Voting guide

[Scott1]

Controversial Catholic Voter’s Guide Tells​

Catholics How to Vote on “Forbidden” Issues;
Full-Page Ad to Run in USA Today
During GOP Convention

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Maureen North
619-387-7200
[email protected]

SAN DIEGO, CA, August 26, 2004 -- On Tuesday August 31, over a million voters in and around New York City, Hartford, Buffalo, St. Louis, Los Angeles, San Diego, Las Vegas, Washington D.C., Baltimore, Richmond, and hundreds of surrounding cities will be reading a full-page ad in USA Today that advises them how to vote according to Catholic moral teachings on five key issues when they go to the polls.

The issues Catholics are forbidden to vote in favor of are abortion, homosexual marriage, embryonic stem cell research, human cloning, and euthanasia.

The full-page ad in USA Today is paid for by Catholic Answers, the nation’s largest lay-run Catholic apologetics organization dedicated to defending Catholic teaching and dispelling myths about Catholicism.

According to Karl Keating, founder and president of Catholic Answers, Catholics who deliberately vote against the Church’s moral teachings and still call themselves “good Catholics” have another thought coming.

“It’s a serious sin to vote for moral evils, especially those that are so clearly opposed to the Church’s teachings.”

Keating, a former attorney from San Diego, California, recently took his non-profit apostolate into the legally permitted realm of the political debate by distributing millions of copies of a controversial “Voter’s Guide for Serious Catholics,” which is what the ad in USA Today will contain.

The guide does not mention any candidates or political parties but explains that Catholics cannot in good conscience vote for candidates who support, endorse, or condone the five key moral issues.

The voter’s guide, which is being distributed nationwide and will also run in USA Today nationwide, is raising hackles among many pro-choice Catholics and non-Catholics alike.

Keating denies the accusation that the guide is partisan or favors a particular candidate, stating, “These are the primary moral issues of our day. Four of them concern deliberate homicide, which is always and everywhere wrong. There’s no room for ‘debate’ about murder or ending an innocent human life at its most vulnerable stages. These are non-negotiable issues, regardless of party politics or specific candidates.”

Keating also stresses that there was no effort to fashion a list that would allow a particular politician to “pass” or get off easy. “The five issues were picked because they are major topics in American politics that the Church has forcefully stated that no Catholic can support. The “Voter’s Guide for Serious Catholics” doesn’t tell the reader which candidates to vote for but which to vote against—simply on principle. Candidates who are wrong on any of the five non-negotiables should be eliminated from consideration.”

He continues, “On these five non-negotiables, there is only one possible position for a conscientious Catholic to take: complete opposition. A Catholic is free to support or to oppose any politician or ballot measure on issues such as jobs, trade, taxes, or the war in Iraq. But with issues such as abortion, euthanasia, homosexual marriage, human cloning, and embryonic stem cell research, all Catholics are forbidden to endorse them or vote for them.”

When several U.S. bishops as well as the Vatican declared last April that Catholic legislators are forbidden to endorse or support abortion—and that those who do so are not welcome to receive Holy Communion at Mass—dozens of pro-choice politicians complained loudly that the bishops had no right to tell them how to vote. They argue that since abortion is “the law of the land,” they have no choice but to uphold it, and that they’re required to keep their public actions separate from their private beliefs.

Keating responds, “That’s nonsense. By their reasoning, lawmakers would have to support the status quo, no matter how deplorable it may be. They wouldn’t be able to change any laws. If slavery were still ‘the law of the land,’ would they support it? I hope not. These same politicians work to change existing laws, write new laws, and change social policy every day. And most of them are vocal advocates of abortion. Hiding behind the ‘status quo’ on the issue of abortion and saying ‘we’re just doing our jobs’ is not only ridiculous, it’s cowardly.”

Keating firmly states that the voter’s guide is not tied specifically to this year’s presidential election. “Our voter’s guide makes it clear that the principles it conveys should be applied to all political races, not just those at the national level. Catholic voters should demand the same accountability from candidates who are running for state and local offices as they do from those running for national office. After all, those running for lesser offices, if successful, will be running for greater offices in the future.”

The Catholic vote will weigh in heavily during this year’s elections. Catholics make up 25% of the U.S. population, with some 64 million citizens. Furthermore, Catholics typically vote at a rate four percent higher than Protestants, and the Catholic population is heavily concentrated in key states with high Electoral College votes.

“In the past, most Catholics have not voted according to the Church’s moral teachings. They checked their faith at the door when they stepped into the polling place. That needs to change.”

