EXCLUSIVE: Doug Kmiec on 'The Politics of Apostasy'
"It won’t help now that the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) has endorsed Obama over Clinton. This is an endorsement that is deeply troubling."
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MALIBU (Catholic Online) - On Easter Sunday, this former constitutional lawyer to Ronald Reagan, endorsed Barack Obama for president.
While that turn of mind baffled my political pals, it infuriated some of my fellow Catholics. I very much regret the discomfort it has brought to these life-long friends.
The Catholic faith is for me, as it is for millions, the embodiment of “life to the full,” to borrow the title of the wonderful book authored by the late American Catholic legal scholar Edward J. Murphy.
Denied the Sacrament?
Having been drawn to Senator Obama’s remarkable “love thy neighbor” style of campaigning, his express aim to transcend partisan divide, and specifically, his appreciation for faith ("secularists are wrong when they ask believers to leave their religion at the door before entering into the public square"), I did not expect to be clobbered by co-religionists.
On the blogs, I have been declared “self-excommunicated,” and recently at a Mass before a dinner speech to Catholic business leaders, a very angry college chaplain excoriated my Obama-heresy from the pulpit at length and then denied my receipt of communion.
Building a Bridge to Life – Abortion as Tragedy, not ‘Right’
It won’t help now that the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) has endorsed Obama over Clinton. This is an endorsement that is deeply troubling unless the good Senator Obama intends to match it with the sobering acknowledgment that abortion is less “right,” than avoidable tragedy.
As the likely nominee of his party, Senator Obama can afford to start building the bridges his inspirational messages have described. To my mind, there is no better time than now to announce a fulsome initiative, among other things, to promote adoption as an abortion alternative.
Daily Kos Meet Catholic Online
Can Obama deliver on his promise to build bridges and unbuild walls? It is likely unusual for the progressive blog, Daily Kos, to be cross-referenced on Catholic Online, but here is a quotation from a recent blog entry at that liberal site:
“This has been Barack's pattern through his entire campaign. He has spoken truth to privilege. He's made everyone uncomfortable, and that's a good thing. He's taken hold of some very big skeletons in the American closet, and shaken them until they rattled. He's thrown the windows open and let in some air.”
The terminology of opening windows is, of course, reminiscent of John XXIII’s description of the animating purpose of the Second Vatican Council, when the Catholic Church, itself, was ecumenically unbuilding walls between itself and other faith communities.
A Clerical Be-Heading?
Bridge-building and ecumenical effort is not all kumbaya. My distressing, but wrongful, denial of the Sacrament pales in comparison to the prospect that Senator Obama, himself, may be subject to the Islamic punishment of clerical beheading for having been born to a Muslim father and then voluntarily taking up Christianity.
International strategic thinker Edward Luttwak recently speculated in the New York Times that by this happenstance of birth, it is not “realistic” to think an “Obama presidency “will decisively improve relations with the world’s Muslims.”
Luttwak also served President Reagan, so it’s possible his essay is a McCain IED, but I doubt it. No, Luttwak’s learned insight is yet another example of the on-going depth of the “clash of civilizations,” as Samuel Huntington called it: the one-time theory, but now uncomfortable and violent fact, that cultural and religious differences dominate the post- cold war world.
Religion’s purpose is not the in terrorem social oppression of the human spirit, but its liberation from the pain and emptiness of worldly matters and goods. To those of us who believe, it is the way of eternal salvation.
It is also moral instruction for this world. Religion and morality are related, just as law is often premised on morality. But faith’s true power is in what it proposes, not imposes, upon man’s reason.
Catholic Thinking – No Simple Matter
Whether Senator Obama’s Christianity actually endangers his life by immunizing, as Dr. Luttwak reports, “any Muslim who kills him” as an apostate, I’m not sufficiently expert to say. The president of the North American Islamic Society has publicly contested it. This much I know: contrary to some partisan claims masquerading as "voter guides," American Catholics are not precluded from voting for Senator Obama.
Catholic instruction provides that “a well-formed Christian conscience does not permit one to vote for a political program or an individual law which contradicts the fundamental contents of faith and morals.”
