Will House Republican Agenda Defend Life and Marriage? Time for Catholic Action

By Deacon Keith Fournier
9/23/2010
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

The political dualism that says there are social and economic issues which should be kept separate must be rejected.

The "political dualism" that says there are "social" and "economic" issues which should be kept separate must be rejected. The reason we care about expanding economic opportunity is because we respect the dignity of every human person, including our smallest neighbors.

The 'political dualism' that says there are 'social' and 'economic' issues which should be kept separate, must be rejected.

Facebook Delicous MySpace

Twitter Stumble Digg

More Destinations

WASHINGTON, DC (Catholic Online) - On Thursday morning, September 23, 2010, House Republicans will release a carefully guarded and much anticipated agenda for the November elections. The chattering class has debated whether the agenda will include what are dismissively referred to as the "social issues". They include the failure to recognize the Natural Law Right to life and protect children in the womb from being killed and the defense of authentic marriage and the family and society founded upon it.

Our insistence upon recognition in the positive law of the fundamental Human Right to Life is not about one political issue; it is about the foundation of freedom itself. Human rights - such as the Natural Law Right to Life - and human freedoms such as the freedom to be born - are goods of human persons. When there is no human person to exercise them all the rhetoric extolling them is nothing but empty air and sloganeering.

Nor is the Pro-Life position simply a matter of our adherence to our "religious" beliefs. It is a response to the truth revealed by the Natural Law and confirmed by medical science. The Child in the womb is our neighbor. It is always and everywhere wrong to take innocent human life. The child in the womb is innocent human life. It is thus wrong to intentionally kill him or her through procured abortion. Our faith gives us further insights into that truth and calls us to a greater obligation to insist upon the role of the Natural Law in the formation of the positive law

The embryonic human person, the child in the womb, the disabled, the needy and the elderly are all members of our human family. We can never condone their intentional killing as some kind of exercise of the freedom to choose. It is never a moral choice but a crime, whether the positive law prosecutes it or not. Rights are not ethereal concepts floating around in the cosmos somewhere.

Rights are endowed by a Creator not conferred by the State. Because they are goods of the human person, we must defend the human persons who will exercise them. Our opposition to the judicial manufacture of a "right" to take innocent human life in the womb must never take a back seat to any other concern in the public policy arena. Freedom must be exercised with reference to what is true and good in any just and moral society.

Our insistence upon defending marriage is also not simply because of our religious faith. Yes, our faith informs our position. However, the truth about marriage is also confirmed in the Natural Law which is written on every human heart and knowable through the exercise of reason. Marriage, a lifelong union between one man and one woman open to the bearing and raising of children, is accepted across cultures.

The effort to give an enforced legal equivalency to non-marital relations and force all of us to call what can never be a marriage to be a marriage, such as homosexual partnerships, is unjust. It can never serve the true common good.

The defense of marriage is also a defense of the blueprint for building a just society. Marriage - and the family founded upon it- is the first government, first hospital, first economy, first school, first mediating institution and the very foundation of our life together.

Reports confirm that the agenda will defend the right to life and marriage Though we can breathe a sigh of relief that establishment Republicans such as Haley Barbour and Mitch Daniels failed in efforts to leave the so called "social issues" out of this agenda failed, we must remain vigilant. This is not the end. It is only the beginning.

The "political dualism" that says there are "social" and "economic" issues which should be kept separate, must be rejected. The reason we care about expanding economic opportunity is because we respect the dignity of every human person, including our smallest neighbors. The reason we want to ensure the application of the principle of subsidiarity to keep government at the lowest level is because we respect the primacy of the family as the first government.

Yes, economic issues matter. However, some who decried centralized economic planning as leading to collectivism and warned about the growth of the Federal Government participated in propounding the problems when they were in power. We cannot let that happen again.

Others espouse a brand of "libertarianism" that cares little about our social obligations to one another. We are our brothers/sisters keepers and Catholics must never forget that. Rejecting big government solutions doesn't mean rejecting our obligation in solidarity. It means building a ground up model of economic opportunity which expands opportunity and participation to all.

Catholics are not one more "interest group" which can be polled, pandered to and bought. Our social obligation is to promote the true common good, not just use the slogan to sound "catholic" as happened in the last political cycle. Our political participation is committed to human life and dignity, marriage and the family, authentic human freedom, and solidarity directed by the application of the principle of subsidiarity. We will be heard during the coming elections.

- - -

Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
Missionary Intention: Middle Eastern Christians. That the Christian communities of the Middle East, often discriminated against, may receive from the Holy Spirit the strength of fidelity and perseverance.

Keywords:

NEWSLETTERS »

Rate This Article

Was this helpful to you? Very Helpful Somewhat Helpful Not Helpful at All

Would you be interested in more articles like this? Yes, I am Interested No, I am not Interested

Rate Article

1 - 10 of 14 Comments

Bulbajer
2 years ago
Martha, you make a good point about the unfair popularity of Catholic Online's political articles. We should all try to broaden our reading.
Michael Hemet
2 years ago
Talk is cheap, but let us hope. Remember fellow catholics, vote according to the teachings Jesus Christ handed down to his church.
John Mainhart
2 years ago
Rob said it all. We and the Church need to be more interested in increasing the Faith of the souls we meet each day and let the government make laws that nobody pays any attention to . Then the values of the people will increase the Kingdom of God at the expense of the people who now rule.
Bulbajer
2 years ago
MikeKC and K.C. Thomas, my last sentence was pretty literal in meaning; that is, I took "across cultures" to mean all cultures. I think I might have overreacted; I do believe that marriage between one man and one woman is accepted by a majority of the world's cultures. I apologize for that.
Martha
2 years ago
It's just sad to see that these political articles get all the comments. There was no feedback last week on any of the beautiful addresses given by our wonderful Pope. I too was not surprised to see the first comment given by Bulljabber.

