Religion and the Election

On November 2, 2008, someone wrote this long piece for a message board:

Note: This Post contains Statements That Are Not Only Uncomplimentary, But Anti-, Religion In General, Christianity Specifically And The Catholic Church. Please Stay Away If You Feel You Might Be Offended

I am not trying to offend anyone, but the subject matter is one that easily leads to offense for those with thin skins. I have given this much thought and I certainly am not alone in coming to the conclusions that I draw.

Originally, I was contemplating why Christianity, specifically, but it appears most major religions are similar, was so antagonistic to Marxism. Quite frankly, I see little difference in their outlook concerning society, except for the obvious - in Religion there is God, in Marxism God has been replaced by the Proletariat, State etc., which just happens to boil down to the power grabbers of the moment.

Now, for Christianity, this is a big problem. I've reread the Gospels many times. Jesus' message was one of Love for all people, whatever their station, - the prime "Love God with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your heart and the second is like unto it - to love your neighbor as yourself". It's hard to argue with that message, but somewhere it got changed. I think the fault lies with Paul, "And sold their possessions and parted them to all men, as every man has need" (Acts 2:45). That is a nice way of saying the classic "from each according to his ability - to each according to his need". They are the same and only differ on what power is enforcing the redistribution. IOW the early Christian church became communistic, perhaps for security purposes, just as many of the Kibbutz s in Israel are so today.

The Roman Catholic Church is today still the largest group of Christians, although it has lost much of it's political clout (we'll blame it on Henry VIII's itch to father a son). Pope Benedict appears to be an upright man as head of the church, but Rome has lost much of its control over the far flung parts of the church worldwide. Maybe that's good. And maybe it's bad.

The Roman Catholic Church has strong positions on abortion, homosexuality and out of wedlock sex. I regularly attend the local Catholic Church (just got back). We hear about these things only in side comments or whispers, but you can get them full blown on EWTN. Why?

The Catholic Church (at least in America) is a cowardly organization. This is a difficult thing to say, but I see no other word to describe how they act, particularly with respect to politics. Today there was a prayer that said essentially (partly paraphrased because I couldn't write it down as quickly as it was said) "...pray for our leaders and that they will do what is right in the eyes of God. They are all people with failings, but we know that they mean well and are doing what they think is the best for us. It is not for us to judge them..." I kid you not. I call bullshit. The church also quotes "Surrender to the will of God" (Matthew 13:12). IOW give up and God will take of everything.

So, according to some sources, there have been 30,000,000 abortions in the US since Roe v Wade. The Catholic Church continues to rail against abortion, but do they speak up against those political figures who are its most vocal advocates? No. They continue to rail against birth control, but do they Speak up against Planned Parenthood and all the other programs designed to spread birth control to our young people? No. The rail against same sex marriages, but do they point to it greatest political advocates? No. They rail against out of wedlock sex and illegitimacy (currently around 33% of births in the US are out of wedlock), but do they speak out against those who support this sin (in their eyes)? No.

The Catholic Church is caught in a three way dick grinder. They would love society to be patterned after Marx, with the church and God replacing the State. But they cannot openly advocate the Leftist position because it goes against their social sins of homosexuality, abortion and out of wedlock sex. But they cannot also embrace the Right, because it posits a society of free will and based on individual property rights, and while the Right would be more supportive of limited abortion, limited homosexual "rights" and more pro-family, it will not give them the redistributive parts of society that they seek so strongly. I suspect that most religions have these same problems. Keith Ward's "Christianity" has some interesting pieces. To enter the Kingdom of God requires: 1) renunciation of pride, 2) renunciation of the love of money, 3) cultivation of the innocence of mind and 4) compassion for friends. And Matthew put it:, "putting human need above keeping rules". Rather anti-human things at least to some degree. He also describes the Catholic problem as follows "Catholic social thought usually stands between Communism, with its denial of the right of private property ownership.... and unrestrained Capitalism with its creation of a permanent under class of poor...(BS - Capitalism is the only system that allows people to escape the status they are born into).

So we get the essence of the prayer above (and having seen the power of prayer (=0), they have no chance in Hell of affecting those leaders' decisions and policies). There were 20 people at mass this morning. Of those 20, only 2 will vote McCain. At least 12 will vote OBB and justify it based on the presumption that "he will do better for all people and we will try to change his stances on abortion, etc." That includes the priest. There were 4 kids - so they don't count (there's usually only 1). The other 4 are unknown to me, so I cannot tell. Small sample, but it's clear that Catholics ignore their own Church's teachings when voting - so why are they Catholics? For that matter why is the priest a Catholic? They are facilitating mortal sins in their eyes. It would be better if they did not vote at all. BTW, I'm not catholic and not included in the above numbers - I supply music.

So the answer to "why?" above is: the catholic church is hurting for membership. If they push too hard on their mortal sin issues they lose parishioners. So they waffle and weenie to keep their particular piece of the protection racket pie. They are the classic example of a fence sitter. And soon they will suffer as do all fence sitters from being crushed from both sides.

