Cafeteria Journalism - Pro-Choice Spin

The NYT has figured out why many Catholic Democrats (and Hilary voters) are moving to the McCain camp.

It may be because the bishops are being a little more vocal with pro-choice politicians or with voter guides like the one from Catholic Answers from San Diego, California.

Even though the reporter recognizes the shift to McCain from 'progressive Catholic', he still offers his take (spin) on the issue in the final paragraphs of the article


Abortion Issue Again Dividing Catholic Votes

... After the 2004 election, progressive Catholics started to organize and appeared to win some victories. In 2006, the bishops’ conference all but banned outside voter guides from parishes. And last fall, the bishops revised their official statement on voting priorities to explicitly allow Catholics to vote for a candidate who supports abortion rights if they do so for other reasons. And it also allowed for differences of opinion about how to apply church principles. The statement appeared to leave room for Democrats to argue that social programs were an effective way to reduce abortion rates, an idea the party recently incorporated into its platform.

The Bishops allowed Catholics to vote for candidates who support abortion? I think not.
Oh, and we can interpret the application of church principles. They mean Catholic teaching on abortion of course...

Their revisions set the stage for a clash of voter guides. Catholic Answers is again promoting its “nonnegotiables” voter guide; a new group, Catholics in Alliance for Common Good, has produced a chart comparing the candidates’ views on the war, taxes, the environment and other issues as well as abortion.

Thank God for Catholic Answers...

The same debate is already playing out almost every day in the letters section of Scranton’s newspaper, said Jean Harris, a political scientist at the Jesuit-run University of Scranton. “It is a running debate between Catholics saying ‘abortion is the only issue’ and others saying ‘you have to look at the whole teaching of the church,’ ” she said.
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