Joseph’s post (Faith, Freedom, and the Future) included a link to a brief video directed at “cafeteria Catholics” about religious freedom. I saw the video just moments after reading two news items related to this topic. What they were doesn’t matter; I’m sure there were at least a dozen more. The number increases every day.
What matters most? All sorts of things matter. Economic times are hard; some people believe that economic improvement matters most. But unless you’re either starving or homeless or both, getting more money than you now have shouldn’t be at the top of your priority list. Health—now there’s a real concern for everybody. We’re supposed to be for or against Obama’s health care legislation even though we still don’t know what’s in it. But again, unless you or a loved one is critically ill and the legislation threatens loss of medical care, it shouldn’t be at the top of your list. Protection of creation (which some people call their “environment”) is terribly important, much more important than anyone’s profit-and-loss statement, but is it what matters most?
The answer to that question doesn’t identify what matters most; it identifies the one who answers the question. Each one of us has a string of identities, those genera that we claim as ours, and that claim us as one of their own. We belong to them, and we are accountable to them. Are you an American? A wife? A mother? A teacher? A Christian? A Democrat? A member of the Garden Club? We rank these in order of their importance to us. We are, all of us, many things, but each of us is more this than that.
If Obama were an economic wizard, the most patriotic American, the best protector of nature—whatever, make up your own criteria—if he were, in short, the best president in American history, I’d still vote against him, no matter who I had to vote for in order to do it. No president in U.S. history, no law, no proposed legislation, no Congress—nothing in U.S. history has ever forced me to choose between adherence to my faith and obedience to the law. Until Obama. Well, okay. I’ve chosen.
I am a Catholic.
Good points. I cannot see how any self respecting Catholic can vote for Obama after the religious freedom issue. But you know, his anti Catholicism is deep. His most damning quote is actually one that is on the surface relatively innocuous:
“I am going to teach them [his daughters] first of all about values and morals. But if they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby.” Just ponder how anti Christian that is: abortion, the denial of love, the consideration of a child as an object, the lack of sacrifice, the notion that sacrifice is punishment. Obama is the most anti Catholic president in our history.
Manny, it’s not just his position on abortion–it’s so much more. And most recently, his lie to Archbishop Dolan and to American Catholics.
I agree Dena. I was just showing how one seemingly innocuous statement revealed his deep anti Catholicism. It goes to the core of the person.
Yes. That statement says he would consider a baby as “punishment” for violating one’s “values and morals.” (his words) It seems like an odd reasoning to us, but very common, I think, for a view that’s habitually narcissist, and alien to the Church’s view of morality.