An Open Letter to American Catholics who supported Obama this election

An open letter to my fellow American Catholics:

It was with shock and shame that I learned that Barack Obama received a majority of the Catholic vote. I am still reeling with the news that a majority of Catholics have helped put into the White House a man who has said publicly that his first act as President of the United States would be to sign into law the Freedom of Choice Act. This act will overturned every late-term abortion law there is, allowing the barbaric partial birth abortion procedure to once again be practiced. It will overturn parental consent laws, which means your teenage daughter, who has to have your permission to get an aspirin from the school nurse, can abort your grandchild without your knowledge or consent. And it will allow our government to use our money to pay for abortions in this country and overseas. Obama, additionally, has voted against a bill four times that would require medical attention be given to babies that survived a late-term abortion. He would prefer these babies be left in a closet to die. Obama will set the fight against abortion back years, if not decades.

I am not saying they needed to vote for John McCain, but simply abstain for voting for a man who is so entrenched in the Culture of Death our late and great John Paul II and our current leader Benedict XVI have preached against. The next president will have the opportunity to appoint probably two Supreme Court justices. Rather than electing a man who will appoint individuals who will view the Constitution in the way the writers of the Constitution intended it, thereby allowing Roe v. Wade to be overturned in the upcoming years, we have elected a man who will appoint people who think the Constitution is a living document that can essentially be interpreted to mean anything their political agenda dictates.

I know there are other issues, important issues, at play in today’s society. I think I can accurately say the war in Iraq, concern for the poor, the economy, the environment are probably the issues Catholics are most interested in besides abortion.

Mother Teresa said that abortion was a war against the unborn. If we are going to be against war, which one should take precedence? The one that was begun over 35 years ago and has cost, on average, almost 1.5 millions lives a YEAR? Or the one that was begun five years ago and has cost almost 13,000 lives, total. If the idea of some of these causalities being civilians, and worse yet, children, makes the Obama supporter particularly hate this war, and want it to end, should not the fact that every fatality of our war against the unborn has been an innocent and defenseless baby be even more loathsome? Why vote for a man who promises to end one war yet also promises to escalate the other, the far more extensive and horrible one? If war is so horrendous to you, you should not have voted for McCain, but neither should Obama have earned your vote. And if you are willing to vote for the lesser of two evils, in the arena of war, McCain would certainly have fit that description.

If poverty was the motivating factor of yours in voting for Obama, the desire to see our government do more the protect and assist the poor, and that is why typically you vote for Democrats, I can only wonder if you honestly believe the lie that abortion helps cure poverty. Of course no one wants to see a child go to bed hungry at night, but if we as a nation and we as the body of Christ cannot find a better cure than exterminating the victims of poverty we are not trying hard enough and have settled for the easy answer. Most Planned Parenthood clinics are in poorer neighborhoods. How about we try to truly help these women care for their children instead of encouraging them to kill them? How about reducing the tax burden on individuals AND businesses so that people can be more generous to the local organizations that help the poor, the ones that have been found to be more effective and efficient that the government at serving the needy, and that businesses can grow their businesses, hire more people, provide training and better benefits to their employees, and give more generously to their communities?

Obviously, the state of the economy is a huge issue these days, with the unemployment rate “soaring” to six percent and the possibility of a recession around the corner. If fear of a worsening economy lead you to vote for Obama, I have two points to make. One, a lot of our economic crisis stems from the housing market crisis. Which was because too many subprime loans were given to folks that the banks knew would have a difficult time paying them back. It was the Democrats that pushed for these, and Republicans and the Bush Administration that wanted more oversight to prevent this sort of thing from happening. So, by electing Obama, you have put into the White House a man partly to blame for the very economic crisis you elected him because of. Getting past the sad irony of that point, here is my second. At what point are we as Catholics allowed to put our own economic well-being ahead of the lives of millions of unborn babies? Assuming Obama can fix the economy, which I sincerely doubt, is that justification enough for electing a man who has made it one of his goals of expanding abortion in this nation and abroad? Who can say that their personal economic health is more important than the lives of those babies to be killed by abortion?

Finally, the environment is a big issue as well. We as Catholics believe we need to care for this earth, and our current pontiff has even been called the Green Pope because of his environmental awareness. But again, are the lives of whales, owls, and other threatened creatures more important to you than the lives of the over 4,000 unborn babies slaughtered every day in this country? Can we not strive to reach a balance, one that allows us to respect both the environment and human life? Some may maintain McCain did not propose enough measures to meet the environmental crisis as aggressively as needed. Fine, then do not vote for him. But it is hypocrisy to vote for the man who has shown absolutely no concern for the vulnerable baby in his or hers mother’s womb and even made it clear he plans on making sure even more are killed.

The Catholic Church’s position on abortion is clear and concise. It is morally reprehensible. There is not grey area in the taking of an innocent human life. It’s teachings on war and the death penalty are not as clear. Have Catholics forgotten the clear teaching on abortion? Maybe it is not being preached enough from the pulpit, I know I have heard few homilies that expounded on the evil of abortion and the need to work tirelessly to end abortion on demand in this country. But there was no lack of letters, statements, and the like before the election from a few Bishops and other Church leaders reminding is that when we vote we need to make sure we keep the teachings of the Church in mind, especially in regards to abortion.

The blood of innocent babies is and will be on the hands of Barack Obama. But we need to really think and pray about whether that culpability also extends to some degree on those who helped put him in a position to escalate the war we have been waging on the unborn in this country. Finally, we ALL need to pray for him and all the leaders of our nation, that they may realize the responsibility they have to protect those they lead, even the unborn, the elderly, the physically and mentally challenged, as well as those convicted of horrendous crimes and are condemned to die for their crimes. Lord, have mercy on us all.