The conservative Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights is attacking Barack Obama over his Catholic advisory board because some of its members take views at odds with official church positions on hot button social issues like abortion. Why the delay? Obama announced his National Catholic Advisory Council three weeks ago.
The Catholic League is the group that led the charge against John Kerry’s religious outreach efforts in 2004, so Obama has cause for concern. Here’s another question: Why has the Catholic League been so quiet about Hillary Clinton, who’s doing lots of Catholic outreach, is winning Catholics big time, and who is just as liberal on social issues as Obama?
Here’s the Catholic League’s release:
CATHOLIC DISSIDENTS ADVISE OBAMA
May 2, 2008
When Sen. Barack Obama recently announced the formation of his Catholic National Advisory Council, he said he was “deeply honored to have the support and counsel of these committed Catholic leaders, scholars and advocates.” Commenting on this group is Catholic League president Bill Donohue:
“The best advice I can give Sen. Obama about his Catholic National Advisory Council is to dissolve it immediately. Of the 26 Catholic former or current public office holders he has listed as either National Co-Chairs (5), or as members of the National Leadership Committee (21), there is not one who agrees with the Catholic Church on all three major public policy issues: abortion, embryonic stem cell research and school vouchers.
“Indeed, on the issue of abortion, their record is disgraceful. Consider the scorecard as issued by the most radical pro-abortion organization in the nation—NARAL. Of the two National Co-Chairs who have a NARAL tally, one agrees with the extremist group 65 percent of the time and the other agrees 100 percent of the time. Of the 20 National Leadership Committee members with a NARAL score, 17 have earned a 100 percent rating. Of those who have less than a perfect score, not one is in favor of school vouchers. [Click here for the evidence.]
“Practicing Catholics have every right to be insulted by Obama’s advisory group. What is the purpose of having an advisory group about matters Catholic when most of its members reject the Catholic position? If Obama wanted input from gay leaders, would he choose those who don’t reflect the sentiments of the gay community? In short, to choose Catholic dissidents to advise him about Catholic concerns is mind-boggling.
“If these are the best ‘committed Catholic leaders, scholars and advocates’ Obama can find, then it is evident that he has a ‘Wright’ problem when it comes to picking Catholic advisors.”
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posted May 2, 2008 at 3:33 pm
It is unfortunate that the Catholic League, a notoriously partisan organization, is trying to represent itself as the voice of the Church. The League has no such credibility, and it is clear why in this press release.
For one, if the motives behind the press release weren’t nakedly political, then Hillary Clinton and John McCain—whose records don’t perfectly align with Church doctrine, any way you look at it—would come in for some kind of analysis. The fact that Obama has been inexplicably singled out should raise red flags.
Second, there’s no basis—theological, moral, or otherwise—to cherry-pick abortion, embryonic stem cell research, and school vouchers as “all three major public policy issues.” That is self-evidently groundless. Certainly there are more than three major public policy issues; by arbitrarily selecting a handful of issues in order to a bolster a partisan argument the League only further loses credibility. I would ask the League where the Iraq War and health care fit into their vision of public policy?
Third, the Church (and notably, both John Paul II and Benedict) has formally and frequently repudiated the Iraq War. Obama stands apart from McCain and Hillary in his early opposition to the war—the only candidate whose stance aligns with the Church’s on this undeniably major issue.
Fourth, it is simply unreasonable to expect every Catholic politician to be in total agreement with every stance the Church takes on every issue. If that impossible standard were universally applied, there wouldn’t be very few Catholic politicians—at least as the League sees it.
Fifth, there is no reason to demean the outreach efforts of the Obama campaign. They have been active, good-faith engagements with Catholic figures and thinkers—a sharp contrast to the efforts of Hillary, who hasn’t taken a similar step, and McCain, who continues to stand by his supporter, the vocally anti-Catholic John Hagee.
The uniformly hostile tone of the League’s pronouncements will come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the group. I am a practicing Catholic and I certainly don’t hear my Church’s voice in such reductive and overtly political with-us-or-against-us pronouncements. They can’t tell Catholics when to be “insulted” and they don’t have the authority to tell Catholics who we can’t vote for.
posted May 2, 2008 at 3:51 pm
The Catholic League? William Donohue – that’s not surprising.
Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights: The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights calls itself a defender of “religious freedom rights and the free speech rights of Catholics whenever and wherever they are threatened,” but it is known primarily for the abrasive and confrontational style and over-the-top rhetoric of its president, William Donohue.
Here are some quotes…
“Hollywood is controlled by secular Jews who hate Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular. It’s not a secret, OK? And I’m not afraid to say it.”
– Bill Donohue on opposition to Mel Gibson’s “The Passion” movie, MSNBC’s “Scarborough Country,” 12/08/04
“The fact that Jew baiting did not accompany the nominations of Ginsburg and Breyer shows how this nation has progressed. Unfortunately, within 24 hours of Roberts’ nomination, Catholic baiting has raised its ugly head. And the fact that it is coming from a mainstream liberal source is even more disconcerting. We hope this is not the beginning of an ugly few months.”
– On the issue of Supreme Court nominee John Roberts’ faith, News Release, 07/20/05
“The anti-religious secularists on the Left are more concerned about keeping abortion-on-demand legal and keeping our society free from religious influence than any other issues. It is what defines them. Imbued with hate, they are already targeting the Christian status of Harriet Miers.”
– On the short-lived nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court, News Release, 10/05/05
“First, the cultural fascists banned crèches, and now they want to ban the Christmas tree. All of this is done, perversely, in the name of tolerance and diversity.”
– On the supposed “War on Christmas,” News Release, 12/07/05
Full article here: http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=23325
posted May 2, 2008 at 4:18 pm
The divisive and destructive nature of Bill Donahue’s comments is appauling. Fortunately, those comments were immediately outrageous, lest we be confused into thinking that Bill Donahue somehow had good intentions.
Donahue confines the entire universe of public policy to three “major” issues: abortion, embryonic stem-cell research and school vouchers. That list itself is the best evidence for the narrow agenda that Donahue pursues. Could anything be more overtly tied to the RNC’s own platform? What’s more, in his frothing vitriol, Donahue has the guile to criticize Obama for bringing together a group of Catholic politicians and civic leaders to counsel him on all the pressing issues of the day while saying nothing about where the other candidates fall short of church teaching. The lack of such pronouncements is evidence to me that this letter is a timely attempt to assisinate Obama’s character and ridicule a good-faith effort to reach out to Catholics leading up to pivotal primaries on Tuesday.
As a practicing Catholic, I would remind Bill Donahue that we are called to a consistent ethic of life, not one confined to three issues, and that the US Conference of Catholic Bishops has said that our conscience is the most reliable tool for deciding which candidate most closely meets that consistent ethic of life. In my own examination of conscience, I’ve realized the potential for Obama to unite disparate groups, engender progress on behalf of under-served populations and bring an end to the death and destruction of the Iraq war. The only question I have is how, in good conscience, Bill Donahue cannot support those goals?
posted May 2, 2008 at 4:26 pm
Colin Taylor – very well said.
posted May 4, 2008 at 10:59 am
Roque writes:
It’s worth noting that The Catholic League did take McCain to task for embracing John Hagee’s endorsement a couple months back. Just as noteworthy though, was that the Catholic League stopped beating up on McCain as soon as he denounced Hagee’s anti-Catholic statements, even as he continued to embrace Hagee’s endorsement. Would the Catholic League have left a Democratic candidate off that easy?
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