Monday, February 13, 2012

The Top Ten Catholic positions that Rick Santorum conveniently ignores.

I know I'm right, regardless of your silly "evidence."
As we have seen Santorum has taken what he sees as the perfect wedge issue, Obama's "forcing" of religious organization to provide contraception through insurance (An issue now diffused by the Obama administration which now allows insurance companies to handle this instead, But Santorum would never let facts get in the way of a good attack strategy.), and really run with it.

But, as it turns out, there are plenty of stances taken by his Catholic church, that Rick is completely out of step with.  Here are ten, courtesy of Juan Cole:

1. So for instance, Pope John Paul II was against anyone going to war against Iraq I think you’ll find that Rick Santorum managed to ignore that Catholic teaching. 

2.The Conference of Catholic Bishops requires that health care be provided to all Americans. I.e., Rick Santorum’s opposition to universal health care is a betrayal of the Catholic faith he is always trumpeting. 

3. The Catholic Church opposes the death penalty for criminals in almost all situations. (Santorum largely supports executions.) 

4. The US Conference of Bishops has urged that the federal minimum wage be increased, for the working poor. Santorum in the Senate repeatedly voted against the minimum wage. 

5. The bishops want welfare for all needy families, saying “We reiterate our call for a minimum national welfare benefit that will permit children and their parents to live in dignity. A decent society will not balance its budget on the backs of poor children.” Santorum is a critic of welfare. 

6. The US bishops say that “the basic rights of workers must be respected–the right to productive work, to decent and fair wages, to the organization and joining of unions…”. Santorum, who used to be supportive of unions in the 1990s, has now, predictably, turned against them. 

7. Catholic bishops demand the withdrawal of Israel from Palestinian territories occupied in 1967. Rick Santorum denies that there are any Palestinians, so I guess he doesn’t agree with the bishops on that one. 

8. The US Conference of Catholic Bishops ripped into Arizona’s law on treatment of immigrants, Cardinal Roger Mahony characterized Arizona’s S.B. 1070 as “the country’s most retrogressive, mean-spirited, and useless anti-immigrant law,” saying it is based on “totally flawed reasoning: that immigrants come to our country to rob, plunder, and consume public resources.” He even suggested that the law is a harbinger of an American Nazism! Santorum attacks ‘anchor babies’ or the provision of any services to children of illegal immigrants born and brought up in the US. 

9. The Bishops have urged that illegal immigrants not be treated as criminals and that their contribution to this country be recognized. 

10. The US Conference of Bishops has denounced, as has the Pope, the Bush idea of ‘preventive war’, and has come out against an attack on Iran in the absence of a real and present threat of an Iranian assault on the US. In contrast, Santorum wants to play Slim Pickens in Dr. Strangelove and ride the rocket down on Isfahan himself.

In fact it appears to me that a good Catholic would be hard pressed to support ANY of the current GOP front runners.  With the possible exception of Ron Paul.

Yet myopically Santorum focuses on this one issue, unsurprisingly it involves sex of course, to attempt to fan the flames of religious self victimization in order to gain support for his campaign against "the other."

Personally I feel that the Catholic church itself has NO moral standing on any of these issues at this point, after decades of protecting pedophiles within their clergy, and inflicting incredible harm on their youngest parishioners.  In my opinion there is NO moral comparison between allowing women to control their own ability to reproduce and allowing predators to rape and molest children under protections form the church.

And by the way, for those who will argue that the church has already addressed this issue and put a stop to it, I would point out that you are being truly naive.

41 comments:

  1. Anonymous2:45 AM

    Excellent points! Keep up the pressure on the inconsistencies that these evangelicals have in their beliefs and positions. You could do a whole piece on "What Would Jesus Do" on many social issues and we'd find the evangelicals lacking.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous3:33 AM

    Rick's wife lived for six years with the doctor that delivered her. She was nurse in her early 20's and the doctor was 43 years older than her.

    How does Rick feel about her living in sin with the doctor? Did she use birth control during those six years?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous3:46 AM

    I agree with you, Gryphen.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous3:50 AM

    Rick Santorum's intense focus on sex: no sex for pleasure, even between married couples, just for procreation is bizarre.

