Who should we vote for president? Well last I checked the Pope did not come out and say who he thinks should be president. In the last election I can see why people voted for Bush a second term, Kerry was catholic and pro-life. My stance on pro-life is the following:
I nor my fiancée will never have an abortion for any reason. We both believe that abortion no matter what point is murder. We do believe that as Christians we all should never think that abortion is an answer, but not everyone in the U.S. are Christians. We should not be making laws for or against abortion. Since we as Catholics should already be practicing not to have abortions this should not be an issue. We also believe that in cases of rape or when the mothers life is in danger there is an exception to that even for us.(Please don’t flood my comments this is my view) Since stephanie is attending school to be a medical doctor, if she ends up in a field in which should could perform an abortion, it’s her right to deny treatment unless of course the mother’s life was in danger. She would instead consult with them talk about having some time to think about there situation. If they still would want to go through it as a doctor she would point them to a safe place to get it done.
We need to investigate why either candidate is the best for God and country. Now the kicker, I voted for Barack Obama. Obama may have voted for a law like abortion, but I have said before I am Pro-life neither candidate are true pro-life. No matter abortion or death penalty both are evil.
The Faithful Citizenship document, however, states that if a candidate opposes an intrinsic evil but is indifferent to other important church issues—such as capital punishment, reducing poverty, ending the war in Iraq—a Catholic voter could support another candidate for “morally grave reasons” and not be compromised in the eyes of the church.
In other words,” said the Rev. Thomas Reese, a senior fellow at Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University, “you’ve got a pro-choice candidate running for office and (a voter says), `I think there are morally compelling reasons why I should vote for this candidate’ because, for example, this candidate is in favor of health care for children and treatment for pregnant women. That would be a compelling reason.” (http://pewforum.org/news/display.php?NewsID=15265)
So why did I vote for Obama? Let me point out what Archbishop Chaput said:
So can a Catholic in good conscience support a “pro-choice” candidate? The answer is: I can’t and I won’t. But I do know some serious Catholics — people whom I admire — who will. I think their reasoning is mistaken. But at the very least they do sincerely struggle with the abortion issue, and it causes them real pain. And even more importantly: They don’t keep quiet about it; they don’t give up their efforts to end permissive abortion; they keep lobbying their party and their elected representatives to change their pro-abortion views and protect the unborn. Catholics can support “pro-choice” candidates if they support them despite — not because of — their “pro-choice” views. But they also need a compelling proportionate reason to justify it.
What is a “proportionate” reason when it comes to the abortion issue? It’s the kind of reason we will be able to explain, with a clean heart, to the victims of abortion when we meet them face to face in the next life — which we most certainly will. If we’re confident that these victims will accept our motives as something more than an alibi, then we can proceed
What is my proportionate reasoning? I first want to layout why I am not voting for McCain. The only reason to vote for him is because he is Pro-Life, but is that only a label or will he do something as president? Chuck Baldwin said it best:
“Dare I remind everyone that the “pro-life” GOP controlled the entire federal government from 2000 to 2006 and nothing was done to overturn Roe v. Wade or end legal abortion-on-demand? When George W. Bush took the oath of office in January of 2001, over one million innocent unborn babies were being murdered in the wombs of their mothers every year via legal abortions in this country. And when George W. Bush leaves office in January of 2009, over one million innocent unborn babies would still be murdered in the wombs of their mothers every year via legal abortions in this country. Eight years of a “pro-life” President and six years of the “pro-life” GOP in charge of the entire federal government and not one unborn baby’s life has been saved. Roe v. Wade is still the law of the land, and abortion-on-demand is still legal in America… How can John McCain, and his fellow Republicans in Washington, D.C., look pro-life Christians and conservatives in the eye in 2008 and expect that we take them seriously when they say that they are “pro-life”? If the GOP had truly wanted to overturn Roe v. Wade and end legal abortion-on-demand, they could have already done it. They controlled the White House, the U.S. Senate, and the House of Representatives for six long years, for goodness sake. The reason they did not do it is because they did not want to do it. They merely want to use “pro-life” rhetoric as a campaign tool to dupe gullible Christian voters every election year. And the disgusting thing about it is--it works.”(http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/c2008/cbarchive_20080822.html)
Taking Abortion aside if you want to vote for a man that has:
Richard Davis is one of McCain’s friends, advisers, and campaign chairs; Davis was paid $395,000 to lobby on behalf of the telecom industry; McCain, as chairman of the Commerce Committee, supported a Cablevision bid despite a tments in mutual funds that invested in the Sudanese government.
Divorced his first wife Carol, who had waited for him while he was in Vietnam, who had been in a horrible car accident, for a multi-millionaire heiress he had met a year before the divorce; married Cindy one month after the divorce.(http://mccainfactcheck.com/facts/11/unfaithful_339502.shtml)
John McCain is not an advocate for children.The Children’s Defense Fund rated McCain as the worst Senator in Congress for children. He voted against the Children’s health care bill last year, and defended Bush’s veto of the bill.(http://www.chicagodefender.com/article-2194-judging-the-candidat.html)
John McCain cheats in church! He KNEW the questions going into the Saddleback forum with Pastor Rick Warren - and was not in a cone of silence. If he cheats on that...would you want him as President?(http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/18/us/politics/18mccain.html)
The Catholic Church opposes the use of embryonic stem cells for research. Senator John McCain twice voted to expand federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, contrary to Church teaching.
The report also projected that 49 million Americans will have no health insurance in 2010 if neither plan is adopted, and that the McCain plan would reduce the number of uninsured by 21.1 million by 2010, compared to 26.6 million for Obama’s plan. (http://www.webmd.com/news/20081016/debate-joe-the-plumber-and-health-care?page=2)
Pope John XXIII, in his encyclical, Peace on Earth, listed healthcare as among those basic human rights which flow from the sanctity and dignity of human life. As well, McCain thinks that the current war is just. While still a cardinal, Pope Benedict said:
”The Holy Father’s judgment is also convincing from the rational point of view: There were not sufficient reasons to unleash a war against Iraq. To say nothing of the fact that, given the new weapons that make possible destructions that go beyond the combatant groups, today we should be asking ourselves if it is still licit to admit the very existence of a ’just war.’”
Obama does not want to be in war. He wants to give healthcare to everyone. He is faithful to his wife and children. He may be on extreme side of the fence in one issue as grave as abortion, but he states that he wants to limit the abortions done in the U.S.. At least he is honest and not placing a Label. I will leave everyone with the following video:
In response to your point that not everyone is Catholic or Christian, so you don’t believe in legislating that is not really based on sound logic.
If you hold to that belief, then the following things should not be legislated:
1. Murder
2. Theft
3. Rape
4. Sexual activity with minors
All of the above issues have strong moral underpinnings.
In terms of overturning abortion and what the GOP has done for it between 2000 - 2006, it has done 2 things. Those two things are Justice Roberts and Justice Alito.
As it stands, the next president will appoint 1 if not 2 Supreme Court Justices. McCain is the only chance to appoint a conservative judge who would rule Roe v. Wade unconstitutional.
In terms of health care as a basic human right, what good is health care if you are denied the right to life.
Removing all religious beliefs from the abortion arguement, one should still successfully deduce that in the end, abortion is civil dispute between two parties ( mother and child ), and the mother is given the choice to murder the other party.
