God & Country

Should Democrats Avoid Running Catholic Presidential Candidates?

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March 18, 2009 RSS Feed Print
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By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country

Why did twice as many traditionalist Catholics vote for Barack Obama as supported John Kerry in 2004? I put the question yesterday to Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput, perhaps the most outspoken politically conservative bishop in the United States. Chaput gave a fascinating response:

Serious Catholics have different expectation of Catholic politicians than of non-Catholic politicians. Serious Catholics can put up with a non-Catholic running on a pro-choice platform [more than they could a Catholic candidate]. But people voted for him [Obama] more about the economy.

According to that theory, Democrats would do well to avoid running Catholic candidates for president if they hope to win traditionalist Catholics. How counterintuitive.

Chaput appeared before a group of Washington journalists at the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, which will post a full transcript of yesterday's discussion on its website soon.

Tags:
Democratic Party,
candidates,
religion,
Catholic Church,
politics

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AntonioSosa...you are an ignoramous as Michael Savage would say. Obama has said repeatedly that he believes Jesus Christ died on the cross for his sins. Antonio..you just got served by a high schooler.

Schudogg of MN 8:35PM March 20, 2009

Controlled by "progressives" (communists), Democrats are now pro abortion and, therefore, can't be real Catholics.

Catholics and Christians who voted for Obama are now realizing how foolish they were. As we had been warned and as Obama is now demonstrating, Obama is not only pro abortion but pro late-term abortion (infanticide).

Obama is not a Christian. Wright's "Christian" church, to which Obama belonged, is based on Black Liberation Theology, which is Marxists, anti-Christian and anti-American. Obama's actions are a true demonstration of what Black Liberation Theology is all about.

As we can see, Alan Keyes was right when he said, “Obama is a radical communist… He is going to destroy this country and we are either going to stop him or the United States of America is going to cease to exist.”

AntonioSosa of FL 8:52PM March 19, 2009

stop........

stop trying to attach political and partisan labels to catholics. there is no such thing as a liberal catholic. that translates into: non-catholic. the church's teaching, as espoused by bishop chaput, is the church's teaching. life is the fundamental issue upon which all other christian teaching and tradition rests. you cannot have a pro-death catholic, period. anyone who is uncomfortable with the church's teaching is welcome to move on and find a church that is more comfortable. isn't that the crux of the issue: personal comfort and convenience. being a faithful christian (the apostles taught against abortion) isn't always the easiest path.

William Glenn Johnson of OH 2:48PM March 19, 2009

God & Country

Dan Gilgoff covers religion for U.S. News & World Report. He is the author of The Jesus Machine: How James Dobson, Focus on the Family, and Evangelical America are Winning the Culture War, and is a former politics editor at beliefnet. E-mail Dan at godandcountry@usnews.com.

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