September 28, 2006
A new group called Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good said yesterday that it will distribute at least 1 million voter guides before the Nov. 7 elections, emphasizing church teachings on war, poverty and social justice as well as on abortion, contraception and homosexuality.The 12-page booklet, called "Voting for the Common Good: A Practical Guide for Conscientious Catholics," is part of a broader effort by liberal and moderate religious groups to challenge the Christian right on moral values, said Alexia Kelley, the group's executive director and a former employee of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Secular groups such as the NAACP, the League of Women Voters and the Sierra Club have long published election-year guides to issues and candidates' positions. Since the conservative Christian Coalition began distributing voter guides in 1992, however, it has faced little or no competition from liberal or moderate religious organizations.
In Roman Catholic parishes, the group Catholic Answers, based in California, had the field largely to itself in 2004, when it distributed 10 million copies of its "Voter's Guide for Serious Catholics." This year, as in the past, the Catholic Answers guide urges Catholics to base their votes on five "non-negotiable" issues: abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research, human cloning and same-sex marriage.
"No one endorsing the wrong side of these issues can be said to act in accord with the Church's moral norms," it says.
Religious faith is supposed to permeate every aspect of the life of a believer. Offering guidance on how to apply religious values on election day is fully consistent with that -- and should be seen as part and parcel of good citizenship.
Posted by: Greg at
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I wish I had notes on the radio talk show I was listening to earlier in the week when one of the callers, a conservative Republican Catholic, brought up a disturbing fact that some of the collection plate money intended to help the church was being given to a PAC which was geared toward helping illegal Mexica aliens living in the USA. The host of the show was Berry, on 950am just prior to the Rush Limbaugh talk show and he validated the issue as he added to it with his own experience of having to appear before a panel of Hispanic oriented folks asking how he felt about this, that and the other issues such as would affect illegal aliens.
While I agree that it should be important for church members to be encouraged to express their opinions at the polls, I would stop short of having any particular political party or set of ideals set forth as "the church's stance" as that would step over the line which protects them as a religious entity. If the ideals of right and wrong are presented through doctrine as given in the Gospel that should be enough for church members to decide for themselves which platforms to support or which candidates to vote for.
Posted by: T F Stern at Fri Sep 29 04:20:55 2006 (z1IoH)
Posted by: Spinu at Sat Jul 19 01:14:56 2008 (0d9mV)
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