A "NEWSDAY" COLUMNIST LOSES HIS COOL
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WILL HE ALSO LOSE HIS SOUL?
"Newsday" is the prominent Long Island daily. Last Thursday columnist Bob Keeler, who is an editorial writer for the newspaper and formerly was a religion reporter, started off his column this way:
"Karl Keating says I'm going to hell. And we haven't even met." (Not only haven't Keeler and I met, we haven't even talked.)
His column continues:
"Keating runs 'Catholic Answers,' a conservative lay group based in San Diego. Its web site, catholic.com, offers a voter's guide to this election, with five 'non-negotiable' issues: abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem-cell research, human cloning, and gay marriage.
"In a published interview about the guide, Keating has said: 'It's a serious sin to vote for moral evils, especially those that are so clearly opposed to the church's teachings.'
"In other words, vote for a candidate with the wrong views on these issues and you're well on your way to hell. Since I plan to vote for John Kerry for president, Keating's argument presents me--and millions of Catholics like me--a pretty bleak prognosis for the life to come."
Keeler then says that "Catholic Answers doesn't actually mention President George W. Bush or Sen. John Kerry, but you'd have to be pretty obtuse not to get the idea."
Look in the mirror, Mr. Keeler, if what you seek is obtuseness.
The "Voter's Guide for Serious Catholics" not only doesn't mention Bush or Kerry, it doesn't mention any candidates or any parties, and it goes to considerable lengths to say that the principles it enunciates should be applied not just to big-name political races but to races at all levels, federal, state, and local.
In short, the voter's guide is not about the presidency and certainly not about the men now running for that office. Its application is much wider than that.
Sure, I realize that it's the presidential race that people are referring to when they ask, "How are you going to vote?" They aren't asking you how you will cast your ballot for school board or water district. This is understandable, given the artificial emphasis given to the presidency in the media. Foreigners might be forgiven for thinking that the only two people running for office this year are George W. Bush and John Kerry.
However important the presidency is, that office is outweighed by the cumulative weight of other offices. After all, at the federal level our laws are passed by Congress (and often invented by the courts). A president's only constitutional prerogative in this area is the veto. He can twist congressional arms, but he can't pass laws on his own volition.
Besides, most of the laws we operate under don't even come from Washington. They're made by state or local governments. Even though most of the taxes I pay go to Washington, most of the regulations I chafe under come from Sacramento and San Diego.
The columnist writes near the end of his piece, "Keating would argue that only his five issues are truly non-negotiable, but many Catholics also include such matters as war and peace, the slaughter of civilians, the death penalty, and caring for the poor."
Yes, I would argue that only the five issues discussed in the "Voter's Guide for Serious Catholics" are non-negotiable. No other issues that are now under general political discussion qualify.
Are there other things the Church is uncompromisingly against? Sure. The Church opposes without exception all rapes, for instance, but is there any candidate running on a pro-rape platform? The Church opposes shoplifting, but is there somewhere a candidate who is running on a pro-shoplifting platform?
Of course not, but there are thousands of candidates who support abortion or euthanasia or embryonic stem cell research or human cloning or homosexual "marriage"--or all five of those issues.
In brief: Our voter's guide mentions only five non-negotiable issues because that's how many such issues are "up for grabs" nowadays. And what about the other things Keeler lists?
What about, say, "caring for the poor"? That's so vague that it can mean almost anything, and thus it means almost nothing.
Some people will interpret it to mean that the federal government should institute more programs aimed at relieving poverty. Others will argue that most such programs have failed and that more programs will mean more failures and more poverty. When it comes to concrete political proposals, the two sides offer opposing solutions, yet each is "caring for the poor."
The same kind of analysis can be made of other issues that critics of the voter's guide have brought up, but all of those issues allow good Catholics to choose from a variety of political positions. Not so with the five non-negotiables. On those issues the Church is unequivocal: The only authentic Catholic position is complete opposition.
Keeler ends his column by saying "There are plenty of one-issue voter's guides, but Catholics and non-Catholics alike should devote the time to studying a wider array of issues before voting."
There may be one-issue voter's guides, but ours isn't one of them. After all, our guide discusses five issues. The problem for Keeler, maybe, is that they aren't five issues he's comfortable discussing.
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My colleague Jimmy Akin has written more about the "Newsday" piece--particularly its disingenuousness--at his personal web site:
www.jimmyakin.org
* * * * *
This wasn't the E-Letter I was planning to write. Over the weekend I had an idea for a topic, and it had nothing to do with politics. Then I arrived at the office and saw a photocopy of the "Newsday" column. Given its emphasis on our voter's guide, I thought I couldn't pass it up.
p.s., If you have a comment about anything appearing in this E-Letter, please do not hit your Reply button. Instead, go to Catholic Answers' new discussion forums at:
http://forums.catholic.com
where you may post your comment in the forum dedicated to the E-Letter. You will find a thread devoted to this issue of the E-Letter. Feel free to add your comment in the form of a reply to that thread.
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