No Compromises: Kansas State Bishops Declare Voting for Abortion Candidate is "Evil"

KANSAS CITY, August 12, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A vote cast for a politician who supports abortion and same-sex "marriage" is nothing less than casting a vote for "evil" says a state conference of Catholic bishops.

In a voter's guide released for the second time since 2006, the Kansas Catholic Bishops make it clear that Catholics would "commit moral evil" by voting for a candidate who embraces abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem-cell research, human cloning, and same-sex "marriage," when a morally acceptable candidate is available.

The voter's guide signed by Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, bishops Ronald Gilmore of Dodge City, Paul Coakley of Salina, and Michael Jackels of Wichita sends a strong message to Catholics that advancing pro-abortion candidates and their aims is incompatible with the Catholic Faith. The statement means trouble not only for Catholic politicians like pro-abortion US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, but also for the conservative Catholic Doug Kmiec, a well known constitutional law professor who endorsed Obama as a "natural" for the Catholic vote.

The bishops observe that "voting is a moral act" and that in some matters of morality, such as immigration, universal health care, and affordable housing, "the use of reason allows for a legitimate diversity in our prudential judgments."

Other acts, regardless of the motive or circumstances, always "involve doing evil" and must be opposed: "These choices include elective abortion, euthanasia, physician-assisted suicide, the destruction of embryonic human beings in stem cell research, human cloning, and same-sex 'marriage.'"

"Such acts are judged to be intrinsically evil, that is, evil in and of themselves regardless of our motives or the circumstances. They constitute an attack against innocent human life, as well as marriage and family," state the bishops.

Too bad we have to read it on an obscure or agendized website - please don't misinterpret that, that I'm against lifesite, I applaud their efforts, just seeing how the other side would dis it, more bigoted, intolerant, fascist, theocratic blah blah website.

Now where does this put me? McCain has one life issue strike against him (I think) and also what Catholics (and I might), also supported by the bible, consider to be an invalid marriage; i.e., dumped his handicapped wife who had waited for him for a younger, wealthy woman who could help him with his political ambitions but also to whom he appears to be more or less loyal depending on which rumors you buy into. Now as a woman, I wouldn't want to be a drag on somebody who no longer loved me and would rather be with someone else, good riddance. She seems to have been gracious about that insofar as I know. Now on the surface, it appears that Obama & wife and beautiful children have the "American Dream" family life, but we don't know what lurks behind that other than the church he had to leave behind, a politically pragmatic move at best. Evidently the family was comfortable there.

Now McCain, I know little about his religious persuasions, but all in all is he the lesser of the evils then? The liberals (as I perceive it) will counter with he is a clone of Bush, the hated, and will continue with the warmongering and continue the same policies which they like to argue Bush has more blood on his hands for being responsible for the deaths of untold thousands which, in their eyes, would be an even greater evil, not that I in any way am in agreement with most of that.

Looking at that as openly and objectively at this point in time (and I'm on record for not being real keen on going in there) but once begun, supported the war effort and certainly our troops, the ones who haven't shamed us, and should finish the job and not leave a bloodbath behind such as happened in Vietnam if at all possible. I know the late JPII had his view on it which kind of struck an ominous chord, but little by way of condeming the evil in that country, know how he felt about us as a society, some/much justified imo.

I was thinking the other day, that right or wrong, I as an ordinary citizen didn't wasn't privy to any intelligent reports other than what we were told. But my own logic, flawed as it may be because I am no intellectual giant (must I be?) tells me that right or wrong for ever getting entangled in that country, and partly understanding the threat of Iran, why it came to be, why we did feel impelled to help Saddam in that one war w/Iran, the bottom line is that Saddam hated us so much, he and his cronies would or could especially if they thought they could hide it from the world through surrogates, do everything in their power to arm terrorists for revenge. Whether our pre-emptive strike was justified in the eyes of God - it is Catholic Christians in that country who are paying a high price - I don't presume to know.

So that brings us to McCain (or a 3rd party which in our system is not viable right now). Might he be the lesser of the evils confronting us? As tending more toward conservatism than liberalism gone amok, perhaps so, can only speak for myself and have been stubbornly resisting supporting him.

None of this was intended to be combative, hard for me to wrap anything up in a neat, tidy package, and nurances, and all that, maybe I expressed it all poorly, plus it isn't as neat and simple as I may have made it all sound. I kind of feel like I am going out on a limb for even responding to this one.

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