Is Obama Losing The Catholic Vote?

CNN ^ | February 01, 2012 | Eric Marrapodi and Brianna Keilar

[Steelfish]

Is Obama Losing The Catholic Vote? By Eric Marrapodi and Brianna Keilar, CNN

(CNN)–After years of bridge building with the Catholic Church, the Obama administration may have damaged some of the good will it built up with the nation's 70 million Catholics, which could have steep consequences at the polls in November.

Some rank and file Catholics are beginning to express the same frustrations as clergy about a new U.S. Department of Health and Human Services policy requiring all employers, including religious ones, to pay for FDA-approved contraceptives, such as the birth control pill and Plan B, through health insurance plans. Churches are exempt but hospitals and schools with religious affiliations must comply. The new policy goes into effect August 1, 2012, but religious groups who oppose contraception have been given a yearlong extension to enforce the policy.

"What's offensive is that we're being told, our Catholic institutions which serve this nation well, are being told you who find these things offensive, you should pay for them, in fact you must pay for them," Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the archbishop of Washington, told CNN.

Catholic teaching opposes the use of contraceptives. Wuerl acknowledged the clergy and the faithful have been at odds over the teachings on contraceptive use. But on this policy he said both are in lockstep over what is being perceived as a violation of religious liberties.

"This time around what people are seeing this isn't a question of one moral teaching or another, it's being able to teach at all. Our freedom, and everyone has a stake in freedom in this country, and I think that's why this resonates across the board," he said.

Wuerl is calling his congregants to action, asking them to call congress and the White House to express their displeasure.

[MIchaelTArchangel]

Alas, probably not since too many people who think they are Catholic are really pagan.

[factoryrat]

Ya think? Muslims don’t like Catholics as a rule, and obama is no exception.

[toddausauras]

Obama is playing possum with help from msm.

[FishinTX]

Lost my Mom’s vote. 75 year catholic. He never had Dad’s vote.

[matthew fuller]

The Catholics brought it on themselves, by being in favor of shoving Obamacare down all of our throats. As you sow so shall you reap.

[sickoflibs]

I saw a segment on MSNBC Hardball where they pointed out that many Catholic leaders who supported Obama in 2008 and supported Obama-care in 2010 for economic justice and fairness were stabbed in the back by him when the DHSS decided under Obama-care to not give Catholic institutions a wavier on being forced to provide free abortion pills to their employees.

DA-DA!

[Deagle]

Wow! What a stupid header!

This isn’t about losing the vote, this is about an unconstitutional act by a government out of control!

What about this action is NOT unconstitutional? This will start an internal revolution - where are the courts!

Maybe that is what is expected so that martial law is declared and the presidential vote delayed... Really wondering about that!

Can’t believe that you posted this without the understanding that this is an unconstitutional act!

This is unbelievable!

[savagesusie]

If Catholics aren’t brain dead they will never support zero.....but then, they should have known what he was the first time around, if they used their brains and listened to the Rev. Wright speeches and read up on his mentor in his high school years-—that pedophile, pornographer, Marxist Frank Marshall Davis.

They should also read up on the Pope’s encyclicals-—esp. the ones which state that since Marxist believes that people are the means to an end——it is incompatible with Christianity which gives dignity and worth to every person-—not the collective. Marxists eliminate people who drag down the collective.

Catholics need to wake up, please. Scratch the surface and see the rot.

[SamuraiScot]

many Catholic leaders who supported Obama in 2008 and supported Obama-care in 2010 for economic justice and fairness were stabbed in the back by him when the DHSS decided under Obama-care to not give Catholic institutions a wavier on being forced to provide free abortion pills

As the man born blind said, "Herein lies the marvel": The Catholics who supported the 0bummer in 2008, and certainly the ones who were still with him in 2010 were not the ones you could count on to oppose abortion publicly, certainly not contraception, and absolutely never, the Democratic Party.

And yet I see these same historically weak-kneed "leaders" signing their names along with the honest-to-God Catholic leaders with b@##s, outraged at the outlawing of their faith. I'm actually impressed. They've woken up, in some small way. I don't know what they were thinking before, but go for it. I guess I don't really know what they're thinking now, either. . .

[Deagle]

Stupid response to an unconstitutional act! There are more important things than what has happened in the past.. good or bad, by your opinion. Now is the time to rally around the flag and the constitution.

[Eagles6]

Gee, muslims are also against abortion though I doubt we would call them prolife. Interesting conundrum for “commander zero”.

[Salvation]

Yes!

And the Jewish vote.

And the evangelical vote.

And the Methodist vote.

And the Presbyterian vote.

Etc. etc.

[Salvation]

Catholics hear anti-Obama letter in church (Some idiots wanted "change" so they got it)
Has Obama Lost the Catholic Left?

Obama won the overall religious vote, 52 percent to 46 percent, reversing President George W. Bush’s 51 percent to 48 percent “values voter” victory over Democratic challenger Sen. John Kerry in 2004. Obama also won the Catholic vote, persuaded young evangelical voters to choose him and began to squeeze shut the so-called “God gap” yawning between religious Democrats and Republicans during the Bush era.