    If a married couple should accidentally enjoy their coupling, what would Santorum have them do? Should a woman's clitoris be mutilated so she cannot enjoy sex? Should the man feel shame?

    Santorum has some deep-seated sexual problems that are translating into obsession. Sad, sad man. (Sadder wife, I am sure.)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous3:58 AM

    I read that in Milwaukee there were somthing like 800,00 cases of priest molestations that were covered up. If the Cathoilic Church can pay off all these lawsuits, why are they still taking money from poor parishioners? They wanted to buy the Crystal Cathedral in California for $50 MILLION. That money would have stocked lots of food pantries. Time for religious organizations, especially those who involve themselves in politics, to pay taxes.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous4:44 AM

    Just like most repugs, they only pick the parts of their religion that fits into their narrative. How anybody could continue listening to any thing the Catholic Church has to say is beyond me, and I was baptized and raised Catholic. The more I learn about the history of the Church, the more outrage I feel. I don't care how much good this institution claims it has done, the bad outweighs the good a million times over.

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  7. Anonymous5:24 AM

    I wonder why the Bishops,and the GOP are keeping soooo silent on the child molestions in the Church.

    Should they speak out, I may then listen to what they have to say.I dare them to read a letter on the subject in Church.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous5:24 AM

    Sounds like Frothy Mixture needs to find a new excuse/justification for his anti-woman, anti-family, anti-equality agenda.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous5:41 AM

    Any easy way to remember the universal Republican platform is this:
    (Even most Repugnants know some of the alphabet!) F-G-H.

    Fear, Hatred, & Greed.

    What about simple math (sorry, Sarah, "meth" is something altogether different!) ? Oh, yeah! Division! As in, "do your best to divide the country," the only way a Republican knows they have a chance of winning an election.

    londoN bridgeS

    ReplyDelete
  10. Olivia5:44 AM

    Anonymous@3:33am, that doctor she lived with ran an abortion clinic. I think Frothy's mission is to purge himself from his wife's sins. I am convinced that he feels she is unclean and he needs to make sure the whole country suffers for her sins. Kind of like hanging us all on a cross to pay for her filthy behavior.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous5:57 AM

    The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote the complete story about the baby that Karen Santorum sadly lost at 19 weeks. A sonogram showed a fatal fetal flaw, and the Santorums chose to have risky intrauterine to try to address the problem. The operation resulted in Karen having an infection and she was running a temperature of 105 degrees. The doctors gave her antibiotics to fight the infection.

    Here is where the story gets difficult. The Santurms claimed that the fetus was the cause of the infection, and to save Karen's life, the fetus was delivered. They also claimed that the antibiotics induced labor. The truth is that the infection came from the high risk operation that they chose for her to undergo. I am sorry to say that if they had not had the operation, the baby would likely have been born dead, or certainly too weak to survive for a period of time. Doctors dispute the claim that antibiotics bring on labor. Many pregnant women have been treated with antibiotics during pregnancy and carried to term.

    Santorum's claims that his wife did not have an abortion are not true. When they induced labor to save Karen's life, medically speaking, that's an abortion. The cause of her infection was that high risk operation. What ever happened to accepting God's will?

    Here are two versions of the story: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/01/04/1051452/-Santorums-Horrifying-Vision-for-Women
    http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/laugh-cry-live/201201/crazy-perfectly-normal-bereaved-parent-in-defense-rick-and-karen-santorum

    The end result is just as sad and strange. They claimed that the baby lived for two hours. When the baby, Gabriel, died, Karen and Rick slept in the hospital bed with the dead baby between them. The next day, they brought Gabriel home to meet his brothers and sisters who got to hold him before Gabriel was buried.

    The Santorums are free to lead their lives anyway they want. They made decisions that most of us would not make. But, they have no business telling other people how to conduct their reproductive lives. The choice for Karen to undergo risky surgery during her pregnancy was their choice, and it represents the other kinds of decisions that Santorum would make if he was in any kind of office again.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Gasman6:12 AM

    Santorum is one sexually repressed supercilious prig. The things that piss him off the most seem to involve other people getting laid more than him. It also seems that just about EVERYBODY is getting laid more than Santorum. Ricky's just got to get over the fact that his notion of sex is better suited for the 19th century than the 21st.

