Posted on 10/16/2012 5:32:59 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
In the vice-presidential debate, the two candidates, both Roman Catholics, were asked about their religious beliefs, about how those beliefs impact their political positions, and specifically about abortion. This was the response of Vice President Joe Biden:
My religion defines who I am. And I’ve been a practicing Catholic my whole life. And it has particularly informed my social doctrine. Catholic social doctrine talks about taking care of those who — who can’t take care of themselves, people who need help.
With regard to abortion, I accept my church’s position on abortion as a — what we call de fide doctrine. Life begins at conception. That’s the Church’s judgment. I accept it in my personal life.
But I refuse to impose it on equally devout Christians and Muslims and Jews and — I just refuse to impose that on others, unlike my friend here, the congressman.
I do not believe that we have a right to tell other people that women, they can’t control their body. It’s a decision between them and their doctor, in my view. And the Supreme Court — I’m not going to interfere with that.
Let’s analyze this response.
1. “My religion defines who I am.”
If a conservative Evangelical Christian candidate for national office said that he defined himself by his religious beliefs, liberals would be screaming that the wall between church and state was in danger of being taken down.
Here is the rule in American politics: When the Left uses religion to promote liberal policies, it is a beautiful thing. When the Right uses religion to promote conservative policies, it threatens the separation of church and state and may lead to the creation of a theocracy.
2. “It has particularly informed my social doctrine. Catholic social doctrine talks about taking care of those who can’t take care of themselves, people who need help.”
This illustrates my previous point. Biden’s Catholicism leads him to promote liberal social policies, specifically an ever-expanding state to take care of “people who need help.” What else could his statement mean? After all, what religion doesn’t expect its adherents to take “care of those who can’t take care of themselves”? Protestant Christianity? Judaism? Islam? Buddhism? Mitt Romney’s Mormonism?
Since all religions do, what is the difference between Romney’s religious call to help the less fortunate and Biden’s religious call to help these people?
The difference, as seen in the enormous difference between Biden’s charitable donations and Romney’s, is the difference between conservatism and liberalism: Conservatism holds that we all have to take care of ourselves and our fellow citizens; liberalism holds that the state — funded by some of us — has to.
3. “I accept my church’s position on abortion. . . . I just refuse to impose that on others.”
This sounds beautiful to liberals. But it is as un-thought-through as it is un-Catholic.
Why is Mr. Biden completely comfortable with policies that “impose on others” what he understands as Catholic “social doctrine”? He will use the government to forcefully take people’s money away and impose whatever policies he thinks Catholic social doctrine favors. Why, then, will he not impose on others his church’s definition of the worth of human life from conception?
There are three possible answers. One is that he doesn’t really believe in his church’s position on abortion. A second is that he does believe in it, but would have to leave the Democratic party if he tried to implement that policy. The third is that he believes that the Church’s views on abortion pertain only to Catholics — and even then, only on a “personal” basis.
If we are to take him at his word, that latter is what he believes: that his church’s view on abortion applies only to him personally: “Life begins at conception. That’s the Church’s judgment. I accept it in my personal life.” But if that is his opinion, his religiosity is not morally meaningful. If an act is moral or immoral only for him, then it is not moral or immoral. Either something is immoral for everyone (in the same circumstance) or it is not immoral.
Which is why the Church’s teaching is that abortion is morally wrong for everyone, just as neglecting the needy is morally wrong for everyone.
But Joe Biden would never say that the Catholic Church’s social doctrine is only valid “in my personal life.” So, what does Joe Biden, the Catholic, believe about abortion?
These statements by the vice president of the United States provide one more example of the fact that leftism — not Christianity, not Catholicism, and not Islam — has been the most influential religion in the world for the last century.
Only when Catholicism agrees with leftism is Joe Biden prepared to impose the former’s teachings. When his Catholicism does not agree with leftism, it is reduced to being a matter of personal faith, no more binding on non-Catholics than receiving the Eucharist.
