DENVER - Democrats have made it a priority to lure more evangelical and Catholic voters from the Republican camp into their own, but the likelihood of success is becoming more problematic given pronouncements by two Catholic archbishops and a decision by the editor of an evangelical Christian magazine.
Most Rev. Charles J. Chaput, the archbishop of Denver, said Democratic vice presidential candidate Joseph Biden should avoid taking Communion because of his support for abortion rights.
In 2004, the Archbishop of Boston, Sean O'Malley stood by a statement he had made the previous year that pro-choice Catholics are in a state of grave sin and cannot take Communion properly. Around the same time, then-Cardinal (now Pope Benedict XVI) Joseph Ratzinger, in a private memorandum, told American bishops that Communion must be denied to Catholic politicians who support legal abortion. The memo and the statement by O'Malley were thought at the time to be directed at Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, who is Catholic. Kerry and many other Democratic and Republican Catholic politicians have mostly ignored such directives and taken Communion anyway.
Appearing last Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tried some theological hair-splitting. She described herself as "an ardent, practicing Catholic," but then said the church had only held its pro-life position for the last 50 years and that during the previous 2,000 years it had reached different conclusions about when life begins.
In an unusual public rebuke of a leading political figure, Washington, D.C., Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl said Pelosi was "incorrect" in her statement that the church had differed over the years about when live begins. Wuerl added, "We respect the right of elected officials such as Speaker Pelosi to address matters of public policy that are before them, but the interpretation of Catholic faith has rightfully been entrusted to the Catholic bishops. Given this responsibility to teach, it is important to make this correction for the record."
Wuerl said the Catechism of the Catholic Church has been clear for 2,000 years and he quoted from it: "Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. Š Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law."
Pelosi's office at first had no comment, but late Tuesday Pelosi's spokesman, Brendan Daly, issued a statement quoting the Speaker as saying she was raised in a "devout" Catholic home, but that "not all Catholics believe that life begins at conception." That comment is worse than the first. It makes Catholic teaching a matter of personal preference, not objective truth. This exposes the Democrats' "outreach" effort to "people of faith" - and you can pick whichever faith you like as long as you vote for Democrats - as a fraud and an attempt to add just one more interest group to the Democratic Party's constellation.
The third item of bad news for Democrats, who thought they could fool serious Catholics and evangelical Christians, may not have the impact of the previous two, but it reveals another crack in the foundation Democrats are trying to build in their party for religious voters. Cameron Strang, 32-year-old editor of the "edgy" and "hip" Relevant Magazine, pulled out of delivering the benediction on the Democratic National Convention's first night for fear it might be construed as an endorsement of Barack Obama.
Democrats have worked hard to bring more religious voters into their fold. As part of their strategy they have promoted a dubious and debatable doctrine that big government should be doing the work of God on Earth. But Democrats want to pick and choose what they like about God and what they don't (Republicans sometimes do this as well in such matters as wealth and materialism).
While government has a role in addressing certain issues that can be considered biblically-based (such as justice and poverty), Democrats see no role for government in helping to restrict sinful man when he wishes to kill the unborn, or allow - even promote - any and every relationship but traditional marriage.
It is in its failure to address these premier moral issues that the Democratic Party has unmasked itself as a party that cares less for God's agenda and more for its own, as it pursues the White House.