Bishops plan to confront Obama. From Tuesday's Chicago Tribunal:
Though the document made clear that "the direct and intentional destruction of innocent human life is always wrong and is not just one issue among many," it also advised Catholics to weigh issues like poverty, war, the environment and human rights when choosing candidates.
But some bishops said they were surprised to see Catholics cite the document as justification for selecting candidates--like Obama--who support abortion rights. A slim majority of the nation's Catholics voted for the Democratic candidate.
I find all bishop statements frustrating. To be honest, I didn't even read the bishops' statement this year. I figured, "Heck, they'll say something direct, then throw it in a bed of flowery prose and obfuscation. Why waste my time."
Here's an idea: JUST SAY IT! In your next statement, write, "You can't vote for a politician who will expand abortion rights." Then repeat it, then say it again.
After you get done saying it three times, then (and only then) launch into the other issues: "Once you determine that your candidate is not pro-abortion (or -gay marriage, or -euthanasia, or -embryo stem cell harvesting, or -cloning), then you look at other issues: poverty, war, the environment, etc."
And then tell every parish priest: "Read this from the pulpit. . . twice, with fire. Make sure they know it isn't negotiable, no matter what say the dissident theologians that have been tearing apart the American Catholic Church for four decades. If you want to be in bed with Charles Curran, ask him on a date . . . but in the meantime, act like a Catholic."
And if you, the bishops, don't think the issue is that cut-and-dry, don't get all self-righteous on the president-elect. You yourselves waffle. Now you want to deal in absolutes?
Catholics who want to vote for the pro-abortion candidate will seize anything they can and say, "See, I ain't a bad Catholic." Don't give wiggle room anymore: Say: "Vote in accordance with Church teaching or leave. This is America. You don't have to be Catholic. You have freedom, baby, freeedom! But you don't have the freedom to be illogical, anymore than you have the freedom to tell the sun to stop burning. If you're Catholic, vote like one. If you don't want to vote like one, the First Union Church of the Druids is looking for members."
But of course, the bishops need to be direct with their flock before they start raining theological blows on them.
So memo to Bishops: JUST SAY IT!
Again, JUST SAY IT!
And for good measure: JUST SAY IT!
It ain't that hard.
My apologies if my prose is a bit intemperate, but there's something tragic (or is it comical?) about shepherds who take a hard line with someone outside their flock but aren't willing to take a hard line with their own flock. If I were Obama, I'd scoff . . . maybe not publicly, but inside, I'd scoff.
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Found this interesting: Taxes on the nine World Series of Poker finalists:
1. Peter Eastgate (Denmark) won $9,152,416 -- $6,660,545 Denmark tax (72.8% rate)
2. Ivan Demidov (Russia) won $5,809,595 -- $755,247 Russian tax (13.0% rate)
3. Dennis Phillips (IL) won $4,517,773 -- $1,568,950 federal tax, $135,533 state tax (37.7% rate)
4. Ylon Schwartz (NY) won $3,774,974 -- $1,396,304 federal tax, $387,966 state tax (47.3% rate)
5. Scott Montgomery (Canada) won $3,096,768 -- $929,030 withholding tax (30.0% rate)
6. Darus Suharto (Toronto) won $2,418,562 -- $725,569 withholding tax (30.0% rate)
7. David Rheem (CA) won $1,772,650 -- $651,262 federal tax, $170,302 state tax (46.3% rate)
8. Kelly Kim (CA) won $1,288,217 -- $470,995 federal tax, $121,074 state tax (46.0% rate)
9. Craig Marquis (TX) won $900,670 -- $328,911 federal tax (36.5% rate)