Catholic Answers already has distributed over a million copies of its “Voter’s Guide for Serious Catholics,” with millions more planned in the next two months. Millions more voters will be reached through the USA Today ad campaign. In addition, many pastors around the country have purchased copies for every member of their parish. Others are being distributed through a nationwide direct mail campaign as well as through the Catholic Answers web site:
www.catholic.com

Catholic Answers hopes that its voter’s guide will help millions of Catholics to “vote as Catholics should vote,” says Keating.

--- ¤ --- ¤ --- ¤ --- ¤ --- ¤ ---
Karl Keating is the founder and president of Catholic Answers, the largest Catholic lay-run evangelization and apologetics organization in North America.


--- ¤ --- ¤ --- ¤ --- ¤ --- ¤ ---
Catholic Answers is a lay apostolate dedicated to helping Catholics become better Catholics, bringing former Catholics "home," and leading non-Catholics into the fullness of the faith. The goal of Catholic Answers is to explain the Catholic faith in order to equip the faithful to live fully the sacramental life and to assist them in spreading the Good News.

 

[The Voice of Reason]

SOG -

I'm just asking - what was the point of posting this? Are you in agreement, and helping to "spread the message"?

TVOR

 

[Scott1]

TVOR,
My point? Check out the thread title:
Religious Education / Discuss Individual Religions / Abrahamic Religions / Christian / Catholic Voting guide

Religious education....... and discussing individual (mine) religions...... and yes I agree.
Mainly it is for Catholic members (if there are any) who read this forum to get educated about the topic.

Thanks,
Scott

 

[Pah]

SOG -

I'm just asking - what was the point of posting this? Are you in agreement, and helping to "spread the message"?

TVOR

This is an educational forum and is not designed for questions except to expand or clear up educational issues. This particular forum is for members to make known facets of the Catholic faith without any contention.

If you would like to start a thread as a discussion or as a debate regarding this thread, you are free to do so in other forums.

-pah-
Moderator

 

[Scott1]

Thank you pah!

 

[Economist]

Many Catholics vote against these principles because they confuse the moral inertia of government imposed social welfare programs with generosity toward the poor. In reality, the only purpose they serve is to enable exactly the poverty which they are designed to alleviate. It is important that we as a community keep our priorities straight. It is a good sign that for the first time in a presidential election, the pro-life candidate is leading among Catholic voters.

 

[Faust]

I fail to see the wisdom in saving a fertilized egg and supporting preemtive war which results in the death of so many human beings . Should we fight to the death over an egg only to save them for bomb fodder? I also think that voting guides in the church bring up serious questions about tax exempt status for churches.

 

[Economist]

Wars are sometimes necessary when they are the only way to protect people. Saddam had defied the world for 12 years and had links to terror, which combined with his WMD intentions were very dangerous. On top of that, he tried to assassinate a US president. Without getting into a debate about whether or not the war was justified, I am just trying to explain why Catholics feel it is consistent to support this war (and in some cases the death penalty) and be against abortion. That said there are many Catholics who oppose both.

 

[Scott1]

Faust and Economist,

Thank you for your input, but this is not a forum for discussion or debate.

Please start another thread if you wish to continue your chat.

Thanks,
Scott

 

[Pah]

I fail to see the wisdom in saving a fertilized egg and supporting preemtive war which results in the death of so many human beings . Should we fight to the death over an egg only to save them for bomb fodder? I also think that voting guides in the church bring up serious questions about tax exempt status for churches.

I just gave the guidelines for threads in this forum just before this - just above the one you replied to. Read it for the first time or read it again. Your post is contentious and does not belong here. If you want to debate your point, take it to another forum a debate forum preferably. If you want to challange this advisory, do not do so in a post but PM Rex or one of the Super Mods.

-pah-
Moderator

 

[Scott1]

Voter's Guide for Serious Catholics

Get your free Catholic Voter's guide here:​

http://www.catholic.com/free_voters_guide.asp​

HOW THIS VOTER'S GUIDE HELPS YOU

This voter's guide helps you cast your vote in an informed manner consistent with Catholic moral teaching. It helps you avoid choosing candidates who endorse policies that cannot be reconciled with moral norms that used to be held by all Christians.

On most issues that come before voters or legislators, the task is selecting the most effective strategy among several morally good options. A Catholic can take one side or the other and not act contrary to the faith. Most matters do not have a "Catholic position."

But some issues concern “non-negotiable” moral principles that do not admit of exception or compromise. One’s position either accords with those principles or does not. No one endorsing the wrong side of these issues can be said to act in accord with the Church's moral norms.

This voter's guide identifies five issues involving “non-negotiable” moral values in current politics, and helps you narrow down the list of acceptable candidates, whether they are running for national, state, or local offices.

