"I'm Catholic, Staunchly Anti-Racist, and Support David Duke"

So writes William Donahue of the Catholic League. Read for yourself.

Comments

[Evan]

The problem with this parody, of course, is that Obama is pro-choice rather than pro-abortion. This is not to say that a pro-choice stance is morally defensible. It is not. But one would be unfairly slandering Obama to say simply that he is pro-abortion because of his pro-choice stance. Obama has spoken out and worked consistently to lower abortion rates. The moral problem with an Obama candidacy is its opposition to making abortion illegal. Legal abortion, however, is not the same as abortion accepted on a moral level.

For Obama to support the act of abortion would be for him to support an intrinsic evil. To say simply, however, that it is not the place of the state to restrict abortion is a morally wrong decision and an indefensible political stance. It is not, however, the same as an anti-racist supporting a racist. It might be the same as an anti-racist supporting someone who thinks racism is a terrible thing but does not think that the government should criminalize the racist practices of private businesses or people. This would be a troubling moral stance, to be sure, and not necessarily one that is defensible. It is not, however, fairly characterized in Donahue's parody.

I think that valid arguments could be made against pro-life Catholics who support Obama, but the overly-simplistic approach to the problem taken by this site and others only does a disservice to Catholic moral reasoning.

[Ed Peters]

I thought it was pretty funny. And, as folks know, I'm not a major BD fan, but this was pretty on-target. btw, checking the comments at the original site, I can't beleive how many people have missed the whole point.

[Stohn]

YES! I love it!

[Mark Brumley]

We have plenty of antiracist laws. So "I'm personally opposed to racism but I do not think the state should impose racial equality on society" can be made to parallel the so-called prochoice position.

[Mark Brumley]

The prochoice position is a proabortion rights position. Those who take a prochoice stance take a proabortion rights stance. That entails denial of the right to life of unborn children and the affirmation of the right of mothers and abortionists to end the lives of their unborn children.

To hold that mothers have the right to kill their unborn children and that mothers have a right to enlist the assistance of abortionists to do so is to support an intrinsically evil.

With respect to the parody, the point is that Mr. Donahue is not simply opposed to abortion; he is also opposed to the so-called prochoice stance on abortion. His parody points to the problem of someone opposing the prochoice stance (supposedly a prolifer) who still supports so-called prochoice politicians.

[Evan]

"btw, checking the comments at the original site, I can't beleive how many people have missed the whole point."

Yes, this was pretty depressing/amusing.

[The Athenian Stranger]

I'm Catholic, a staunch moderate realist, and I support the repeal of the law of gravity.