Dear Powers that Be in the American Catholic Church:
I read today in the New York Times that you are urging your bishops to challenge Obama regarding legal abortion. While obviously you have the right to free speech and to advocate for your religious interests, please remember that this is not the Vatican City nor Europe. In fact, the same amendment that permits you to urge your bishops to challenge Obama also says that you don't have the right to force your religious beliefs and practices on the population through the government.
I find your constant bitching about legal abortion to be hypocritical. I understand that you feel that a fertilized egg is equivalent to a life. However, I cannot understand why a woman who would otherwise die if she were not given an abortion is not considered a life worth saving. When you advocate to ban abortion, you don't make exceptions for women who would die without one. This infuriates me because it shows me that you could not care less about the lives of actual people who happen to be female. Once a female fetus is born, you write off her right to life.
Also, when you threaten to excommunicate or withhold communion for politicians who represent their constituents who believe that abortion is a personal decision based on a woman's religious beliefs and moral values, and not from politicians who support the death penalty based on their constituents' belief that it is OK for the state to kill people that we are pretty sure committed murder, I don't believe that you value all life equally. If it is wrong to take a life, why aren't you pulling the same punches with death penalty supporters? Or, for that matter, politicians who deny health insurance to children, which certainly leads to at least some deaths per year?
Quite frankly, all your double standards, combined with your parent church's 2,000 year history of enthusiastically killing Jewish people (or at least keeping quiet when other people do), provides you with no moral authority to lecture Obama, me, or anyone about the value of life. Please stop interfering in my democratically elected government.
Sincerely,
Suzanne Reisman
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Right on, right on.
ReplyDeleteWell said.
ReplyDeleteyou go girl!
ReplyDeleteCatholics are told to respect all life, from conception to natural death. Plenty of Catholics are vehemently opposed to the death penalty. Some consider the death penalty to be the "lesser of two evils," which doesn't make sense to me either. The bishops seem to have taken up abortion as their main cause. You're right that they should be vocal on all issues important to Catholics.
ReplyDeleteHowever, please keep in mind that at its core, Catholicism is not an evil religion. There seems to be a lot of trashing the church, especially since the unfortunate sex abuse scandals. Jesus was all about following the rules but also creating peace. In the end, true Catholics should follow the teachings of Jesus and doing what is right.
Diane, I have no beef with individual Catholics. And it is not just individual Catholics who oppose the death penalty, but official church line. That is why I think the leadership of the church is hypocritical. If bishops deny politicians communion for supporting legal abortion, then why do they not also deny it to politicians who support the death penalty? As you said, life should be life.
ReplyDeleteMy other point is that your church has no right to make your religious belief into government. There is no "fact" as to what constitutes life with full rights, and I don't believe that a fertilized egg is the equivalent of a born baby. Hence the only basis to outlaw legal abortion is a religious one. Every person has the right to follow his or her own morals and values on this issue. The Catholic Church has no place forcing me to follow their religious laws any more than the Hasidic community has the right to ban pork from the plates of other Americans.
That's it, right there. "My other point is that your church has no right to make your religious belief into government." Abortion isn't against the law, it's against the Catholic religion -- one religion in a country of many.
ReplyDeleteEllie
I agree with this 100%. Let's keep religion out of politics. That is why this country was founded wasn't it?
ReplyDeleteIt's real easy, you don't believe in abortion - don't have one. You don't believe in gay marriage - don't marry someone of the same sex. You don't believe in birth control - have a litter. Don't tell me what I can and can't do with your man made rules to control your followers. That is between you and your followers.
Having 12 yrs of Catholic CCD classes and parents who would drink the kool-aid if the pope told 'em to - I feel I can say this as someone who was ensconced in the religion even when I didn't want to be. Go Suzanne!!
I'm all about separation of church and state! I wonder, though, if other religious organizations will bend Obama's ear about stuff. It would be interesting to find out.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure almost everyone has something to say about something! The question is what lobbying power they have.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny that you should write this. I don't know if you know the blogger from Daisy's Dead Air, but the priest at her Catholic church is in the news right now because he has issued a letter stating that everyone who voted for Obama needs to do penance before receiving Communion because they have provided "material cooperation with intrinsic evil". It's really, really sad.
ReplyDeleteThe Catholic Church that I grew up around was nothing like this. Anyway, if you want to read about the situation, you can check out the post that I wrote about it last night. It also contains a link to Daisy's post.
Not Even The Angels
The issue is simply one of liberty -- not one of religion. Liberty is the fundamental principals governing our constitution (privacy is nowhere to be found -- read the Federalist Papers if you think I am wrong). Liberty is not the right to do anything you want. It is the right to do anything you want as long as what you do do not infringe upon another individual's right to do what he or she wants. Therein lies the difficulty of the abortion debate. If the fetus is an individual with rights, aborting it violates liberty. If the fetus is not an individual with rights, then aborting it does not violate liberty. Religion is only trying to answer the queation of whether the fetus is an individual or not. But, since we have not found an answer to that question as society, the debate will wage on. We like to demonize religion or any group that disagrees with our view, but we are just afraid to address the real question -- liberty -- because it may dictate a particular outcome that differs from our personal views.
ReplyDelete