That obviously would preclude a Catholic voter from ...
While that turn of mind baffled my political pals, it infuriated some of my fellow Catholics. I very much regret the discomfort it has brought to these life-long friends.
The Catholic faith is for me, as it is for millions, the embodiment of “life to the full,” to borrow the title of the wonderful book authored by the late American Catholic legal scholar Edward J. Murphy.
Denied the Sacrament?
Having been drawn to Senator Obama’s remarkable “love thy neighbor” style of campaigning, his express aim to transcend partisan divide, and specifically, his appreciation for faith ("secularists are wrong when they ask believers to leave their religion at the door before entering into the public square"), I did not expect to be clobbered by co-religionists.
On the blogs, I have been declared “self-excommunicated,” and recently at a Mass before a dinner speech to Catholic business leaders, a very angry college chaplain excoriated my Obama-heresy from the pulpit at length and then denied my receipt of communion.
Building a Bridge to Life – Abortion as Tragedy, not ‘Right’
It won’t help now that the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) has endorsed Obama over Clinton. This is an endorsement that is deeply troubling unless the good Senator Obama intends to match it with the sobering acknowledgment that abortion is less “right,” than avoidable tragedy.
As the likely nominee of his party, Senator Obama can afford to start building the bridges his inspirational messages have described. To my mind, there is no better time than now to announce a fulsome initiative, among other things, to promote adoption as an abortion alternative.
Daily Kos Meet Catholic Online
Can Obama deliver on his promise to build bridges and unbuild walls? It is likely unusual for the progressive blog, Daily Kos, to be cross-referenced on Catholic Online, but here is a quotation from a recent blog entry at that liberal site:
“This has been Barack's pattern through his entire campaign. He has spoken truth to privilege. He's made everyone uncomfortable, and that's a good thing. He's taken hold of some very big skeletons in the American closet, and shaken them until they rattled. He's thrown the windows open and let in some air.”
The terminology of opening windows is, of course, reminiscent of John XXIII’s description of the animating purpose of the Second Vatican Council, when the Catholic Church, itself, was ecumenically unbuilding walls between itself and other faith communities.
A Clerical Be-Heading?
Bridge-building and ecumenical effort is not all kumbaya. My distressing, but wrongful, denial of the Sacrament pales in comparison to the prospect that Senator Obama, himself, may be subject to the Islamic punishment of clerical beheading for having been born to a Muslim father and then voluntarily taking up Christianity.
International strategic thinker Edward Luttwak recently speculated in the New York Times that by this happenstance of birth, it is not “realistic” to think an “Obama presidency “will decisively improve relations with the world’s Muslims.”
Luttwak also served President Reagan, so it’s possible his essay is a McCain IED, but I doubt it. No, Luttwak’s learned insight is yet another example of the on-going depth of the “clash of civilizations,” as Samuel Huntington called it: the one-time theory, but now uncomfortable and violent fact, that cultural and religious differences dominate the post- cold war world.
Religion’s purpose is not the in terrorem social oppression of the human spirit, but its liberation from the pain and emptiness of worldly matters and goods. To those of us who believe, it is the way of eternal salvation.
It is also moral instruction for this world. Religion and morality are related, just as law is often premised on morality. But faith’s true power is in what it proposes, not imposes, upon man’s reason.
Catholic Thinking – No Simple Matter
Whether Senator Obama’s Christianity actually endangers his life by immunizing, as Dr. Luttwak reports, “any Muslim who kills him” as an apostate, I’m not sufficiently expert to say. The president of the North American Islamic Society has publicly contested it. This much I know: contrary to some partisan claims masquerading as "voter guides," American Catholics are not precluded from voting for Senator Obama.
Catholic instruction provides that “a well-formed Christian conscience does not permit one to vote for a political program or an individual law which contradicts the fundamental contents of faith and morals.”
That obviously would preclude a Catholic voter from ...
