Anti-Abortion Democrats and Anti-War Republicans---Worth a Try

Jimmy Carter is out voicing support for efforts to change the Democratic Party's Platform on abortion. These efforts have been spearheaded by the outstanding organization Democrats for Life of America (DFLA). Given the harsh divides represented by slogans like "War on Women" and "War on Religion" we need voices like DFLA that point to the deeper moral imagination of what Ron Sider used to call "completely pro-life" voices in the Christian community. Having been an anti-war Republican in the past, and an anti-abortion on demand Democrat in the present, I am used to feeling like an alien presence in the culture war foxholes our political discourse invites us to enter. I am glad to see voices like DFLA pushing for a big-tent in the Democratic Party on abortion just like I welcome the efforts of American Conservative magazine to push the envelope on national security questions in the Republican Party.

A Year Later on Osama, Netanyahu and Obama

The anniversary of the death of Osama bin Laden and the latest controversy from Israel concerning the head of Israel’s military pushing back against Netanyahu’s saber rattling on Iran bring to mind a couple of pieces I posted at my old blog site Defending Obama. I did that blog for many months after the mid term elections in response to the extraordinary attacks on Obama’s person and record that so marked his first two years in office. I tried to voice objections to the more extreme attacks on Obama coming at that time from both the Left and the Right. The most viewed I post I had was one I did on Tom Wright’s criticism of Obama over the attack on bin Laden. Some of the posts I felt most proud of were the ones done around the time of Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington, DC around the time of the president’s remarks on the pre-1967 borders of Israel. As I noted at the time, Netanyahu’s critics included major military figures in Israel, something worth remembering as we again see the IDF voicing concerns about Netanyahu’s bellicose ways.

PENTECOSTALS and Catholics Together? (Update)

The landmark work of Evangelicals and Catholics Together (ECT) has been much in the news of late. The Catholic bishops refer to it in their statement on religious freedom; the cofounder of the movement, Charles Colson, passed away this weekend; Ross Douthat’s new book on religion and American life draws on the ECT narrative concerning religion and public life; and this presidential election may well be marked by aggressive collaboration between key leaders of the ECT movement. All of these stories are receiving considerable attention in religious and general media outlets, as well they should. But another piece of the story of how cultural and political conservatives from religious communities are coming together to effect change in America is being missed—a new book by James Robison and Jay Richards that signals an aggressive effort to link Pentecostals and Catholics together in culture war efforts. The book, published by the influential Ignatius Press (Fr. Fessio, Ignatius’ publisher, writes a foreword to the “Catholic edition” of the book), is an explicit attempt to galvanize these two communities in advance of the 2012 election. Titled Indivisible, with the breathless subtitle Restoring Faith, Family and Freedom Before It’s Too Late, the book is backed by a major marketing campaign and debuted number 5 on the New York Times Bestseller list. How important a role it will play in the presidential campaign remains to be seen, but for anyone with a long view of religion in America its importance should not be missed. Robison, a key figure in the fusion of Pentecostalism and Evangelicalism, is back from a self-imposed “exile” from political life in recent years and he has chosen to return in collaboration with a Catholic leader and publishing with a Catholic press. (UPDATE)His media empire is playing up his return to active culture war engagement with blogs about and major appearances with Glenn Beck as well as David Barton, including a visit on Robison's TV show. The movement of Evangelicals and Catholics Together is showing resilience and growth and this clear play by a key Catholic leader to unite with Pentecostals is something that reporters and others should take note of.

Point-Counterpoint on Vatican and American Nuns (4-26 UPDATE)

Fascinating and important conversations breaking out in the Catholic blogosphere today. An interesting and thoughtful comment from Catherine Crino, a reader of Commonweal, that is worth considering in the context of the Vatican’s recent action against the leadership of American nuns:

I am a feminist Catholic who has worked in the church my entire life. Some of my best friends have been sisters. I’ve been asked repeatedly in the last days what I think of this. Well, here goes: I know sisters who have refused to go to mass because there is a male presider. For years. And, they resent that I still support that kind of patriarchy. I know sisters who openly say that they can’t profess the Creed. They long since excised any kind of Christocentric language from prayers. I routinely arrive at least 15 minutes late for meetings, because I don’t want to be party to prayers that are, at best, Unitarian, and often enough, neo-Wiccan. This has flowed into the prayer of my colleagues who are not consecrated religious, as well.

