Category Archives: Religious Liberty

In 2008, we tried to talk to our liberal pastor about Obama’s pro-abortion history. She responded by giving us a 3-page article xeroxed from a liberal magazine about why the Democratic Party’s alleged support for civil rights and help for the poor made them the better choice than selfish, greedy Republicans.

We both read it carefully and found it to be an illogical, garbled list of Democrat talking points. There was not a shred of Catholic teaching or Biblical truth in it.

I bought her a copy of Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism: Who Gives, Who Doesn’t, and Why It Matters by Arthur C. Brooks.

She sent me a snippy email “thanking” me for the gift, saying she had no plans to read it “now or ever.”

So much for open-minded dialogue between people of faith.

The summer of 2009, when the Leftist media was reporting very negatively on ObamaCare protests … for example, neglecting to point out that the incidents of violence were perpetrated by the pro-ObamaCare protesters against the antis, not the other way around … our deacon published an illogical, garbled justification for why the antis were all greedy and selfish.

So much for non-judgmental dialogue between people of faith.

His only actual justification for supporting ObamaCare was this: “When my mother was dying, I was grateful for her Medicare.” He also said it was very bad when people bit each other at protests. (I always wondered if he knew that the biter was on his side, while the man who lost part of his finger to the oh-so-tolerant Democrat supporter was on my side.)

When the Catholic bishops finally got a clue and came out against ObamaCare, the liberal pastor at the next parish over gave the official statement from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops equal billing on the parish web-site with the pro-ObamaCare statement by a group of 40 nuns.

Am I being overly-judgmental in characterizing Pro-Choice Catholic arguments as “illogical” and “garbled”? I’ll let you be the judge. In the video, the off-camera voice notes that the Catholic bishops are opposed to the HHS mandate. The voice then asks if Pelosi will stand with her fellow Catholics in resisting this law OR stand with the administration to impose it?

Pelosi says “I will stick with my fellow Catholics in supporting the administration on this.”

That’s not a typo. Listen for yourself.

“Illogical?” “Garbled?” Hell, yes.

Today, angelaisms sent me a link to this article:

America’s Most Biblically-Hostile U. S. President By David Barton – February 29, 2012

http://www.wallbuilders.com/LIBissuesArticles.asp?id=106938

David Barton is the historian who did the American Heritage DVDs I raved about a couple days ago.

The whole article is worth reading, but too long to share here in full.  I do want to copy-paste the section that deals with Obama’s pro-abortion, anti-life actions since becoming President of the United States:

• January 2009 – Obama lifts restrictions on U.S. government funding for groups that provide abortion services or counseling abroad, forcing taxpayers to fund pro-abortion groups that either promote or perform abortions in other nations.
• January 2009 – President Obama’s nominee for deputy secretary of state asserts that American taxpayers are required to pay for abortions and that limits on abortion funding are unconstitutional.
• March 2009 – The Obama administration shut out pro-life groups from attending a White House-sponsored health care summit.
• March 2009 – Obama orders taxpayer funding of embryonic stem cell research.
• March 2009 – Obama gave $50 million for the UNFPA, the UN population agency that promotes abortion and works closely with Chinese population control officials who use forced abortions and involuntary sterilizations.
• May 2009 – Obama officials assemble a terrorism dictionary calling pro-life advocates violent and charging that they use racism in their “criminal” activities.
• July 2010 – The Obama administration uses federal funds in violation of federal law to get Kenya to change its constitution to include abortion.
• September 2010 – The Obama administration tells researchers to ignore a judge’s decision striking down federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.
• October 2011 – The Obama administration eliminates federal grants to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for their extensive programs that aid victims of human trafficking because the Catholic Church is anti-abortion.

This is not a comprehensive list. For example, there was the appointment of Catholic Kathleen Sebelius as Secretary of HHS, the agency that formulated the famous HHS mandate to deprive Pro-Lifers of their First Amendment rights.

While Sebelius was governor of Kansas, she was buddies with George Tiller the Baby Killer. In this video interview, she calls him a “health care provider.”

How close were George and Kathleen?

During her time in office, Governor Sebelius used her veto power three times to protect late-term abortionists, which in Kansas meant George Tiller.

In April 2007, Sebelius held a party at the governor’s mansion to honor Tiller. Only Tiller, his wife, and his clinic staff were invited.

For his part, Tiller spent millions funding Sebelius and the Democratic Party — $1.2 million in the 2006 election cycle alone.

Like other Catholic Pro-Choicers (e.g., Kennedy, Pelosi, Kerry, Biden), Sebelius claims she can be a faithful Catholic and still take money from and hand out political favors to the abortion industry.

The Roman Catholic Church begs to differ. Here is just a sampling of quotations from http://old.usccb.org/prolife/tdocs/prochoice.shtml:

• John Paul II, continuing the constant teaching of the Church, has reiterated many times that those who are directly involved in lawmaking bodies have a grave and clear obligation to oppose any law that attacks human life. For them, as for every Catholic, it is impossible to promote such laws or to vote for them.
• There cannot be two parallel lives in their existence: on the one hand, the so-called ‘spiritual life’, with its values and demands; and on the other, the so-called ‘secular’ life, that is, life in a family, at work, in social responsibilities, in the responsibilities of public life and in culture.
• No Catholic can responsibly take a “pro-choice” stand when the “choice” in question involves the taking of innocent human life.
• We urge those Catholic officials who choose to depart from Church teaching on the inviolability of human life in their public life to consider the consequences for their own spiritual well being, as well as the scandal they risk by leading others into serious sin.
• [N]o appeal to policy, procedure, majority will or pluralism ever excuses a public official from defending life to the greatest extent possible.
• Those who justify their inaction on the grounds that abortion is the law of the land need to recognize that there is a higher law, the law of God

Sebelius’ ordinary, Archbishop Joseph Naumann, has warned Sebelius several times of her infidelity to Church teaching. When she was nominated as head of HHS, Bishop Naumann called Obama’s choice “offensive” and wrote:

“Because of her long history both as a legislator and governor of consistently supporting legalized abortion and after many months of dialogue, I requested Governor Sebelius not to present herself for communion.”

Archbishop Raymond Burke, prefect of the Apostolic Signature in Rome, backed him up, stating publicly that Sebelius should not present herself for Holy Communion no matter where she was.