{"id":3503,"date":"2008-10-20T12:10:16","date_gmt":"2008-10-20T17:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=3503"},"modified":"2011-09-01T07:51:08","modified_gmt":"2011-09-01T12:51:08","slug":"where-their-bulls-are","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=3503","title":{"rendered":"Where Their Bulls Are"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Saturday’s NARN show, Ed and I spent a segment talking about the Catholic Church’s relative silence (at least in America) on abortion in politics (a conversation Ed continued at Hot Air this morning<\/a>).<\/p>\n

I’m a Protestant, of course, and mildly peeved that the state of discourse is now such that I have to painstakingly disclaim “I’m not anti-Catholic”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But I’ve had a few questions for American Catholics for a very, very long time.<\/p>\n

Catholic doctrine – to this goy, <\/em>who had exactly a semester in Catholic school, and that only because my elementary school had to be torn down, so we rented a room at Saint John’s Academy – has always seemed like a bit of a paper tiger among American Catholics.\u00a0 Catholics in the US seem scarcely less willing than us goyim<\/em> to do all the stuff the priests and nuns told ’em not to way back when – use birth control, get divorced, knock back a couple of Big Macs on Friday, what have you.\u00a0 As to being pro-life?\u00a0 Many of America’s most-Catholic cities – Boston, New York, Philly, Saint Paul, New Orleans – are also the most left-leaning, ergo <\/em>most pro-“choice”.\u00a0 And that’s not a demographic accident; generations of American bishops, archbishops and (I dunno) flying-buttressbishops, like Minneapolis\/Saint Paul’s former Archbiship Flynn, were scarcely farther to the right than Barack Obama on any issue, and seemed conveniently and consistently silent as re politicians’ stances (especially those of “Catholic” pols, like Joe Biden, John Kerry, Nancy Pelosi<\/a>\u00a0and, lest we forget, pro-“choice” congresswomen Betty McCollum<\/a>, not merely Catholic but graduate of Catholic women’s college and pristinely-liberal hothouse Saint Catherine’s, in Saint Paul which, like neighboring Saint Thomas<\/a>, seems to find Catholic doctrine more a matter of fund-raising than a moral foundation.<\/p>\n

So when I see this story, about Denver’s\u00a0archbishop questioning Biden and Obama<\/a>\u00a0on “choice”, and lighting a figurative fire under his followers’ (parishioners?\u00a0 Archbishopricticioners? Prelatistas?) figurative feet over “choice”…:<\/p>\n

Denver Roman Catholic Archbishop Charles Chaput labeled Barack Obama the “most committed” abortion-rights candidate from a major party in 35 years while accusing a Catholic Obama ally and other Democratic-friendly Catholic groups of doing a “disservice to the church.”<\/p>\n

Chaput, one of the nation’s most politically outspoken Catholic prelates, delivered the remarks Friday night at a dinner of a Catholic women’s group.
\nHis comments were among the sharpest in a debate over abortion and Catholic political responsibility in a campaign in which Catholics represent a key swing vote.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

…my response wasn’t so much “there y’go” as “why is this news?”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Of course, it is<\/em> news; of America’s bajillion archbishops, Chaput would seem to be one of very, very few actually telling Catholic politicians to reckon with Catholic doctrine<\/em> in adopting their positions.<\/p>\n

And, possible Reaganesque flight to the right notwithstanding, an awful lot of Catholics will be voting for The One next month.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Compare and contrast; when evangelical Protestants don’t <\/em>vote their faith<\/a>, it makes the news; when the Catholic hierarchy asks Catholics not even to vote their faith, but for Catholic pols to be aware of the rules, regs and beliefs of that faith<\/em>, it’s newsworthy.<\/p>\n

Where is <\/em>the Catholic hierarchy?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Saturday’s NARN show, Ed and I spent a segment talking about the Catholic Church’s relative silence (at least in America) on abortion in politics (a conversation Ed continued at Hot Air this morning). I’m a Protestant, of course, and mildly peeved that the state of discourse is now such that I have to painstakingly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,26,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-campaign-08","category-faiths-and-their-followers","category-pc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3503"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22338,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3503\/revisions\/22338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}