When I share some of these anecdotes (and they are not few and far between, but common in the last twenty years of my experience), even non-Catholics and non-believers agree that Catholic sisters should probably believe in Jesus and worship at mass.

It seems to me that this all that the bishops are asking. Would they be doing their job if they didn’t? Isn’t that what they are supposed to ask of everyone – in the church and as they evangelize?

And here, a thoughtful comment from another woman disagreeing with what the Vatican has done. This writer, Martha Sherman, is responding in comments at an article in National Catholic Reporter and takes issue with a priest who wrote saying that the nuns have abandoned their calling post-Vatican II and deserve to be condemned. Martha begs to differ:

"I was educated by the School Sisters of Notre Dame as was my mother. The School Sisters no longer staff the school I attended. It is not because they have abandoned their charism of serving the needs of poor and women, but because they realize that that parish is no longer an immigrant parish, that the educational needs can now be served easily and willingly by others.
The same School Sisters who once taught me now teach is inner city and rural schools where qualified teachers are hard to attract. They are administrators in rural parishes where the population and small collection plate do not merit but a weekly or even monthly visit from a priest. They are working on reservations with Native Americans to catechize and help move the population from addiction and dependence on entitlements to freedom and strength of faith. They are working until they can no longer work, running tutorial centers for disadvantaged youth, teaching, coordinating educational programs in parishes, visiting the sick and the elderly, serving as doctors, nurses and chaplains in hospitals. They pray daily, attend Mass when it is available and demonstrate a faith that is a positive example in the communities where they serve. When they can no longer work they pray for the Church, the world, the community and all of us sinners. They are members of LCWR."


(Update) Another interesting anecdote, this from Robert McClory's post at NCR:


"Last Sunday at our church, St. Nicholas in Evanston, Ill., the retired pastor, Bob Oldershaw, praised in his homily women religious for creating in the U.S. "the most successful realization of Catholicism in history." No sooner had he uttered the words than the entire congregation rose spontaneously as one and began applauding and applauding and applauding. It continued for almost two minutes. It's true we are a clapping-prone parish, but this was unprecedented. When it finally died down, Fr. Oldershaw looked upward and said, "I hope they heard it upstairs." It wasn't clear whether he meant the Vatican, heaven or both."


(UPDATE) The wonderful Fr. James Martin has a whole article up at Washington Post On Faith blog about the conversation going on about these issues and his unique role in it due to a twitter hashtag he set up. Well worth a read. 

The Biggest Question—Does “Obamacare” Increase Abortions?

Of all the controversies about Obama, about the Affordable Care Act (ACA), about how Catholics and other Christians should think about this administration---none is bigger to me than the charge repeatedly made for years now that the ACA, or “Obamacare” is somehow a Trojan horse for massive increases in abortion funding in America. I have to say that this has always been a particularly troubling charge for me not only because I consider myself an Obama supporter opposed to abortion but also because my wife and I moved across country so that she could take a position in the federal government helping to implement the ACA. As people of Christian conscience, it is very troubling that so many of my fellow Christians believe the worst possible thing about the ACA, and by extension my wife’s work in implementing it—namely, that it was conceived in large part in order to drastically increase abortions in America. This charge, which played such a prominent role in the 2010 midterm elections and led numerous pro-life Democrats being defeated, is again being pushed as we head into the 2012 presidential election. I am therefore very pleased to see this new piece by Timothy Stoltzfus Jost at Commonweal’s website addressing this question with the most up-to-the-date research and facts. From now on, this will be THE article I refer friends to when they accuse me of being complicit in the murder of unborn children by my support for ACA (yes, that happens). This article is unlikely to stop the drumbeat in much of the pro-life community against the ACA, but it is an excellent contribution to the literature arguing that far from being a pro-life loss, the ACA is

the single most prolife piece of legislation ever adopted by Congress. Once the legislation is fully implemented, it will extend insurance coverage for life-saving medical care to millions of Americans, thousands of whom die each year because they lack access to care. The law explicitly does not allow insurers to “make coverage decisions, determine reimbursement rates, establish incentive programs, or design benefits in ways that discriminate against individuals because of their age, disability, or expected length of life.” All insurers in the individual and small-group market will be required to cover maternity care, a benefit often missing from today’s individual policies. None will be required to cover elective abortions. (emphasis added)

