How Obama Woos Catholics
By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country
How many highly placed aides does the White House have regularly doing Catholic outreach or who have extensive backgrounds in such work? Five, by my count:
- Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships Executive Director Joshua Dubois, who regularly meets with Catholic groups, from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on down.
- Denis McDonough, deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, who says he "talk[s] with the president about church teaching and the Catholic view on policy matters as they come up."
- Mark Linton, who directed Catholic outreach for Obama's presidential campaign and who now serves as the administration's top liaison to Catholics. Officially, Linton directs the faith-based office at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
- Alexia Kelly, the recently hired director of the faith-based office at the Health and Human Services Department and cofounder of the progressive Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good.
- John Kelly, who works in the faith-based office at the Corporation for National and Community Service and who was formerly the Democratic National Committee's Catholic outreach director.
My most recent God & Country column for U.S. News Weekly fleshes out Obama's robust Catholic outreach effort:
As the director of Catholic outreach for George W. Bush's presidential campaigns, Deal Hudson says his Democratic rivals made his job easier. "The Al Gore and John Kerry campaigns operated as if all Catholics were quasi dissenters from the church who liked the pope personally but didn't agree with him," says Hudson. Neither candidate, for instance, attempted to soften his pro-abortion rights position for Catholic audiences, although that stance was clearly at odds with Catholic teaching. That may help explain how Bush beat Kerry, the first Catholic presidential nominee since John F. Kennedy, among Catholic voters.
Now, as a conservative Catholic activist working against many of President Barack Obama's policies, Hudson's job is more difficult. "They've packaged Obama as someone who respects the church, its teaching, its moral authority," Hudson, who runs the website Inside Catholic, says of Obama's Catholic advisers. "They came up with this 'common ground' narrative that gives the impression that Obama shares the Catholic concern about abortion."
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Tags: Barack Obama | religion | Catholicism | Obama administration
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Call Congress:
Call your members of Congress (use the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 to contact your Representative or Senators) and tell them health care reform should:
1) Include health care coverage for all people from conception until natural death, and continue the federal ban on funding for abortions;
2) Include access for all with a special concern for the poor;
3) Pursue the common good and preserve pluralism, including freedom of conscience; and
4) Restrain costs and apply costs equitably among payers.
The USCCB Position on Health Care Reform
+ a truly universal health policy with respect for human life and dignity
+ access for all with a special concern for the poor and inclusion of legal immigrants
+ pursuing the common good and preserving pluralism including freedom of conscience and variety of options
+ restraining costs and applying them equitably across the spectrum of payers
Catholic Health Care (Love Life)
624 Catholic Hospitals
499 Catholic Long-Term Care Nursing Facilities
164 Home Health Agencies
41 Hospice Organizations
At Conception they have their own DNA.
Respect Life
Protect Life
Love Life
Let's spend our tax money to stop the causes of death:
Did you know the #1 cause of death in America is Abortion. Americans killing our own unborn children.
Deaths by Abortion each year > 1,200,000
Deaths by other causes each year:
Heart disease: 631,636
Cancer: 559,888
Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 137,119
Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 124,583
Accidents (unintentional injuries): 121,599
Diabetes: 72,449
Alzheimer's disease: 72,432
Influenza and Pneumonia: 56,326
Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 45,344
Septicemia: 34,234
Source: Center for Disease Control and Prevention
Isn't it surprising. It's too ugly to put on the news paper or in the nightly news. We know the stats for sports, weather, Iraq War, 911, and etc... This is not you reduce the importance of any of those. Why don't we not know the abortion statistics?
Seek the Truth. Know the Truth. Speak the Truth. Share the Truth. Defend the Truth.
Ask others to speak the Truth.
He was sent to testify to the Truth.
Love Life!
People need to take action
Obama's and the democratics congress and senators Health Care reform not only will force us to pay for abortions and increase abortions but it also wants to cut 500 billion out of medicare while medicare is running out of money and baby boomers who have worked their entire lives to build this nation are turning 65 soon.
Obama wants to know the name and IP addres and email address of anyone opposing his health care reform. He is scary. Call your senators and congressmen. Write. Don't just sit around and wish you had done something
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