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Kmiec is trying to excuse his ''choice'' of Obama as his candidate of choice, and i applaud loudly the fortitude of the priest that denied him communion because the communion is the express act of having Christ in our midst and breaking bread with Him just before he was betrayed and crucified, for us all. Kmiec is trying to smooth over his unholy choice and he is trying to convince us all that he okay with God and church here on earth. He may be okay with the likes of Obama but not with those who see and know that what he has done is to ally himself with the devil himself. Abortion is never to be taken as just another issue, it is THE issue of the core of our faith as Catholics, the dignity of the human body and soul. Instead of speaking to us he should kneel and pray for forgiveness from Christ.
As for MIchelle, you are very confused and have no idea whatsoever what it means to be a Christan a Catholic. There is never ever any choice at all in any shade you want to pain that abortion is a choice and that all one has to do is to wait for Christ's grace. We all make mistakes but it does not mean that one can be pro-choice and have abortion and in your mind think one just has to wait for His grace ... how confused you are and how confused you are trying to make those that do not know but read your words.
Where is Mr. Kmiec's concerns for "social justice" for the unborn? Pro life means conception to natural death, not some social justice program ideology that makes him obviouly feel warm and fuzzy. Obama is "radically pro death" his Illinois Senate record, and now in the White House records proves that. Look at those who surround Obama. Here them and read their writings asking yourself why he surrounds himself with thugs, marxist, pro abortion radicals. Mr. Kmiec you by your actions are "pro abortion", and no intellectial "spin" will ever allow 3000 babies who die each day accept that as the answer why they couldn't live as God intended them to. My family and I pray daily for our church, it's leaders, and those who left both the spirit and the teachings of our Holy Catholic Church. We ask for Gods Mercy on a nation that kills its children, now in the name of so called "social justice". The smoke of Satan knows no bounderies.
+This article is theologically INCORRECT. It presupposes that every good is equally good. That is just not the case. There is a hierarchy. The Holy See has spelled this out time and time again, that one cannot choose a lesser good over a greater good. The systematic murdering of innocent lives in our own country is far worse an evil than the environment (which, by the way, we are not worship over human babies), even the war in Iraq, and much less the economy. Our happiness in this life is not more important than the butchering of innocent babies. And by the way, the murdering of a baby is a condemnable action, and as faithful Catholics we have a duty to Almight God to judge it as such. This is NOT the same as condemning the person who has the abortion, or even commits the abortion maybe he's completely possessed, for instance), but the law of God is black and white, not grey, as described in this article. God didn't change His thinking in the New Testament from the Old, nor does He go with the times because some enlightened, educated folks have a better idea that those Our Lord passed onto His Bride, the Church.
The enemy in the Roe v. Wade controversy is not Planned Parenthood, the NARAL, Douglas Kmiec or the policies of the Obama administration: it is abortion itself, and the place to fight the battle is in the courts.
Why were the American bishops not in the courts in 1974, the year after Roe v. Wade was handed down? Why are none of the Pro-life organizations not challenging the Roe v. Wade decision in the courts? It will take 25 years and 50 million dollars to reverse that decision, but it can be done.
Where is the young lawyer(we need only one) of the stature and legal prowess of an Abraham Lincoln, a Louis Brandeis or a John Marshall? All this rhetoric is useless, unless someone is willing to challenge the abortion decision, IN THE COURTS.
Stop blaming the Supreme Court for that decision: we have not done our legal homework and we have not made ourselves authorities on constitutional law. If the African-American community had acted in this way, African-Americans, Plessy v. Ferguson would still be the law of the land.
If the question os abortion is only a religious issue, we have already lost. It is a legal and constitutional issue as well. Unless we can demonstrate this in the courts, public debate is useless.
Father Clifford Stevens
President, National Organization for Embryonic Law.
Thank you Michelle for clarifying what pro-choice means. I've found that those who sit in judgement on women who choose abortion are not willing to offer her and the baby the health care, financial support and educational resources to raise her child to the age of 22. They aren't willing to put their money where their mouth is. Given the chance to save at least one child, they aren't really "pro-life" afterall.
It is shameful for Catholics to excuse public figures (and yes, Doug Kmiec is one) for supporting candidates who advance the abortion agenda. I've listened to my own pastor promote a "principle of proportionality" teaching to claim that abortion is just like any other issue when casting a vote. It is wrong to suggest the Church teaches this and it is even worse when it comes from a priest or a "scholar" who claims to understand Catholic teaching.
