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butterfly blog
once in a blue moon
Last weekend, this little gem appeared in our bulletin at church. It was a nice change to our usual Election Time Message of "Vote and don't forget that you're Catholic" (ok, that was a paraphrase, but that's really about all it's ever been). I was glad to see something in writing from the Bishops about public policy and voting.
I particularly liked this section:
Does the Church seek to impose its morality? Doesn't that violate the separation of church and state?
The Constitution protects the free exercise of religion, even as it prohibits the establishment of a state-sponsored religion or church. The separation of church and state - so often misunderstood - in no way implies a separation of law from morality nor morality from public life. Some people claim that morality cannot and should not be legislated. This overlooks the important fact that law often makes a moral claim, forbidding some action or requiring another.
In a world with so few good Catholic candidates for office (are priests allowed to run for office? I mean, aside from the fact that they're already stretched to the max with stuff to do...), I tend to be a "few issues" voter. I look to where life begins and where life ends and who is willing to stand up for what he/she believes in between. That said, one of our presidential candidates fits my criteria, and the other doesn't. Senator Kerry is one of "some people" referenced above and it's sad. I can't count the number of times he's stated that he doesn't feel it's his place to legislate his faith/morality & force it upon others. My question to him is, then what do you do? Legislate the opposite of your morality? We might as well make all murder legal.
By the way... when Senator Kerry talked about military families buying body armor online to send to their loved ones serving our country... he forgot to mention that he voted against giving the military more money for such things. If he were really so concerned about families buying body armor out of pocket because their soldier wasn't given any, then he should have voted to give the military the money to buy what ever they need to protect our men & women who are fighting to protect all the rest of us.
Lastly, I heard a nasty rumor that Governor Rendell wasn't going to extend the deadline for our military to cast their ballots. When I went off in search of truth to the rumor, I found this article. I'm glad that the governor is going to allow plenty of time for the overseas ballots to arrive. The last I had heard from a friend in Iraq he still hadn't received his ballot. Hopefully he (and anyone else who hasn't received one) will be able to download one here.
posted by Amy : 11:31:00 AM
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