And in this regard he is no different from many Jews and Protestant Christians. Their religious expression may be Judaism or Christianity, but their religion, like Biden’s, is leftism. Which is why liberal Jews and liberal Christians have much more in common than liberal Jews have with conservative Jews or liberal Christians have with conservative Christians. They share what they deem truly important — leftism.
— Dennis Prager, a nationally syndicated columnist and radio talk-show host, is author of Still the Best Hope: Why the World Needs American Values to Triumph. He may be contacted through his website, dennisprager.com.
“Professional” politicians have no soul. Their religion is about themselves!
Joe only “takes care” of those who can vote. Unfortunately, that does not include the truly weakest of God’s children, the unborn.
When he breathes his last, the Roman Catholic Church will provide him with a full blown dignitary’s funeral. No wonder Democrat politicians do not honor their church’s teachings.
I would like to coin a phrase, I hope Mitt’s team picks up on this:
“Recreational Abortion”.
An important question is also to what extent is the Catholic faith, as commonly administered in the US, leftist?
Today’s Daily Caller has an article that opens:
“Letters signed by Barack Obama 25 years ago and obtained by The Daily Caller, show the future president approaching Chicago’s then-mayor Harold Washington in 1987 about a community organizing project whose advisory board would include his pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright; the controversial leftist Catholic priest Father Michael Pfleger; and the brother of Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers.”
Michael Pfleger’s base was radical leftist Catholics.
Liberalism.
No question there, the God of Liberalism is far more influential and powerful to the likes of liberalism than is the God of Christianity.
You cannot be a Christian/Catholic and fully support on-demand abortion and infanticide.
“Catholic social doctrine talks about taking care of those who — who can’t take care of themselves, people who need help.”
So let’s see here, unborn children cannot take care of themselves, so let’s just kill them.
” Life begins at conception. “
That’s why it’s murder.
“But I refuse to impose it (churches position on abortion) on equally devout Christians and Muslims and Jews - - -”
But this jackass will impose his socialist Marxist liberal beliefs on all of us whether we like it or not.
Question answered, Leftism is his religion as well as his mental disease.
Joe Biden’s religion: Unknown.
Same with the O.
Joe Biden’s religion: Unknown.
Same with the O.
“When he breathes his last, the Roman Catholic Church will provide him with a full blown dignitary’s funeral.”
__________________________________________
I don’t think so.
“Vice President Joe Biden has been instructed by bishops not to present himself for Communion; he has been the subject of many reprimands; and he has been banned from speaking at Catholic institutions. Most of these sanctions are a function of his pro-abortion views.”
http://www.catholicleague.org/bidens-weary-catholicism
If Ted Kennedy wasn’t given a diosesean funeral then Biden surely won’t.
From an interview with Playboy magazine in 1972:
"...“Well, the first thing I did, the first thing I always do, is to move into the community as an observer, to talk with people and listen and learn their grievances and their attitudes. Then I look around at what I’ve got to work with, what levers I can use to pry closed doors open, what institutions or organizations already exist that can be useful. In the case of Back of the Yards, the area was 95 percent Roman Catholic, and I recognized that if I could win the support of the Church, we’d be off and running. Conversely, without the Church, or at least some elements of it, it was unlikely that we’d be able to make much of a dent in the community...”
What a scumbag. But a leftist. And this is how leftists view God: as a tool.
Guys like Biden say they don’t want to impose their religion on voters. I see. So does that mean he doesn’t want to impose his political views on the voters?
He works for the biggest abortionist in the nation.
Mr. Biden should be ashamed.
Joe knows the value of a good rationalization.
Arrogant, condescending, elitist totalitarian socialism. Any affiliation to the Catholic church is just cover for this punk, as it is with so many criminals.
Thanks for post #13. It reinforces my observation of this scumbag.
Joe Biden’s religion is Joe Biden and the power, wealth and perqs that can be rendered unto him.
Gaffe-ism, goofism, and stupidism have a hold on his soul.
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