Fr. Philip Powell, OP in a rare political post starts off:
Many of my friends from my days as a Marxist-feminist-postmodernist ideologue have been asking me lately how I can resist supporting an Obama presidency.
My answer–much to their horror–has been simple: “Because I used to be a Marxist-feminist-postmodernist ideologue, and I understand the party-line of the movement:
He then explains his reasons for opposing Sen. Obama.
A Vista, Calif., megachurch is canceling all worship services this weekend and leaving no excuse for Christians to stay in the pews and out of “being” the church.
“So many people think of a church as a self-contained religious club – but it’s not,” said Pastor Larry Osborne of North Coast Church. “A healthy church is a community of Jesus-followers who live out their spiritual commitment 24/7.”
Over 6,000 North Coast attendees are living out their commitment as they tackle 139 community service projects at 70 sites throughout North San Diego County. On Oct. 25 and 26, the church is closing its doors for a “Weekend of Service” and providing churchgoers the opportunity to show the love of Jesus. [article]
Well one aspect of “being” the church is that you can tithe to yourself.
Now it is very good for them to be getting involved in community projects, but they are in need of a little both/and. Loving God and loving neighbor are not mutually exclusive activities..
It is rather interesting all of the divergent paths Protestantism has followed since the Reformation. Then we had the false charge that Catholic’s believed justification came via works and now we have a Protestant Megachurch canceling “worship” to do works. Over the last couple of years there have been Megachurches that canceled Christmas services to give family time. But the idea that going to church is about us an not giving the due worship and thanks to God is not confined to just Protestants. Bishop conferences have transferred Holy Days of Obligation to Sundays to make things more “convenient” or we have parishes tailoring liturgy as entertainment.
Philip Groning’s stunning new documentary on the spirituality of Carthusian monks will be on EWTN this wwek.
Sun 10/26/08 9:00 ET & 6 PT
Thu 10/30/08 2:30 ET & 11:30 AM PT
I came up with this.
Tom at Disputations
A definition of “Commonweal Catholic”
Someone who is more offended by the use of the term “pro-abortion” than by the fact that their political party and candidate are pro-abortion.
Tom has also been looking at the arguments made by Zippy’s arguments against voting for Sen. McCain.
The ever awesome Ramesh Ponnuru
George Weigel does a nice job of responding to the “Catholic brief for Obama” by Nicholas Cafardi, M. Cathleen Kaveny, and the inevitable Douglas Kmiec, but is perhaps too embarrassed on their behalf to point out every shoddy aspect of it. I feel no such constraint. I will underscore one of Weigel’s points and add a few more.
1) The authors cannot get through the subject of their first sentence without telling an untruth. “George Weigel and his fellow McCain advisors. . .” As Weigel points out, he has not advised McCain formally or informally.
2) The opening paragraph ends, “Center for Disease Control statistics reveal that prosperity directly affects the abortion rate far more significantly than Republican rhetoric pledging to outlaw abortion–” Really? The CDC has done a study on the effects of Republican rhetoric?
3) “–a feat John McCain has failed to accomplish with nearly three decades in Congress.” Are the authors seriously holding it against McCain that he has not single-handedly been able to, among other things, reverse a Supreme Court decision? No, they’re not: They’re just taking a cheap shot at him and moving on.
4) “In terms of health care, McCain makes no provision for the uninsured. . .” Not true. Perhaps the authors have not heard that McCain would grant families a $5,000 tax credit to purchase health insurance? If the authors want to maintain that Obama’s plan is superior to McCain’s because it would insure more people, they can do so without making things up. But they go cartoonishly further.
5) “. . . and proposes that the insured pay more.” No, he doesn’t. The vast majority of people would come out with more money after McCain’s tax reform.
6) The authors say nothing about Obama’s support for taxpayer funding of abortion, which the abortion lobby itself suggests will result in many, many more abortions; nothing about his stated commitment to make passing the “Freedom of Choice Act” the very first thing he does as President; nothing about his opposition to providing legal protection against homicide for all infants; nothing about his opposition to parental consent and notification laws (which have demonstrably reduced the number of abortions); nothing about his opposition to federal funding for pro-life crisis pregnancy centers that help make it possible for pregnant women in need to avoid resorting to abortion; nothing about his support for the industrial production of “research embryos” by cloning. . . well, you get the picture.
All in all, these three professors have given the sort of intellectual performance you would expect of an unscrupulous politician.
Adam of the Theotokos podcast takes on the arguments used by Nicholas Cafard
Knights of Columbus for Obama www.knightsforobama.com. This is spew-worthy.
Tired of all those voting guides and varying statements. Well here is the tried and true way for the Catholic vote which has worked for years.
Step 1: Pick the candidate you like most.
Step 2: Then justify it via selective quotes from the Catechism and other Church documents.
That’s all there is to it.