. They are also ignoring the repeated observations of St. Paul, especially in 2 Thessalonians, that honest work, an avoidance of indolence and "sponging" off of others are to be avoided at all costs. The bishops also seem to be in favor of an excessive catering to open-ended immigration and the furtherance of languages other than English in this country, also on well-meaning, but misguided, notions of fairness and "justice."
All of these positions, of course, are part and parcel of the Democratic agenda. Their motivation is purely cynical and based on raw political expediency: pandering to the poor and downtrodden guarantees their votes (and keeping them in poverty, as is the norm here, makes their votes permanent as long as the Dems hide their own nefariousness in keeping them poor). I think the bishops and other clergy, for the most part, are aware of the less than pristine motives involved, but they have made strange bedfellows with the Dems because of the common bottom-line they have on these issues.
Lately, however, the bishops are distancing themselves from the Democrats, mostly over the recurring public scandal of prominent pro-abortion "Catholic" politicians receiving communion, but also, I think, because they see that Obama, Pelosi and company are way too liberal even for them, and that these people are inclined to start serious restrictions on what Christians can and cannot say in the public forum. I think that Catholic leadership will be less and less concerned about rocking the boat in fear of the tax exemption issue when they see the handwriting is on the wall regarding the Church even staying "above ground" over the next few years.
Meanwhile, the average Catholic layman, when it comes to Christian guidance for voting purposes, has suffered from the outflow of all of the above, plus a general collapse of catechetical instruction throughout the country (really, the whole western world) over the last 40+ years. It is a common assumption that mandatory, confiscatory taxation is the "Christian" way to ensure the corporal works of mercy are dealt with, rather than from a Christian charity of the heart. That our prevalent methods lead to generational unemployment, poverty, educational malfeasance and the indolence that St. Paul calls disgraceful either does not occur to them, or they feel that "life changes over time," and this is just how we do things, now.
Between the schizophrenic schmoozing of the clergy with the Democrats over social policies and the lack of their leadership of the laity (both regarding politics directly and through their godawful administration of Catholic catechetics over the last two generations), the current political disconnect of Catholic voters with the official teachings of their Church shouldn't really surprise anyone. But the climate is slowly changing.
This past election cycle has shown the beginnings of real impatience with hard-core pro-abort politicians on the part of Catholic bishops. This is a good first step, and the likelihood that the politicians affected will not take this kindly will only accelerate the process of alienation between the bishops and apostate pols. The bishops are beginning to realize that they have been played for suckers by the Democrats for decades, and with the first instance of calling them to order over the Communion issue, the Dems are turning on them with bared fangs. When they start imposing speech restrictions on Christians (as is already happening in Canada), the divorce will be complete. Plus, Benedict is known to be not pleased with the cuddling going on between Catholic clergy and the extreme Left. Personally, I suspect a few well-placed phone calls on his part to the bishops started the small avalanche of public chiding of the likes of Pelosi, Biden, Milkulski, et al with respect to receiving Communion. Stronger measures, including public excommunication (they are already excommunicated by the force of their own actions, but "making it look official" has its benefits) of these miscreants will be in the offing.
The Catholic voter will see this and make the proper connections, particularly as catechetics improves, and the trends for that are slowly taking shape. The next election cycle or two will start to show some changes.
But, there is another consideration about "Catholic" voting trends to consider. Pollsters usually just ask if the person is "Catholic" or not. It is no secret that most American Catholics do not really practice their Faith. Seven out of ten, nationally, do not even attend Mass each Sunday, eight-in-ten of childbearing years contracept. And so forth. Take them out of the equation, and you will find that the "faithful catholic" voter is much less inclined to vote for liberal Democrats. This has always been true.
It will take some time to see real changes in the voting patterns of all Catholics, including (and especially) the nominal ones. But this will happen over time. Twenty years from now, if we're still allowed to vote at all, the current trends will be seen for the relative short-term anomaly that they are.
Sin.
Yes, Catholics have traditionally leaned toward the Democratic Party for historical reasons. But why have Catholic voters remained doggedly loyal to a party that has come, in the early 21st century, to be wholly allied with the "culture of death" on issues such as abortion, euthanasia, same-sex marriage, and embryonic stem-cell research?
In all fairness, every traditionally Democrat group has retained his fanatical, trans-ideological, cross-generational loyalty. It seems to be part of the definition of "Democrat" (including, to this day, "yellow dog" Southern whites). Though, of course, the constant slamming of Fundamentalists by Catholics and Catholic publications--indistinguishable from the attitude of the elite left--certainly doesn't make it any easier for Catholics to vote like "those people."
Abortion is not an isolated issue. Lackadaisical American Catholics are not ignoring Church leadering on this issue alone, but on the entire range of Catholic teaching. Most Catholics skip Sunday Mass regularly. Most Catholics rarely if ever go to Confession. Most Catholics use contraceptives. Most Catholics do not believe in the Real Presence. Most Catholics no longer accept Church authority on any issue. Why should we be surprised, then, if on Election Day most Catholics ignore Church teachings on their moral obligation to vote in defense of human life?
And of course, the root cause of the whole problem (which Lawler and other "conservative" Catholics will never mention), most Catholics believe in evolution. Why interpret John 8 any more literally than Genesis 1-11?
Donal Anthony Foley (British creationist Catholic) has it right--Catholics have developed an anti-Biblical bias stemming from a reaction to Protestantism that has made the Catholic Church friendly to evolution from the get-go.