Steinfels' cry of the heart (and mind) to the Bishops

Margaret O'Brien Steinfels, surely one of America's most astute observers of religion and politics and a faithful lay Catholic, has written what is for now the best "cry of the heart" I have yet seen from the American Catholic Center to her Bishops. Do read the whole article here, but here is a portion of her piece:

Who does the USCCB’s fervor and intransigence actually represent? Is it the view only of the bishops at the forefront of the public protest, while the many dutifully stand back in the name of consensus? How can so many otherwise prudent and experienced bishops remain silent? Why has the conference been so implacable, even going so far as to move the goal posts by demanding that anybusiness owner be able to opt out on religious grounds?...

Indeed, this could have ended in a victory for the bishops on a teaching most adult Catholics don’t accept, even if they defend their bishops’ right to insist on it. The bishops might have kept their army intact if the mandate had been about abortion (it isn’t, despite the USCCB’s repeated claim that some contraceptives are abortifacients). But the bishops march on, seemingly oblivious to the damage they are doing to their already diminished authority, as well as to their credibility on matters that need a vigorous and rational voice: immigration, unemployment, poverty, the threat of war with Iran, and assisted suicide (on the ballot in Massachusetts).

Notre Dame Laity Push Back

Two events—the Vatican’s statement the leadership of American Catholic nuns and the extraordinary charges against President Obama leveled by the Bishop of Peoria, IL—coming on the heels of the historic call by the American Catholic Bishops for a “fortnight of freedom” in response to perceived attacks on religious liberty have awakened stiff resistance from faithful lay Catholics in America. Two must see articles detail significant steps, both coming from Notre Dame, to challenge both the American hierarchy and the Vatican.

1.                The first is an important interview with the highly regarded Catholic thinker Scott Appleby, Professor of History at Notre Dame and the Regan Director of the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. The interview is focused on the Vatican’s statement about American nuns, a report Appleby calls “inappropriate and humiliating.” This is significant because Appleby is hardly a radical critic of the Church. He is in fact one of Her most gifted thinkers. Watch the whole interview, but here are some of the key quotes:

“conservative spectrum of what we would call today feminism…not radical feminists in any sense of the word”

“not treating these sisters with respect….for their own independent judgment as mature Christian women”

“mystery why the church is turning in on itself”

“a generalized culture of fear in the church”

“seems to be motivated more by fear, anxiety and insecurity—not by the courage that would come with Christ. If we were motivated by courage and hope and confidence in Christ and we thought we might…disagree with sisters…we would consult with them quietly, collegially, respectfully, it would not be a national news story…it would not be taking over their operations. This is not the way to treat other Christians.”

“Because the Church feels besieged they think….the religious ought to be towing the line”

“certain members of the hierarchy of the church are not intending to be denigrating women…they are not doing a very good job of sending that message.”

“if you alienate women…if you continue to make them feel that somehow by being a woman…is somehow contrary to the gospel…you are alienating the very heart of your church.”

“if the Vatican are seeking unity they don’t achieve it by enforcing uniformity”

2.                The second is a letter from 50 Notre Dame professors condemning in clear language the recent speech by Bishop Daniel Jenky that compared President Obama to Hitler and Stalin and warned that if Obama were reelected “our Catholic schools, our Catholic hospitals, our Catholic Newman Centers, all our public ministries -- only excepting our church buildings -- could easily be shut down.” The Notre Dame professors urged Jenky to “renounce loudly and publicly” his inflammatory rhetoric and “If he does not do so…Notre Dame should seek the bishop's immediate resignation from the university's Board of Fellows.”