Has Obama Lost the Catholic Left?

The Cardinal Newman Society | 01/22/12 | CNS Staff

[Brian Kopp DPM]

Has Obama Lost the Catholic Left?

Lyndon B. Johnson, after watching Walter Cronkite conclude a special broadcast which was heavily critical of the Tet offensive, said, “If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost middle America.”

Well, this story isn’t exactly on the same level as that, but President Barack Obama may be losing the Catholic Left, with obvious implications for entrenched faculty on many Catholic college campuses. Michael Sean Winters, a lead writer for the National Catholic Reporter and vocal defender of the University of Notre Dame’s 2009 commencement honors for President Obama, wrote yesterday that he can’t see how he could ever support President Obama again after the administration’s ruling on religious exemptions for the contraceptive mandate.

Winters wrote:

President Barack Obama lost my vote yesterday when he declined to expand the exceedingly narrow conscience exemptions proposed by the Department of Health and Human Services. The issue of conscience protections is so foundational, I do not see how I ever could, in good conscience, vote for this man again.

One must wonder if President Obama might just be saying that if he’s lost the National Catholic Reporter, he’s lost the liberal Catholic vote. As you might remember, Obama won over the majority of Catholics in 2008, albeit mostly wayward Catholics.

Winters makes it clear he does not come at this issue as “an anti-contraception zealot.” In fact, he says plainly he comes at his decision “as a liberal and a Democrat” who defended the University of Notre Dame’s decision to honor the President.

That’s what makes this criticism sting a little more.

I accuse you, Mr. President, of dishonoring your own vision by this shameful decision.

I accuse you, Mr. President, of failing to live out the respect for diversity that you so properly and beautifully proclaimed as a cardinal virtue at Notre Dame. Or, are we to believe that diversity is only to be lauded when it advances the interests of those with whom we agree? That’s not diversity. That’s misuse of a noble principle for ignoble ends.

I accuse you, Mr. President, of betraying philosophic liberalism, which began, lest we forget, as a defense of the rights of conscience. As Catholics, we need to be honest and admit that, three hundred years ago, the defense of conscience was not high on the agenda of Holy Mother Church. But, we Catholics learned to embrace the idea that the coercion of conscience is a violation of human dignity. This is a lesson, Mr. President, that you and too many of your fellow liberals have apparently unlearned.

I accuse you, Mr. President, who argued that your experience as a constitutional scholar commended you for the high office you hold, of ignoring the Constitution.

Besides thinking Obama is constitutionally and morally wrong on this issue, Winters also complains that this action by Obama is just plain ol’ politically stupid and could imperil his presidency and destroy the progressive movement.

Winters seems to think Obama took this action to appease Planned Parenthood and NARAL. Winters wonders if Obama could have actually thought that these folks were going to vote Republican unless he did this? In short, Winters seems to believe that Obama took this action to gain the votes of those who were already voting for him.

Winters seems to feel spurned by Obama as well, saying:

I accuse you, Mr. President, of treating shamefully those Catholics who went out on a limb to support you. Do tell, Mr. President, how many bullets have the people at Planned Parenthood taken for you? Sr. Carol Keehan, Father Larry Snyder, Father John Jenkins, these people have scars to show for their willingness to work with you, to support you on your tough political fights. Is this the way you treat people who went to the mat for you?

Winters makes it clear he won’t be joining the GOP anytime soon but says he won’t be supporting President Obama either.

…as soon as I learned of this decision, I knew instantly that I also could not, in good conscience, ever vote for Mr. Obama again. I once had great faith in Mr. Obama’s judgment and leadership. I do not retract a single word I have written supporting him on issues like health care reform, or bringing the troops home from Iraq, or taking aggressive steps to halt the recession and turn the economy around. I will continue to advocate for those policies. But, I can never convince myself that a person capable of making such a dreadful decision is worthy of my respect or my vote.

We wonder, what does Notre Dame’s Father Jenkins think of all of this?

[LomanBill]

>>a theology steeped in Greek philosophy

LOL. The same philosophy that produced religious prostitution in the Delphi district?

[RobbyS]

Except the norm for Easter is Pascha. Easter is a northern term that happens to sound like these words. Unless you want to contend that Ishtar had a cult temple on the Rhine.

[RobbyS]

More like Aristotle and Plato. Not much there to do with temple prostitution. Even Epicurus spent more times in his books than with the ladies(boys) or dinner table.

[RobbyS]

Try hieros and arches.

[RobbyS]

Try hieros and arches.

[LomanBill]

Easter/ Oster /Astarte / Ishtar

All variations of the same word - and the same worship of the mother goddess.

It’s self-evident.

http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy-ab&hl=en&source=hp&q=Easter+Ishtar+Oster+Astarte

[RobbyS]

Not one person in 10 million would think “sacred order” upon hearing that word. That would not, however, be true of Jefferson would it, nor Madison or any man trained in the classics.?

[RobbyS]

Self-evident? or historical accident. Such as our use of Sunday rather than Lord’s day, Like Domingo in Spanish? Yoiu see what you want to see, like some people seeing Christ’s face in an egg.

[Mears]

Where did you get those figures?

They are meaningless without a reputable source.

[LomanBill]

>>More like Aristotle and Plato.

 

Don't forget Socrates, the corrupter of youth.

Got Hemlock?

 

>>Not much there to do with temple prostitution.

 

Right, which of course is why Greek sanctuaries are adorned with monuments of prostitutes.

 

 

     

http://www.amazon.com/Prostitutes-Courtesans-Ancient-Wisconsin-Classics/dp/0299213145

Fail.

[LomanBill]

>>face in an egg.

Since you brought it up, how’bout you tell folks the origin of the Easter Egg?

http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy-ab&hl=en&source=hp&q=easter+babylonian+goddess

[LomanBill]

>>Try hieros and arches.

Yawn.

Dennis the Peasant: You can’t expect to wield supreme power just ‘cause some watery tart threw a sword at you!

[RobbyS]

I suppose that means something. Like 2 + 2 =7.

[LomanBill]

What, not a Monty Python fan?

It means we don’t have Hieros Baabel god-man Kings in America.

Except maybe in Utah.

[RobbyS]

2 + 2 = 7?

[LomanBill]

>>2 + 2 = 7?

If you say so. But with that kind of math disability, you obviously can’t be trusted to handle Holy Ordinance.

“...Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who being naughty in My sight, shall snuff it.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOrgLj9lOwk

[LomanBill]

[RobbyS]

2 +2 =5?

[RobbyS]

I’m only using your math.

[dsc]

“That would not, however, be true of Jefferson would it, nor Madison or any man trained in the classics?”

I think that would depend on the context.

In any case, there is no reason to think that Jefferson believed that slavery was divinely sanctioned.