    If by some very weird twist of fate Santorum were nominated by the GOP to be their candidate for president his strident sexually repressed obsession driven social agenda would turn off voters by record numbers. As the GOP nominee for POTUS, Santorum would be lucky to garner much beyond 25% of the national vote. Santorum wants to take birth control away from women - including the 98% of Catholic women who use it. Ain't gonna' happen.

    There is no fucking way - pun very much intended - that Santorum's anally retentive view of sex will carry him to the White House. THAT dog don't hunt.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Ah, Rick Santorum.

    Bullying the sick, the poor and the needy.

    Just like Jesus...

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    (Obvious snark, please)

    ReplyDelete
  14. We call people like Rick Santorum Cafeteria Catholics. Pick and choose your way through the tenets of the religion.

    Are we returning to the Inquisition? Should be expect floggings and the rack for those who enjoy sex and use birth control?

    In frothy mixture's world, women would be wearing burkas and scarlet letters; gays would be persecuted; sentenced to death; and men would get free Viagra®.

    (Oh, and priests would continue to abuse little boys.)

    ReplyDelete
  15. It was because of the other points that Juan Cole raised that kept me in the Catholic church far longer then I should have been.
    The issue of sex abuse and lack of recognition of women and their stance on birth control finally drove me out.
    But this article is right. Gingrich and santorum either supports all the church's teaching's or they should just shut up.
    And they used to call me a cafeteria catholic!!!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Virginia Voter6:26 AM

    Rick Sanitarium is perhaps the most scary of all the GOp'ers.

    He is seriously hung up on sexual and social issues, to the point where I think there is something psychologically wrong with him. I feel sorry for his kids, they are going to be fucked up for life. Sheltered, homeschooled, are they even allowed to go to college?

    ReplyDelete
  17. Also, the Catholic Pro-Life, Pro-Execution thing is pretty standard amongst "cafeteria" Catholics.

    But yeah, molesters and enablers holding the Moral compass of an entire portion of the world?

    Laughable if it weren't so sad and scary.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Anonymous6:44 AM

    What does Leetle Reeky really believe? Not the crap that he thinks will get him elected?

    ReplyDelete
  19. The story about bringing the baby home is just. too. much.

    Why, in God's name, do the siblings of a dead baby need to SEE the dead baby?

    D-e-a-d. B-a-b-y.

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    As for wifey, she seems like Rick Santorum is her personal cult leader.

    _______________________
    Around that time, she met her future husband when he recruited her as a summer intern for his law firm;

    he too hadn’t been much of a practicing Catholic,

    but that changed soon after they married in 1990. They immediately started a family; Karen never practiced law.

    Her husband ran for Congress, and by the mid-1990s he was among the most fervent anti-abortion legislators in the House of Representatives.

    Her law-school friend the social-justice lawyer ran into Karen Santorum on Capitol Hill around then. “She greeted me warmly,” he recalls, “but I got the idea that she wasn’t allowed to embrace me or anything. By that point she was dressed like Hester Prynne.”

    Among the final times Tom Allen heard from Karen was a Christmas card in 1988.

    “I miss you,” it read

    __________________

    http://tinyurl.com/7yytd98

    ReplyDelete
  20. Since I began voting, I have believed that the Democrat's positions on nearly everything more closely comport with the views of the catholic church of which I am still a member (not very happily of late!)and, more importantly, comport with the views of the man whom the fundies like to believe they're following. AND follow the truths mentioned in the Constitution and Declaration of Independence--mostly the "promoting the general welfare" one and the "all men are created equal" one.

    But for fundies, oftentimes it is the ONE ISSUE of abortion that trumps all else. They win elections on this. That's why they push this issue front and center (IMHO). But guess what? It didn't work last time.

    Obama 2012!!

