Obama and the Catholic Vote

Timothy Birdnow

According to Gallup, the Catholic vote is split down the middle on Obama dn Romney.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/154430/Catholics-Presidential-Pick-Differs-Ethnicity-Religiosity.aspx?utm_source=alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=syndication&utm_content=morelink&utm_term=All%20Gallup%20Headlines%20-%20Politics

According to the article:

"Obama led Romney by one percentage point, 46% to 45%, among the more than 8,000 registered voters interviewed as part of Gallup Daily tracking conducted April 11-30. Among the 1,915 Catholics interviewed during that time, support for Obama and Romney was almost the same, with 46% support for Obama and 46% for Romney.

Catholics' divided preferences at this point contrast with those of the largest religious group in the country, Protestants, whose support swings to Romney by 51% to 41%. The split in Catholics' preferences also differs from the choice among those who identify with another religion or no religion at all, a group that clearly supports Obama, by 58% to 33%.

Hispanic Catholics make up 28% of all Catholics in Gallup's sample and are overwhelmingly Obama supporters, but they are much less likely than non-Hispanic Catholics to be registered to vote. As a result, Hispanics make up only 18% of Catholic voters. This relatively low representation of Hispanic Catholics within the broad spectrum of Catholic voters helps explain why Catholics as a whole are divided, rather than tilting toward Obama."

End excerpt.

Interesting; despite Obama being the most anti-life president in U.S. history, despite his vicious attacks on the Catholic Church, his demand that Catholic institutions pay for contraception and abortion (yes, I know; he tries to get around that with his "compromise" in which the insurers pay, with money taken from the Church) Mr. Obama seems to be polling well with Catholics.

Being a Catholic myself, I can attest to the large segment of muzzy-headed liberal Catholics. Catholicism, being heirarchical, encourages a more communal way of looking at things, and the average Catholic tends to believe whatever their parish priest tells them, as Catholics rarely read the Bible or investigate things on their own. (This comes from the Middle Ages where most people could not read and Bibles had to be hand-copied, so the priest held great power as the "learned man", telling the faithful what to believe.)  The seminaries were taken over by radical liberals in the 1960's, and the more conservative neophytes were pressured to leave the seminary before taking their vows. (I know one such individual personally who can attest to the fact that, in the Church in America, conservatives need not apply.)  A social gospel of dubious Biblical authenticity has replaced the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which is concerned first and foremost with the salvation of souls. Many Catholics believe that government's role is to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, comfort the sick, in short, to REPLACE the charitable acts required of all Christians. They think this is being a good follower of Christ to empower a cold, souleless government.

But Christ did not demand Caesar do these works, but His followers. Caesar is a tyrant. Caesar has the power of the sword to "punish evildoers" yet that sword is turned against those who don't want to perform acts of "charity" today. Caesar steals the right and privilege of performing charity. I discussed this in an article in American Thinker a while back.
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2011/05/the_cruelty_of_caesars_charity.html

Liberalism is parasitical, and it early on co-opted Christian precepts to advance what is an agenda ultimately aiming at godlessness and the glorification of Man. It is the spirit of anti-christ, the opposition to all that Jesus came to embody. But, like any good parasite, it disguises itself, and uses the natural function of it's host for it's own ends. Liberals adopted the charitable aspects of Christianity and wielded those as a bludgeon against the very source it had acquired it from. Like a virus, liberalism kicked out the cell machinery and turned the cell into a factory reproducing itself.

And that is what happened to Catholicism; a great many Catholics believe that Obama and his minions are righteous because they are told how much these people care, and that they are performing charitable works. But where is the salvation of souls? That is the more important part of the message of Christ; that people can find eternal salvation. You are dead much longer than you are alive, and if someone gives you food you'll be hungry the next day, but it will end at some point. The corporal works of mercy are the lesser acts of charity.

LIberalism steals the soul. It is a doctrine of demons, wrapped in a pleasing package.

Too many Catholics do not know this, and their liberal parish priests trick them into believing that following liberal social policiy is somehow walking in the footsteps of Christ. Protestants tend to be more independent, because they believe in Justification through Faith alone, a doctrine that says you do not need the community to find salvation, but choose it as an act of independent will. As such, the Protestants tend to vote more conservatively than the Catholics; they may have liberal ministers, but those ministers are merely men with their own ideas to the Protestant. They are not seen as Christ's representatives on Earth.

I think it intersting that the Hispanics are much more enthused by Mr. Obama; I predicted that long ago. Remember; many of them came here for purely economic reasons, and the Democrats offer lots of freebies. If you are uneducated and an immigrant the Democratic vision of free this and free that would have it's appeal. Conservatism appeals to the long-termer, the person who realizes that there is no free lunch. Hispanics tend to be Catholic, too, and practice an even more communal brand of Catholicism than most American Catholics.

Despite all this, let us remember that it is still early, and what appears to be neck-in-neck at this juncture often changes. Generally the incumbent needs to be ahead at this juncture, because, in a bad economy where the nation  has little respect abroad and people have lost lots of money, the President will lose support as people begin to actually think about their lives and remember what they have lost. Right now the GOP has done all the fighting, and Mr. Obama has been largely out of the fray. That is going to change as the general election campaign season comes into full swing. Without some game-changer Mr. Obama will begin to look worse and worse.

And Catholics will remember that Mr. Obama attacked the authority of the Church. That is something even very liberal Bishops cannot ignore.

So, in conclusion, I suspect that a lot of Catholics will still vote for the Abortion President, but less than Gallup is hoping will. Obama is in a catch-22, because he cannot offer any olive branches to the Church without angering his radical base, who hate Catholicism as much as the rest of Christianity. Obama's only choice is to hide - and reap the whirlwind.