You should avoid to the greatest extent possible voting for candidates who endorse or promote intrinsically evil policies. As far as possible, you should vote for those who promote policies in line with the moral law.

In many elections there are situations where all of the available candidates take morally unacceptable positions on one or more of the ‘non-negotiable’ issues.

In such situations, a citizen will be called upon to make tough choices. In those cases, citizens must vote in the way that will most limit the harm that would be done by the available candidates.

In this guide we will look first at the principles that should be applied in clear-cut races, where there is an unambiguously good moral choice. These same principles help lay the groundwork for what to do in situations that are more difficult.

Knowing the principles that are applied in ideal situations is useful when facing problematic ones, so as you review the principles you should keep in mind that they often must be applied in situations where the choice is more difficult. At the end of the guide we will offer practical advice about how to decide to cast your vote in those cases.

YOUR ROLE AS A CATHOLIC VOTER

Catholics have a moral obligation to promote the common good through the exercise of their voting privileges (cf. CCC 2240). It is not just civil authorities who have responsibility for a country. "Service of the common good require citizens to fulfill their roles in the life of the political community" (CCC 2239). This means citizens should participate in the political process at the ballot box.

But voting cannot be arbitrary. "A well-formed Christian conscience does not permit one to vote for a political program or an individual law that contradicts the fundamental contents of faith and morals" (CPL 4). A citizen’s vote most often means voting for a candidate who will be the one directly voting on laws or programs. But being one step removed from law-making doesn’t let citizens off the hook, since morality requires that we avoid doing evil to the greatest extent possible, even indirectly.

Some things always are wrong, and no one may deliberately vote in favor of them. Legislators, who have a direct vote, may not support these evils in legislation or programs. Citizens support these evils indirectly if they vote in favor of candidates who propose to advance them. Thus, to the greatest extent possible, Catholics must avoid voting for any candidate who intends to support programs or laws that are intrinsically evil. When all of the candidates endorse morally harmful policies, citizens must vote in a way that will limit the harm likely to be done.

THE FIVE NON-NEGOTIABLE ISSUES


These five current issues concern actions that are intrinsically evil and must never be promoted by the law. Intrinsically evil actions are those which fundamentally conflict with the moral law and can never be deliberately performed under any circumstances. It is a serious sin to deliberately endorse or promote any of these actions, and no candidate who really wants to advance the common good will support any action contrary to the non-negotiable principles involved in these issues.

1. Abortion

The Church teaches that, regarding a law permitting abortions, it is "never licit to obey it, or to take part in a propaganda campaign in favor of such a law, or to vote for it" (EV 73). Abortion is the intentional and direct killing of an innocent human being, and therefore it is a form of homicide.

The unborn child is always an innocent party, and no law may permit the taking of his life. Even when a child is conceived through rape or incest, the fault is not the child's, who should not suffer death for others' sins.

2. Euthanasia

Often disguised by the name "mercy killing," euthanasia also is a form of homicide. No person has a right to take his own life, and no one has the right to take the life of any innocent person.

In euthanasia, the ill or elderly are killed, by action or omission, out of a misplaced sense of compassion, but true compassion cannot include intentionally doing something intrinsically evil to another person (cf. EV 73).

3. Embryonic Stem Cell Research

Human embryos are human beings. "Respect for the dignity of the human being excludes all experimental manipulation or exploitation of the human embryo" (CRF 4b).

Recent scientific advances show that often medical treatments that researchers hope to develop from experimentation on embryonic stem cells can be developed by using adult stem cells instead. Adult stem cells can be obtained without doing harm to the adults from whom they come. Thus there is no valid medical argument in favor of using embryonic stem cells. And even if there were benefits to be had from such experiments, they would not justify destroying innocent embryonic humans.

4. Human Cloning

"Attempts . . . for obtaining a human being without any connection with sexuality through 'twin fission,' cloning, or parthenogenesis are to be considered contrary to the moral law, since they are in opposition to the dignity both of human procreation and of the conjugal union" (RHL I:6).

Human cloning also involves abortion because the "rejected" or "unsuccessful" embryonic clones are destroyed, yet each clone is a human being.

5. Homosexual "Marriage"

True marriage is the union of one man and one woman. Legal recognition of any other union as "marriage" undermines true marriage, and legal recognition of homosexual unions actually does homosexual persons a disfavor by encouraging them to persist in what is an objectively immoral arrangement.

"When legislation in favor of the recognition of homosexual unions is proposed for the first time in a legislative assembly, the Catholic lawmaker has a moral duty to express his opposition clearly and publicly and to vote against it. To vote in favor of a law so harmful to the common good is gravely immoral" (UHP 10).