How will the roughly 9.1 million evangelical Christians who voted for Obama vote in the next election? Will Obama's actions compel the 31.2 million evangelicals who didn't vote in the 2008 election to vote next time?

Obama Receives 77% of Jewish Vote-- More Than Kerry
White US Catholics move toward GOP, Hispanic Catholics toward Democrats
Among Catholics, Obama job approval rating decreases to 50 percent

[Salvation]

Don't blame just the Catholics! Many are not voting for him like they did before!

50 percent of Catholics (Catholics make up about 22 percent of the U.S. population.) approve of his presidency, down from 67 percent in his first six months in office.

DOWN 17 POINTS

 

among non-Catholic Christians, who make up 55 percent of the U.S. population, had fallen from 58 percent to 43 percent.

DOWN 15 POINTS

 

Mormon respondents, who represent about two percent of U.S. adults, fell from 43 percent to 26 percent

DOWN 17 POINTS

 

About 78 percent of Muslim respondents approved of the Obama presidency, down eight percentage points from when the question was first asked.  (86)

DOWN 8 POINTS

 

atheists, agnostics, and members of other non-Christian religions, who comprise about 13 percent of the U.S. population -- While about 75 percent of these respondents approved of President Obama at the start of his term, their approval declined to about 64 percent.

DOWN 11 POINTS

 

Jews were the religious group third likeliest to approve of President Obama, giving him 61 percent approval. This too is a decline: in January-June 2009, their approval rating of the president was 77 percent.

DOWN 16 POINTS

 

Overall, 48 percent of Americans approve of President Obama’s job, down from 63 percent in the first months of his presidency. Gallup claims that its survey of over 276,000 adults claims an overall margin of error of plus or minus one percent.

DOWN 15 POINTS

 

 

 

 

[Salvation]

Bishops and others against Obama right now!

Mohler [Southern Baptist] Says Insurance Mandate Not Just 'Catholic' Issue
An Open Letter to President Barack Obama Concerning Recent Tyranny (With Pictures!)
Lincoln bishop: prepare for 'suffering' under HHS mandate
Bishop David Zubik confronts Obama
Obama’s ‘war on the church’

Pope hits out at 'radical secularism'
‘We Will Not Comply’: Catholic Leaders Distribute Letter Slamming Obama Admin Contraceptive Mandate
‘We Will Not Comply’: Catholic Leaders Distribute Letter Slamming Obama Admin Contraceptive Mandate
Bruskewitz: Fight Insurance Ruling [Sebelius a "bitter, fallen away Catholic"]
Letter from Archbishop John G. Vlazny on the matter of freedom of conscience and decisions by HHS
Bishop Olmsted's Letter to Catholics [Catholic Caucus]
Liberty for the Amish & Quakers but not Catholics. . .
Contraception mandate prompts Peoria bishop to instate St. Michael Prayer (Catholic Caucus)
Phoenix bishop (Olmstead): defy feds on birth control
A letter from Archbishop Dennis M. Schnurr concerning HHS edict

Speak honestly: abortion is ‘the killing of tiny human beings in the womb’ – Denver bishop
Bishop [Daniel Jenky] Blasts Secularist Intolerance, Calls For ‘Assertive Action’ to Defend Church
(Pittsburgh Bishop Zubik comments:) HHS delays rule on contraceptive coverage
Dolan: Natural law, not religious preference, dictates all life sacred
Religious leaders blast HHS over contraception mandate
Mandated Contraception, Sterilization: Caesar Demands Church Violate Conscience
OBAMA’S CONTEMPT FOR RELIGIOUS LIBERTY (mandates coverage of sterilization & contraception)
Implications of Obama Admin move to force Cath hospitals to provide contraception and sterilizations
Catholic doctors’ group launches petition against contraception mandate
Contraception mandate tramples religious freedom, US bishops say

[Steelfish]

Obama lied in his Commencement Speech at Notre Dame University where he spoke to a “Conscience Clause.”

[Gene Eric]

>> Etc. etc.

Exactly.

[matthew fuller]

"50 percent of Catholics (Catholics make up about 22 percent of the U.S. population.) approve of his presidency, down from 67 percent in his first six months in office. "

Catholics were a major factor in Obama's election; Catholics were in favor of (probably unconstitutional) Obamacare. And now they are "down" to 50%? I rest my case.

[dufekin]

You ask, “What about this action is NOT unconstitutional?”

Well, in a country where the “right to life,” twice enshrined in the Constitution (5th and 14th articles of amendment), does not suffice to impede the wholesale annihilation of 50 million American babies, why would the “free exercise of religion” apply to the Catholic Church and her 70 million (alleged) members? That clause, this Administration repeatedly argues, either does not exist or means nothing when the dogmata of the Church displeases the agenda of big government or when big government desires a role in choosing ministers of the Church.

This Administration (with the active aid of Congress, never forget) displays a respect for human rights and the liberties of the Church on the same level on which the Chinese Communist Party displays the same. The Obama Administration (with its many Maoists) seemingly agrees with the Chinese Communists on economic policy too.