Let the Killing Begin

The Catholic moral conscience has an absolute clarity and simplicity; the following are always, everywhere, intrinsically and gravely evil: abortion, genocide, ethnocide, euthanasia, suicide, embryo destruction, infanticide, femicidal honor killings, targeting of civilian populations, and torture; adultery, fornication, prostitution, pornography, homosexual actions, and masturbation. The first group deals with the destruction of innocent life, the second with the spousal nature of sexuality.

The Catholic moral conscience has about it a sense of complexity, nuance and tolerance. A wide range of social policies require probative, prudential judgment involving uncertainty, ambiguity, and a legitimate diversity of opinion: justness of a given war, necessity of the death penalty, taxes, immigration, environment, health care, and the safety network for the poor.

The Liberal moral conscience has an absolute clarity and simplicity; the following are always, everywhere, intrinsically and gravely evil: war, death penalty, tax breaks for the rich, strict immigration policy, global warming, resistance to universal heath care, and reductions in the safety network for the poor.

The Liberal moral conscience has about it a sense of complexity, nuance, tolerance and diversity about: abortion, euthanasia, suicide, embryo destruction, adultery, fornication, prostitution, pornography, homosexual acts, and masturbation.

The one is the inversion of the other. Take your pick: one has it right; the other has things backwards. This is for sure: you cannot be at the same time Liberal and Catholic.

The media is reporting that Obama will immediately use his executive powers to authorize use of governmental power and tax monies to destroy living embryos (referred to fallaciously and euphemistically as “stem cell research”) and increase abortions. His first actions are consistent with everything he has always said. The three political commentators on CNN last night enthusiastically agreed that he was elected precisely to implement those policies and that is what he should do, swiftly and efficiently.

Some find my relentless comparison of Democrat and Nazi policy unfair. They are right: Hitler did not so clearly announce his genocidal intentions. His plan developed deceptively and secretly, in deference to the decency of the German people. The same cannot be said for the USA in 2008. The comparison is unfair to the well-intended, genuinely ignorant German people who placed him and kept him in power.