COMMENTARY: A pox on both their houses

c. 2008 Religion News Service (UNDATED) No doubt about it, abortion is the elephant in the election booth this year. Neither John McCain nor Barack Obama seems to want to address it directly, and their surrogates are playing hardball on different fields. While the Obama camp is making a big push for the religious vote, […]

c. 2008 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) No doubt about it, abortion is the elephant in the election booth this year. Neither John McCain nor Barack Obama seems to want to address it directly, and their surrogates are playing hardball on different fields.

While the Obama camp is making a big push for the religious vote, the McCain folks seem happy to leave well enough alone.


Conservative Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson, who calls the Obama campaign “rootless, reactive and panicky,” told members of the Religion Newswriters Association last week that Obama’s camp had abandoned religious voter outreach. Within hours, Joshua DuBois _ Obama’s religionist-in-chief _ was on the convention podium disagreeing.

DuBois said the Obama campaign wants to attract people of “moderate” beliefs, who will see Obama’s attraction to the “core values of all religions.” Translation: Everyone except right-wing Bible-thumping crazies hears Obama’s domestic policy as the social gospel and, like other intelligent people, will support Obama.

Why Obama’s emphasis on religious social teachings? Well, nearly a quarter of the country defines itself as Catholic, and another quarter lists itself as evangelical. Add in the Pentecostals and the Mormons, and _ theoretically at least _ you have a huge and solid pro-life voting block.

Which is not exactly Obama Nation.

Evangelicals, Pentecostals and Mormons, for the most part, are not budging on life issues, nor are they moving en masse toward Obama. They know Obama regularly voted against positions endorsed by the National Right to Life Committee _ until he stopped voting on life issues altogether a year ago.

Then there are the Catholics. Obama shook things up by selecting a Catholic running mate. Joe Biden is not exactly pro-life, but he does have some redeeming votes about him, such as his opposition to partial-birth abortion. And Catholics are particularly fond of Democrats’ liberal social policies.

What about the Republicans? Well, it turns out McCain stopped voting on life issues precisely when Obama did. And for all his pro-life hoopla, McCain voted to support federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. While he wants to overturn Roe v. Wade and return the abortion issue to the states, McCain supports abortion in cases of rape, incest, and life of the mother.

McCain’s running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, has a public pro-life stance that ranges from the laudatory to the Draconian, depending on how you view it, and no legislative record. She supports abortion only if the mother’s life is in danger.


Enter the Catholic bishops, whose document “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,” presents their take on decision-making 2008. The bishops give no clear-cut answer to the Catholic voter’s quandary. They seem to say Catholics may support “pro-choice” candidates whose platforms include other, overriding good points. They also say abortion support can be an automatic disqualification for a Catholic vote.

Chances are the long arms of American Catholicism will embrace different candidates. For the record, Catholic teaching says abortion, cloning, embryonic stem cell research, assisted suicide, euthanasia, genocide, torture and direct attacks on non-combatants are always wrong. But Catholic social teaching also argues on behalf of the homeless, the environment, the economically deprived, and those in need of health care.

It is possible, but not probable, that the Catholic vote will make a difference. Each of the four candidates has something attractive to Catholic voters: Obama’s social policy, Biden’s Catholicism, McCain’s and Palin’s perceived pro-life stances.

Election Day will dawn on Nov. 4. Many will make their considered decision before God as they understand him _ or her. At the end of the day, or early the next, we will have elected the next president and vice president of the United States.

Fact of the matter is most folks I’ve talked with don’t want any of them to win.

(Phyllis Zagano is senior research associate-in-residence at Hofstra University and author of several books in Catholic Studies.)


KRE/LF END ZAGANO700 words

A photo of Phyllis Zagano is available via https://religionnews.com.

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