Posted on 09/13/2011 4:06:15 PM PDT by Alex Murphy
“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”
Huh?
Thanks to Democrats like my crowd giving the GOP a bad-name? Did you go to a Catholic grade school? Read your post...it is not even a sentence.
The problem we are addressing is why Catholics tend to vote Democrat (a known fact). How does a group that claims to espouse biblical morals (a true stretch to begin with), wax eloquent about "following" Jesus, vote with the union power thugs, abortion promoters, homosexual agenda advocates, fiscal insanity and the destruction of America?
Whatever you might have meant about my "crowd", you can rest assured they all distance themselves from folks that hold these views and they vote consistent with that perspective. The Catholics do not. Explain, please.
Why, my FRiend, can we count on Catholics siding with these anti-Christian views in the first place?
Obviously, the idea that "catholics" tend to vote Democrat is, as proven by this article and Alex's research, an urban legend. Real committed Catholics (just like any other committed, i.e., "born again" Christian) vote pro-life.
....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 targeted these people and increased his percentage of the conservative Catholic vote....
The "catholics" who vote for culture of death Democrats aren't really Catholic at all. They are more like cultural/ethnic non-practicing Jews, with no real belief in their own religion. In fact, all these polls of "catholics" rarely distinguish non-practicing "catholics" from real Catholics as Alex has done.
So we can dispense with the old tired canard that "catholics" vote Democrat.
Well, "catholics" might vote Democrat.
But real Catholics vote pro-life.
Unfortunately for us real Catholics, many of our priests and bishops are just "catholics." And that makes it exceedingly difficult to defend real Catholicism from these slurs.
See Alex's post #19. Catholics who attend Mass weekly voted for McCain over Obama.
The sweat-the-details Catholics, a subset of weekly Mass-attendees whom Alex says is about 10 million people (so about 2/3rds the size of the Southern Baptists, not chump change at all), are very conservative.
As for the rest, if they can't obey when the Church tells them to go to Mass weekly, they won't take their (alleged, claimed-but-still-fictional) Catholicism into the voting booth, either. Treat them as you would a Gentile or a tax collector.
Incidentally, sneers, venom, and name-calling aimed at Catholics and Catholicism on a conservative Republican message board is not going to convince a single one of them to vote conservative. Quite the opposite, in fact.
So all of the Irish Catholics (or catholics) in Boston (for example) who vote straight Democrat are not actually members of the Roman Catholic Church? May want to inform Father Mulcahey that he doesn't really have a job and should vacate that building.
Are "born again," evangelical or fundamentalist Christians who vote straight Democrat truly committed Christians, or just CINOs - "christians" in name only?
Answer that and you've answered your question.
You can be a "member" of any sect and not be a true believer of that religion.
But it certainly serves the interests of the Democrat party and the liberal main stream media for you to continue to assert otherwise.
I’m just guessing here, but I doubt the pro-abortion, pro-gay marriage and the wymmenpriest protestant denominations voted for any conservative. They are likely marxist.
So, I am convincing the Catholics around here to vote liberal Democrat? Okay, that is beyond weird. If asking why the great majority of Catholics vote Dem convinces conservative voting Catholics to vote Dem, somebody has dumped something in the Tiber.
Yet, there is an incredible disparity among those who wear the label "Roman Catholic". Some of the "priests" even support abortion, yet are not removed from the fellowship and treated as, "a Gentile or unbeliever". Why is there not a uniformity of thought here? Why are these folks then not removed? Evidently Rome honors choice over truth, independence over the Scriptures. This is not done by folks who adhere to the Scriptures.
And Jesus knew what Judas was about all along, yet did not dis-fellowship him.
The Church is full of sinners. We wouldn't need a Savior otherwise.
That said, I would like to see known public dissenter priests and bishops defrocked, but I also know that in the end times there will be a falling away, even among the Church.
Yes, some Catholics might indeed mistake your rabid anti-Catholicism as representative of the conservative wing of the GOP, and therefore be driven from the party.
Yet another faulty hermeneutical conclusion.
Paul has other advice for believers who identify grevious behavior within a fellowship. "...And you have become arrogant, and have not mourned instead, in order that the one who had done this deed might be removed from your midst." I Cor 5:2 When Rome gets serious...
Why does your group of folks insist on giving the GOP a bad name. Your rabid group of anti-Christians are just out to give the wrong impression of the GOP. Close Democrat group?
Your group is trying pretty hard to do that, yes.
My group is trying hard to do that?
The only group I belong to is that of the believers in Jesus Christ as the Messiah of Israel, Savior of the elect from the beginning of history as described in the Scriptures. Should we conclude you would not identify yourself with that group?
To the narrower political debate -- your group supports and helps the democrats. The only question is whether your group does this inadvertently, blinded, or willfully.
Precisely why we are all waiting here with bated breath for you to explain why the great majority of Roman Catholics are hard-left, liberal, America-destroying Democrats. Waiting...
Actually you just repeated a lie. The great majority aren’t. 52% voted dem in 2008, and that’s 52% of the voting age personnel. In contrast your group seems to have voted more than 75% demo — how do you explain yourself?
You are steadily proving to the rest of the audience here that Roman Catholics cannot face into the truth. They vote Democrat, (”52% voted dem”), then you deny this. Astonishing.
I don’t have a group...other than the universal congregation of believers in Jesus, alone. Evidently, you need the props of Rome to maintain. We invite you to drop the chains of that cult and come into the light of Christ, alone...if you can.
The sort of Christians who always vote Democrat are very fond of St. John Chrysostom's exhortation toward charity on the part of the rich in which he called the goods of the rich "theft from the poor." They either ignore or willfully bury the critique the Golden-mouth gave of state sponsored wealth redistribution:
“Should we look to kings and princes to put right the inequalities between rich and poor? Should we require soldiers to come and seize the rich person’s gold and distribute it among his destitute neighbors? Should we beg the emperor to impose a tax on the rich so great that it reduces them to the level of the poor and then to share the proceeds of that tax among everyone? Equality imposed by force would achieve nothing, and do much harm. Those who combined both cruel hearts and sharp minds would soon find ways of making themselves rich again.Worse still, the rich whose gold was taken away would feel bitter and resentful; while the poor who received the gold from the hands of soldiers would feel no gratitude, because no generosity would have prompted the gift. Far from bringing moral benefit to society, it would actually do moral harm. Material justice cannot be accomplished by compulsion, a change of heart will not follow. The only way to achieve true justice is to change people’s hearts first—and then they will joyfully share their wealth.”
-– St. John Chrysostom on the poor from On Living Simply XLIII
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.