Is anyone here even reading the other good stuff on this website? Or have we all (as Deacon has observed) put our politics ahead of our faith?
Andy Holland
2 years ago
The Republican party was founded for the abolition of Slavery. Martin Luther King was a Republican and during that era, most blacks were Republicans. [The KKK guys with billy clubs, fire hoses and German shepherds were Democrats.] JFK was the positive turning point for Democrats and blacks. If Republicans don't get some leadership and focus on core - they will loose Latinos, social and religious conservatives. Losing blacks was a loss of core. Embracing free trade also cost them. The Republican party is in trouble if they continue to allow the tail to wag the dog. Lack of focused effective leadership is a real problem with the Republicans today - the Democrats have Darth Clinton and gang.
Jack Gordon
2 years ago
The short answer to the question in the headline is "NO." How many times does the GOP have to deceive and disappoint Catholics before they finally get the message? How many phony conservatives have to be exposed by the national media before Catholics understand that there is nothing inherently good or trustworthy about that "movemment?" Just because the Democrats have become the party of abortion and sodomy doesn't mean that the Republicans can be thought of as the party of virtue. Oh, and any notion that Catholics can somehow take over the party of Lincoln and Reagan is a pipe dream. They have neither the money nor the organizational skills to do so, and if they did, the party would lose everywhere. Unfortunately, America's voters simply do not agree with the teachings of the Catholic Church on any number of fundamental issues. Oprah and Obama say more to this crowd than Benedict.
Rob
2 years ago
Here we go again. Another so called contract with a cursory mention of social issues. The GOP will use this to gain power and will turn their back on the social promises they really aren't making.

There is so much energy expended in hoping the government will save marriage. Instead of focusing on helping our brothers and sisters have strong marriages, We want to pretend that all the world's marriage problems is because of the government or so called activist judegs. But we are afriad to admit that because of our lack of respect for holy marriage, that we've allowed the culture at large to develop the attitude it has towards it. Rates of divorce in the Church are about the same as those outside. We have failed to live our faith and now we are suffereing the consequences. If society can't look to Christians to model the sanctity of marriage, who can they look to? Our dismal faith formation over the years and our embrace of the flesh over things of God have brought us to where we are right now. Pick your social issue and you won't find much difference between the secular world and the average catholic parishoner.

We have got to lessen our focus on politics and increase our focus on Christ and his Church. Our politicians are not going to save our culture. It does not matter who is in control. They only care about power and everything they do is merely to gain votes. Want to save marriage, then model a holy marriage! Want to end abortion, then raise your children to respect life! Want to change the culture, then evangelize! But if we insist on putting all our eggs in some lying politician's pocket, nothing, absolutely nothing will change. The planned parenthood I drive by every day on my way to work was open during the Bush years, is open now and sadly isn't going to close because the GOP takes control. We have really got to wake up and take responsibility that our lack of faith has produced. It's time to preach the gospel wherever we go and use words if necessary.
K.C Thomas
2 years ago
A catholic is one who believes in the teaching of the Catholic Church. Therefore whether he is a politician or otherwise he is supposed to uphold his belief and should not support anything contrary to the teaching. There cannot be a dualism for a believer. Bulbajer says that marriage as a life long union between man and woman open to rearing and raising children is not accepted by all cultures. These are issues one can argue for and against. The whole world if we take have different religions, the main ones being Hinduism, Islam and Christianity These religions teach that marriage is between a man and a woman( Islam permits polygamy on some condition ) Even in Budhism and Confucianism the marriage is held to be a union of a man and a woman. Then there may be some tribal cultures which hold various other types of marriages, unions, sexual preferences etc etc. Does it matter for us who believe in Jesus and his teachings ? We should with pride say loudly that marriage means marriage between a man and a woman. Have courage to uphold one's belief.
MikeKC
2 years ago
Bulbajer, I expected to see a comment from you and you did not disappoint. The last sentence of your comment is incredible. I believe that you need to find the nearest, liberal Anglican church and sign up. Your views do not jive with the Catholic faith.

Prev12 Next

Comments submitted must be civil, remain on-topic and not violate any laws including copyright. We reserve the right to delete any comments which are abusive, inappropriate or not constructive to the discussion.

Though we invite robust discussion, we reserve the right to not publish any comment which denigrates the human person, undermines marriage and the family, or advocates for positions which openly oppose the teaching of the Catholic Church.

This is a supervised forum and the Editors of Catholic Online retain the right to direct it.

We also reserve the right to block any commenter for repeated violations. Your email address is required to post, but it will not be published on the site.

We ask that you NOT post your comment more than once. Catholic Online is growing and our ability to review all comments sometimes results in a delay in their publication.

Name *

Email *

Comment *

Send me important information from Catholic Online and it's partners. See Sample

Post Comment