In his recent book, Render Unto Caesar, Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver writes -
“Adopting a consistent ethic of life, the Catholic Church promotes a broad spectrum of issues . . .Opposition to abortion and euthanasia does not excuse indifference to those who suffer from poverty and injustice. Any politics of human life must work to resist the violence of war and scandal of capital punishment. Any politics of human dignity must seriously address issues of racism, poverty, hunger, employment, education, housing and health care. Therefore, Catholics should eagerly involve themselves as advocates for the weak and marginalized in all those areas. Catholic public officials are obliged to address each of these issues as they seek to build consistent policies which promote respect for the human person at all stages. But being “right” in such matters can never excuse a wrong choice regarding direct attacks on innocent human life (italics in original ). Indeed, the failure to protect and defend life in its most vulnerable stages renders suspect any claims to the “rightness” of positions in other matters affecting the poorest and least powerful of the human community. If we understand the human person as “the temple of the Holy Spirit” – the living house of God – then these latter issues fall logically into place as the crossbeams and walls of the house. All direct attacks on innocent human life, such as abortion and euthanasia, strike at the house’s foundation (emphasis added in original). These directly and immediately violate the human person’s most fundamental right – the right to life. Neglect of the issues is the equivalent of building a house on sand. Such attacks cannot help but lull the social conscience in way ultimately destructive of other human rights.”
Our efforts for the unborn should be efforts in the courts, by massive litigation. It took the African-American community 58 years to overturn the segregation decision of the Supreme Court, Plessy v. Ferguson of 1896. The danger now is that the abortion of the unborn will be a declared a constitutional right by the court. Legally, the case of the unborn is one of divided dominion, but unless cases are brought again and again before the court, the court will never hear that argument. There are at least a dozen pro-life organizations, why have none of them done the legal legwork to challenge the Roe v. Wade decision in the courts? What is needed is one brilliant young lawyer who is willing to undertake the legal study and the dedication to the cause of the unborn to find constitutional arguments for defending the rights of the unborn. One, just one, in the tradition of Louis Brandeis (who pioneered Labor Law in the courts) is all that is needed.
What we are pioneering is Embryonic Law. If there is one out there, contact me: I am President of The National Organization for Embryonic Law. There must be another Louis Brandeis out there somewhere. Only heroes need apply.
Pro-choice does not necessarily mean that one is Pre-abortion. That is an ignorant assumption by people who are too blind to see the difference. God is pro-choice, in that he gives each person the choice to do right or wrong and then to live with the consequences of those actions. By GRACE we are given the choice to live to the best of our ability in each moment. By GRACE God allows us to choose and often he allows us to make wrong choices. By GRACE He forgives us when we repent and receives us unto himself. Most women who resort to abortion do so because they are afraid and because they have not grown in their faith enough to believe that God will empower them to survive the ordeal of being a parent when they are not ready. God loves the woman who chooses and abortion and He loves her just as much as He loves the one who chooses not to get one. Those who cannot understand this simply do not understand the true nature of God's love and grace. We all have a choice. We can choose to be self-righteous or we can choose to see each person through the graceful, merciful, loving eyes of Christ. If you are Pro-life and you don't understand this, YOU are not really able to fully walk in the full meaning of what being Pro-life should be all about.
You cannot be pro-choice and Catholic at the same time. This issue has been addressed by a number of our Catholic Bishops a number of times.
You say Obama is not pro-abortion, is a play on words. He is pro-choice and has repeated this position a number of times. He is the only Senator that voted to allow a aborted human being , that lived through the abortion, to give no medical help and allow that human baby to die while the doctors stood and waited for the baby to die.
You should not present yourself to receive the body of our Lord when you are not in "full" communion with the Catholic Church.
It is good to read an article on this subject that reflects a whole cloth view, one which recognizes ALL human life, from conception to natural death, and in places and conditions all over the world; one that reflects a thoughtfulness and charitable concern for others after the "gleeful crusades" I have been slogging through lately. Thank you.