Genuinely Above Their Pay Grade

Genuinely Above Their Pay Grade

"In 2008, although NBC probably didn't intend it, Meet the Press has become a national window on the flawed moral reasoning of some Catholic public servants."
Denver Archbishop Charles J. Chaput and Auxiliary Bishop of Denver James D. Conley.

I remember having any number of correspondents with people--some of whom came across as genuinely puzzled--who said they were amazed that the abortion issue was (in their words) "invisible" this election cycle. Wow, if that doesn't seem like a million years ago…

Pro-abortionists, in their public pronouncements, always insist if only the electorate knew that candidate "x" was pro-life, they'd be toast. Yet as soon as the pro-abortion candidate (be it Sen. John Kerry or Senators Barack Obama and Joe Biden) stumbles/bumbles his/her way into discussing the issue, those same abortion advocates bemoan how abortion has been unfairly "injected" into the campaign. Makes you think they aren't quite as confident as they profess to be.

A couple of weeks ago we wrote about Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi appearance on Meet the Press. Mrs. Pelosi made a colossal error in judgment, wading into a theological exposition above her pay grade.

Denver Archbishop Charles J. Chaput and Auxiliary Bishop of Denver James D. Conley promptly wrote a letter to their people explaining the many ways the Speaker has misrepresented the Catholic Church's consistent opposition to abortion. (See "On the Separation of Sense and State" http://nrlc.org/News_and_Views/Aug08/nv082608.html)

Wouldn't you know it, vice presidential nominee Sen. Joseph Biden, appearing on the same program, was asked the same question by moderator Tom Brown: what advice would you give to Sen. Barack Obama to aid him in answering the question Rick Warren posed to both Obama and Sen. John McCain at the Saddleback Forum: when does life begin? (That wasn't what Warren asked, but we won't let that delay us here.)

Biden made many of the same egregious errors and misstatements that ensnarled Speaker Pelosi, prompting a second letter from Archbishop Charles J. Chaput and Auxiliary Bishop James D. Conley. In some ways, it is even more helpful than their first.

It's old hat to us, but revelation (apparently) to the Bidens and Pelosis and Obamas. It is not a matter of religious doctrine (or a "personal and private" opinion) when life begins, they write: "[I]n reality, modern biology knows exactly when human life begins: at the moment of conception."

Likewise, on Biden's phony baloney contention that he it wouldn't be right for him to "impose" his "morality" on others. Let me quote their response at length:

"In his Meet the Press interview, Sen. Biden used a morally exhausted argument that American Catholics have been hearing for 40 years: i.e., that Catholics can't 'impose' their religiously based views on the rest of the country. But resistance to abortion is a matter of human rights, not religious opinion. And the senator knows very well as a lawmaker that all law involves the imposition of some people's convictions on everyone else. That is the nature of the law. American Catholics have allowed themselves to be bullied into accepting the destruction of more than a million developing unborn children a year. Other people have imposed their 'pro-choice' beliefs on American society without any remorse for decades."

A tip of the hat to Speaker Pelosi and Sen. Biden for reminding the American electorate that pro-abortion Catholics do not speak for their church.

Please send your thoughts to daveandrusko@hotmail.com.