I called catholics part of the protection racket, and I mean that for all religions - "we will protect and save your everlasting soul through prayer, from eternal damnation - just give us money, non-monetary support and part of your life here on Earth". The Mafia are probably envious. All religions function this way and those that benefit are in the hierarchies of those religions.

So why is the Catholic Church so heavily democratic? The answer lies in the major ethnic groups (Irish, Polish, Italians, many Germans) who came here are laborers and were the core of the early Union Movement. Their politics are Marxist. Their church says there are mortal sins, but their church does not tell them not to vote for these people. It does not tell them not to support their political policies. It does not tell them to throw them out with moral indignation. No it tells them to pray that their leaders will do the right thing. Those leaders have no reason to do the right thing as long as they vote. The church is a coward, but they are supposed to be the source of morality - at least according to TOS.

The Catholic Church should tell their parishioners that they should never support a politician who is advocating a mortal sin, but if they did that they would lose members. What are we to do? We'll pray. The Catholic Church should say it's better to not vote than facilitate a politician who espouses thing which are mortal sins. Any Catholic who does support such a politician is guilty of the same mortal sin the politician is because he allows it to occur - he facilitates it. But guilt only goes so far. So Mr. and Mrs. X go to mass - do all the necessary things and say how awful abortion, etc. are and then vote into office some idiot whose main purpose is to implement those sins into social law. Shame on them.

In short, Religions of the Christian sort, probably Judaism as well, have a moral closeness to Marxism that makes them intimate enemies, but looks pretty petty when you are outside looking at the noise. Islam has that and even more problems. There aren't many of other types who would make a difference.

FWIW here are my positions so you can draw your own conclusions as to why Furball is going negative this late in the election cycle:

1. Abortion. I think this is an acceptable procedure in some cases. It should never be used for birth control as it mainly is now. Birth control should be required in absence of a brain.
2. Homosexuality - if that's the way you are, fine with me.
3. Homosexual "Marriage" - if two homosexuals wish to form a union, it's fine with me - just don't call it marriage.
4. Out of wedlock sex - go do it if that's what you want, but don't make any kids without making sure they can be well taken care of.

Someone else wrote:

I'm not Catholic, but I learned that catholic = universal in a Protestant parochial school.

I responded with:

I have also been taught that catholic=universal. In this Lutheran church I recently started attending, the Apostles Creed says "I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church..." I originally thought it was strange, but most Christians tend to think of the Church as a universal concept.

I further wrote:

As a Christian I was also not offended by your comments. I have wondered similar things about Catholics who seem to disagree with the church's social positions. Probably most of the powerful liberals are Catholics. I know Pelosi, Kerry and Biden are. There was a guy who refused to give Kerry communion and I heard about another instance of that. It bothers me that the Catholic church likely encourages illegal immigration to boost membership.

I know of a few Democrats at this Lutheran church. One is a German woman in her 80s who said it bothers her that helping the poor is labeled as socialism. One guy about my age said he hopes Obama wins, but I don't know his specific views. I would predict he is a moderate or conservative Democrat. He mentioned that since Utah is 2-1 Republican, that some people vote Democrat just to be different (I don't know if that includes himself). Another woman said she constantly worries about those without health insurance. The pastor told me he is a Republican.

I don't know if there is enough information to determine Jesus' political views. Some of his ideas seem sort of socialist, but he was the type to to be politically incorrect and address actual problems. Responsibility and hard work go great in helping people to be released from poverty and Jesus would want what is best. As a Christian (or maybe it is basic to the human species) I feel it is important to do good works for people. I think you can have community involvement without being a socialist. People should help other people, not the government. Republicans do tend to give more to charities.

Some Christian left groups have come out in support of Obama and some of them support same-sex "marriage." For the most part I really don't understand the religious left, but maybe it is just the left I don't understand. I think those Christians have good intentions, but they are naive about basic human nature and what is necessary for people to improve. As least be sincere about your Christian faith. Wright's church put Christianity second to his marxist, racist agenda and I guess that is part of Black Liberation Theology (general liberation theology has a Catholic connection).

My social views:

Abortion: I am basically opposed to all of it, I'm not sure if there are valid reasons to allow it.

Homosexuality: This is hard for me to understand and from a scientific point of view there do seem to be multiple factors in causing it. I have even wondered if there is some type of genetic "defect." However, I realize that there are people who are sincerely attracted to the same-sex and that is inherently a part of who they are. I support inheritance rights and hospital visits, but those should be equally available to all people. I do not support same-sex "marriage."

Out of wedlock sex: I am generally opposed to this, but I realize there is a strong sexual desire and it might be hard to resist. If you absolutely must, go ahead, but use birth control and be very sure of your partner. You don't want to get pregnant and you could have emotional or situational problems. I struggle with how I can be consistent on this for homosexuality.

On a related note, the early Mormons practiced a form of Communism called the United Order. Some of my Swedish ancestors who were not yet fluent in English left the Church over this program. They had been some of the wealthiest members and became as poor as everyone else and didn't really understand what was happening.