Can a vote for Democrats cost you salvation?

October 1, 2012 05:09


[A] vote for a candidate who promotes actions or behaviors that are intrinsically evil and gravely sinful makes you morally complicit and places the eternal salvation of your own soul in serious jeopardy.

 

by Bishop Thomas John Paprocki

 

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ:

Much attention was given at the Democratic National Convention held recently in Charlotte, N.C., to the fact that all references to God had been purged from the draft version of the party platform. After outcries of protest from outside as well as within the Democratic Party, the sentence with the same reference to God used in 2008 was restored to read, “We need a government that stands up for the hopes, values and interests of working people, and gives everyone willing to work hard the chance to make the most of their God-given potential.”

Before anyone relaxes and concludes that all is well now that the Democratic Party Platform contains a single passing reference to God, the way that this was done should give us pause. Convention chairman Antonio Villaraigosa had to call for the voice vote three times because each time the sound level for the “ayes” and the “nays” sounded about even, far short of the two-thirds necessary according to convention rules to amend the platform. That did not stop the convention chairman from declaring, “The ayes have it!”

What is troubling about that is the blatant disregard for the rules and for the apparent wishes of about half the delegates. The reference to God is back in the platform apparently because President Obama wanted it back in. That may be fine for now, but if a future president wants references to God taken out, apparently that can be done regardless of the wishes of the delegates if that is what The Leader wants. That does not bode well for democracy in the Democratic Party.

Even more troubling is that this whole discussion about God in the platform is a distraction from more disturbing matters that have been included in the platform. In 1992 Presidential candidate Bill Clinton famously said that abortion should be “safe, legal and rare.” That was the party’s official position until 2008. Apparently “rare” is so last century that it had to be dropped, because now the Democratic Party Platform says that abortion should be “safe and legal.” Moreover the Democratic Party Platform supports the right to abortion “regardless of the ability to pay.” Well, there are only three ways for that to happen: either taxpayers will be required to fund abortion, or insurance companies will be required to pay for them (as they are now required to pay for contraception), or hospitals will be forced to perform them for free.

Moreover, the Democratic Party Platform also supports same-sex marriage, recognizes that “gay rights are human rights,” and calls for the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, the federal law signed by President Clinton in 1996 that defined marriage as the legal union of one man and one woman.

Now, why am I mentioning these matters in the Democratic Party Platform? There are many positive and beneficial planks in the Democratic Party Platform, but I am pointing out those that explicitly endorse intrinsic evils. My job is not to tell you for whom you should vote. But I do have a duty to speak out on moral issues. I would be abdicating this duty if I remained silent out of fear of sounding “political” and didn’t say anything about the morality of these issues. People of faith object to these platform positions that promote serious sins. I know that the Democratic Party’s official “unequivocal” support for abortion is deeply troubling to pro-life Democrats.

So what about the Republicans? I have read the Republican Party Platform and there is nothing in it that supports or promotes an intrinsic evil or a serious sin. The Republican Party Platform does say that courts “should have the option of imposing the death penalty in capital murder cases.” But the Catechism of the Catholic Church says (in paragraph 2267), “Assuming that the guilty party’s identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor. If, however, non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people’s safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means, as these are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and more in conformity to the dignity of the human person. Today, in fact, as a consequence of the possibilities which the state has for effectively preventing crime, by rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm — without definitely taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself — the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity are very rare, if not practically nonexistent.”

One might argue for different methods in the platform to address the needs of the poor, to feed the hungry and to solve the challenges of immigration, but these are prudential judgments about the most effective means of achieving morally desirable ends, not intrinsic evils.

Certainly there are “pro-choice” Republicans who support abortion rights and “Log Cabin Republicans” who promote same-sex marriage, and they are equally as wrong as their Democratic counterparts. But these positions do not have the official support of their party.

Again, I am not telling you which party or which candidates to vote for or against, but I am saying that you need to think and pray very carefully about your vote, because a vote for a candidate who promotes actions or behaviors that are intrinsically evil and gravely sinful makes you morally complicit and places the eternal salvation of your own soul in serious jeopardy.

I pray that God will give you the wisdom and guidance to make the morally right choices.

May God give us this grace. Amen.

 

Originally posted at Catholic Times – official newspaper of the diocese of Springfield in Illinois

 

Also please consider this previously from usACTIONnews.com:

 

Black Christians Abandoning Democrats

“When a party disdains God and His word, as the Democrat Party clearly does, it is time to leave that party.”

 

For the first time since the black community’s political realignment with the Democrat Party in the 1960′s, a nationally prominent black Pastor has called on the black church community to leave the Democrat Party in a movement dubbed “EXODUS NOW!” Bishop E.W. Jackson’s call to “come out from among them” is apparently being heeded by many black Pastors and Christians across America and creating a stir in many churches. There is concern at the highest levels of the Democrat Party.

The impetus for EXODUS NOW, and what has given it credibility in the black community is the Democrat Party’s increasingly secular stand, particularly making “same-sex marriage” an official part of the Party Platform. This came on the heels of a number of other actions which many Christians found objectionable: President Obama’s support for same-sex marriage; regulations ordering Catholic and other Christian institutions providing healthcare to distribute free contraceptives and abortion drugs; Convention speakers support for unrestricted abortion up to the moment before delivery; and taking God out of the party platform and no longer recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Across the country, as black Christians debate the call to EXODUS NOW, Democrats are shaken. They desperately need the votes of black church goers. Democrats are responding by attacking Jackson personally on left wing blogs.

“They can say anything they want about me,” says Jackson, “but I do not intend to leave Christians in bondage to a party that is hostile to everything Christians hold dear. Either we worship and rely on God or we worship and rely on a political party. We are supposed to rely on Almighty God, not the government or any party. When a party disdains God and His word, as the Democrat Party clearly does, it is time to leave that party.”

Says the Bishop, “This movement is not about Party, but principle; not about race, but righteousness. This is not about winning an election, but saving a generation.”

Click to see Bishop E.W. Jackson’s message to black Christians

E.W Jackson is a Bishop, Marine Corps Veteran, graduate of Harvard Law School, former practicing Attorney and Adjunct Professor of Law, former candidate for U.S. Senate in Virginia and Founder and President of STAND. www.standamerica.us

 

 



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