American Partisanship in the Church

Republican Prayer Clubs and the First Amendment

    If you are reading this and from another country it may shock you that America has a political power structure which is divided in two- we have a two party system, Republicans and Democrats, like a soccer match (Le Fut) and each is vying to gain political advantage and power over the other, and put enough of their team players in both houses of Congress that they have the 'leadership' locked up. If their guy gets in the White House then they get Supreme Court appointments that rule in their favor (they think).  Its not like in Europe where there are many parties in any given election, with two or three representing what might be considered 'the left' and another few on 'the right.' We have One Right party and One Left party which the One Right party always maintains is the Wrong Party. If I were writing the "American Politics for Idiots" primer I would say that the Left generally has rhetoric that cares about the poor, the right cares about parading as more morally superior. So the Left tries to put things through like universal health care coverage legislation, legislation protecting kids school food programs, legislation against oppressive exploitative practices in the real estate and lending industries, etc. The Right is Hell bent on stopping gay marriage and abortions (while not actually giving money to anyone pregnant to help legislatively while that sometimes happens in church run programs or understanding the connection between poverty and abortion). To oversimplify Jesuits tend to be on the social justice left camp and the Cardinal tends to be on the right- lets get rid of Obama camp.So he hires
yes-people that tend to reflect the right philosophy and masque political power struggles in veneers of religious piety.

    The unfortunate thing about the catholic church in Washington, DC is that the power structure is on the Republican side. They use 'culture war' issues to tilt elections. For example, they use things like gay marriage to bludgeon people who think the 'lets help poor people' agenda is going to tax businesses too much. They bewail the over-secularization of the culture. They, during the last decade, wholeheartedly supported war and profited from it, amassing fortunes for the Industrial Military complex in crony defense contracts that padded pews from Bethesda to McLean. Catholics fight catholics, some getting dirty and nasty calling the others non -catholics or 'Catholiks' or 'cafeteria catholics' or - one I am particularly proud of "presbyterians!" They are para-church lobbying outfits staffed with some of the more virulent bloggers and you know who you are.

   I lay this backdrop to demonstrate the furious wrong-headedness of the so called "Religious Liberty" litigation against the HHS mandates. Two recent cases came up with rulings: one in Colorado where a catholic business was granted a temporary injunction while a permanent one imposing the HHS mandates on individual businesses is deliberated upon. That is not a decision 'on the merits' because it makes no final ruling regarding the First Amendment issues and basically freezes in place the current status quo until it can be evaluated by a Judge.  But it is significant because to even get one of those you have to demonstrate a 'likelihood' of prevailing on the merits once it is fully analyzed. The second 'not on the merits' decision that was handed down involved an outright dismissal of the Belford (excuse me BELMONT)  Abbey case- because it was not considered timely enough to create standing- meaning in that case, that until there is an actual 'injury' there is no right to make the claim (yet).  It's a -come back and talk to me when you really have a problem- sort of ruling . This is because the mandate had not kicked into effect yet, there was found a 'good faith' effort on Obama's people's part in giving the one year extension to work out the fine kinks negotiating resolution and compromise which no Archdiocese is willing to do, and no one had been penalized in any fashion yet.

    Now lets get to the real -behind the curtain- issue. The Republicans, like the Chancellor , are trying to scandalize Obama anyway they can. They thought this First Amendment assault was going to blow him out of the water. How come no one is paying attention to 43 religious entities suing Obama? bemoaned the Washington Cardinal in so many words.

  Because it is OBVIOUSLY political. It is OBVIOUSLY timed to create discord in an election year. It is OBVIOUSLY motivated by the virulent hatred of all things Democratic and the loss of the White House and fear it will appoint more  Supreme Court judges of its ilk the next term where a lot of the old guys are expected to retire.

     There are and were a thousand ways to compromise on this HHS and negotiate in good faith. The Archdiocese is not negotiating in good faith. They could have said- OK, the kind of contraception that stops diseases we are fine with the abortofascients- no way. Non elective versus elective has to be discussed. Someone who needs a hysterectomy because otherwise their uterine cancer will cause them to bleed to death and kill them should get one covered by insurance, but someone who just wants their tubes tied for fun should not. There are ways to negotiate and compromise.

     People, I have to say, are sick and tired of this crap. So sick and tired it's hard to stay and even watch it, it is so disturbing that political agendas can be forced down the sheeples throats under the guise of moral piety.

   If a married family has five kids and the husband just lost his job and they are looking at how they can afford to put food on the table much less send anyone to college is contraception an evil? Apparently the MAJORITY report that issued when the Humana Vitae encyclical dictate issued said NO. Contraception is not in all cases a moral evil. But the party line went with the MINORITY report at the time. And we are stuck with the arrogance of it ever since.

     The one bright spot on the horizon is that the Catholic Information Center actually invited in a Kennedy family member to discuss his new book. A Democrat in the Catholic Information Center, what is the world coming to.