Doug Kmiec's Inbox

I am also a pro-life Christian who would more that not vote for Obama. It is because of the message of Hope vs. the dogma of Fear that intrigues me. We are living under a blanket of fears; The economy, the abandonment of the poor, middle class and the elderly, the invitation of our constitutional rights, the War for Oil, just to mention a few.

McCain lost me when he accepted the endorsement of Rev. Hagee. When it comes between Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Hagee, at least Wright has some validity of recent history to support some of what he claims.

I read your thoughtful essay regarding your support for Senator Barack Obama. I believe that it is past time for the church to become more involved in issues affecting the most vulnerable people in the United States - children (ALL of them), the elderly, the infirm (including the mentally ill who make up most of the homeless), the homeless, and those who have fallen into lives of addiction.

I would ask others to look at the facts when you make your decision on who to support in November. For the past 35 years abortion has been legal in America. For 23 of those years, a Republican has been president. They have consistently lied to people of faith and pledged to end abortion in order to get your votes, then they do nothing to end it and use their power to make the lives of our least fortunate even more difficult. So think about what you can do to help your fellow Americans - the ones you can see. The ones whose mothers wanted to bring them into the world but still can't find a job that pays enough to take care of them. The Americans who are losing their homes because their medical bills are so huge. The Americans whose jobs were shipped overseas and they can't take care of their families. The Americans whose loved ones joined the Army because they thought they had no other options and are now in Iraq.

NONE of the candidates (Democrat or Republican) is going to stop abortion. They never have and they never will. It's time to vote for a candidate who will do something to feed the poor and help the sick.

I'm surprised at how civil the disagreements are. I'm sure you got some that were more vehement, but those aren't too bad.

Agree with Gus. There is anger but not viciousness in the negative responses shown. When I saw this link at Andrew's blog I thought "Oh boy", and steeled myself. But it wasn't as bad as I feared.

There are probably some doozies that are not shown here.

For the record, as a pro-life Lutheran, I disagree with Dr. Kmiec. But I understand the attraction to Obama, who seems to be a good and decent man.

Senator Obama should earn the faith that Professor Kmiec and Senator Casey have in him by co-sponsoring the Pregnant Women's Support Act
introduced in the Senate by Senator Casey as S.2410 and in the House by Rep. Lincoln Davis and more than 30 other Democrats. This Initiative developed by the Democrats for Life is intended to reduce abortions by 95 % within ten years by helping eliminate the pressures that force pregnant women to consider abortion. Since it doesn't impose legal restrictions, no sincere pro-choice person should oppose it.

(The fact that Casey is the only member of Congress on Obama's Catholic Committee who has co-sponsored the bill shows that the advice of the others on how to reach out to Catholic and other pro-life Democrats will be of little value. Maybe Obama should show his leadership ability by getting these officials to join him as sponsors of the bill.

Brian Yates

www.democratsforlife.org/Massachusetts