U.S. Catholic voters are split on the issues of abortion and same-sex marriage between those who attend church at least twice a month and those who attend church less often, according to a survey released Tuesday (Oct. 14) by the Knights of Columbus.
The survey found that both Catholics (73 percent) and non-Catholics (71 percent) agreed that America needs a “moral makeover.” Non-practicing Catholics — defined as those who attend church less than twice a month — were more likely to support abortion rights and same-sex marriage than the American population at large.
“Catholics should not be viewed as undifferentiated,” said Carl Anderson, head of the Knights of Columbus. He said labeling Catholics as a monolithic voting block ignores the disparity between practicing Catholics, who lean more conservative, and non-practicing Catholics, who tend to be more liberal.
This has certainly been my own experience. In my wife’s family, those who attend mass regularly support McCain; those who don’t support Obama. Among my students, same thing. In my parish, same thing. I’ve noticed that, when I have a student tell me he “grew up Catholic” or “used to be Catholic,” that person inevitably turns out to be a liberal. And when a student tells me he’s a practicing Catholic, he turns out to be a conservative.
That’s why I cringe when the MSM talk about “the Catholic vote.” Depends on which kind of Catholic you’re talking about. NPR recently started referring to “white Catholic voters,” and I thought, “Nope, that’s not where the divide is either.”
Catholicism is not an ethnicity. Just because your grandmother was Catholic does not make you Catholic. If you are not attending Mass and do not accept the teachings of the Church, you are not Catholic. You may have had some introduction to the Church in your past, but you have rejected it. If you want to come back home to the Church, she is standing there with open arms ready to receive you. Come on in. But until you do, you are not Catholic. Period. So all these folks who are self-identifying as Catholic are kidding themselves. They could call themselves Jedi and be equally accurate.
Two groups: the obedient and the disobedient. That differentiation has been around since Jesus.
“Seventy-five percent of practicing Catholics oppose same-sex marriage”
That 25% of practicing Catholic support same-sex marriage is very interesting. Once again this supports the idea that faithful, devoted and practicing Christians can and are divided on this issue even amongst the bastion of Rome.
[blockquote]That 25% of practicing Catholic support same-sex marriage is very interesting. Once again this supports the idea that faithful, devoted and practicing Christians can and are divided on this issue even amongst the bastion of Rome. [/blockquote]
Well sure. I don’t think anyone’s arguing that being faithful, devoted, and practicing precludes someone from being dead wrong.
I would be willing to bet that a poll of practicing Catholics in Boston or Los Angeles would look a lot different than the same poll conducted in Kansas City or Lincoln, Nebraska.
“Once again this supports the idea that faithful, devoted and practicing Christians can and are divided on this issue even amongst the bastion of Rome.”
No, if they are faithful, they would not support SSM. The statistic demonstrates that 25% of the practicing Catholics are unfaithful in this area. Since they are unfaithful, that calls into question their devotion.
Pope Benedict XVI, in a detailed critique of gay unions back on June 7, 2005, described same-sex marriages as ”pseudo-matrimony.” His full statement was: ”The various forms of the dissolution of matrimony today, like free unions, trial marriages and going up to pseudo-matrimonies by people of the same sex, are rather expressions of an anarchic freedom that wrongly passes for true freedom of man.”
Back in 2003, he said this about SS couples adopting: ”Allowing children to be adopted by persons living in such unions would actually mean doing violence to these children, in the sense that their condition of dependency would be used to place them in an environment that is not conducive to their full human development.”
This isn’t new. As far back as 1986, Ratzinger declared: ”It is only in the marital relationship that the use of the sexual faculty can be morally good. A person engaging in homosexual behavior therefore acts immorally. This does not mean that homosexual persons are not often generous and giving of themselves, but when they engage in homosexual activity they confirm within themselves a disordered sexual inclination which is essentially self-indulgent.”
So again, the 25% of Catholics in favor of SSM are neither faithful nor devoted.
Source: http://www.boston.com/news/specials/gay_marriage/articles/2005/06/07/pope_says_gay_unions_are_false/
A Total Moral Makeover!! That’ll preach! Wonder if I’d have to pay royalties to Dave Ramsey, though.