    ReplyDelete
  21. Anonymous7:11 AM

    Gryphen,
    You also missed a very important tenent by the RCC that Rick breaks almost constantly. Lay people ( regular church goers) are NOT allowed to prothesize. That is left up ONLY the ordained in the RCC. That is why you never see catholics going door to door. Risk seems to always be spouting off talking like an evangelical and yet true catholics leave that to the educated in the church. This is actually a mortal sin putting himself on the same level as clergy and he is walking a fine line to be excommunicated. While most catholics don't even know why they are encouraged to seek out new members, this is why. The RCC decided centuries ago that only those highly educated by the church had any business prothesizing. BTW most catholics get very little religious training because of this, it is to be left up to the trained clergy.
    If anyone is wondering why I know this, my father attended the seminary before marrying and if priests could have been married he most likely would have been ordained.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. myth buster6:15 PM

      The word is proselytize, and the laity and religious (nuns, monks) most certainly ARE called to proselytize. A synonym for proselytize is evangelize, and that is the word you'll more commonly find in Catholic circles. The laity are not allowed to give sermons during Mass, but all are called "to earnestly contend for the faith" and "preach the Gospel to all nations." Furthermore, lay men are able to baptize if the child or catecumen is near death. Indeed, if a dying man professed the faith and wished to be baptized, even if he had shown no interest in baptism before that hour, let alone joined RCIA, a lay Catholic could baptize him, not even needing to ask permission.

      Your confusion probably originates from a miscommunication. It is of vital importance that evangelists and apologists know and understand the doctrines they are trying to teach and defend, lest they harden hearts or lead others into heresy, but one does not need to be a deacon, let alone a priest, in order to evangelize. Furthermore, all candidates for Confirmation have a sponsor to guide them in the faith (the sponsor may or may not be a godparent). I have never heard of a case where the Confirmation sponsor was a clergyman.

      Neither is Sen. Santorum in any way impersonating a clergyman. He is not claiming to be ordained, nor behaving as though he were (for instance, by attempting to hear confessions or say Mass). Neither is he by omission giving any reasonable person the impression that he even might be a clergyman.

      Delete
  22. Anonymous7:26 AM

    tenet not tenant
    proselytize not prosthetize

    ReplyDelete
  23. Anonymous7:33 AM

    How come Rick's daughter is not with child?

    How does he ever expect to get Sarah's endorsement, if his daughter is not knocked up.

    Rick's daughter has some scary eyes..

    ReplyDelete
  24. I bet if Ricky were patted down whilst at a convention, the patter would find a few little blue pills jingling in Rick's pocket ~ for later.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Anonymous8:15 AM

    The Supremes on "Religious Freedom"...

    http://www.americablog.com/2012/02/how-mormons-and-scalia-prove-that-obama.html

    ReplyDelete
  26. Chenagrrl8:23 AM

    You can also point out that Pope Benedict XVI has written a defense of the church in the prosecution of Galileo. Something about the Earth still being flat, no matter what the heathens say.

    ReplyDelete
  27. That baby they aborted and slept with then took it home so his kids can play with it, happened when his wife was 48 years old. What was foamy thinking impregnating his wife for his self pleasure?

    ReplyDelete
  28. Oh yeah another thing, frothy doesn't believe that women should be in combat with men because men will be distracted, er it's the woman's fault.

    The man is living in the 16th century and has some fucked up views, the little snotty shit.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Dinty8:58 AM

    If altarboys could get pregnant the Catholic Church would have no problem with birth control

    ReplyDelete
  30. Anonymous9:23 AM

    Let's just call this whole thing what it really is: Republicans don't want you to have sex.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous3:09 AM

      I'm looking for an investor to open a string of counseling centers named, "Have Sex Like a Democrat"

      Delete
  31. I think there is something psychologically wrong with him. I feel sorry for his kids, they are going to be fucked up for life. Sheltered, homeschooled, are they even allowed to go to college?
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    VV-

    I imagine there is a LOT wrong with this man.

    You point out what I didn't realize earlier:

    the Santorums "shelter" their children from the "gross" SEX (egads!) and violence (that can be disturbing for children, certainly!) in our nasty old media today...

    BUT bringing their DEAD SIBLING HOME WON'T FU*K them up in the HEAD????????

    As adults, I believe Rick & Karen should be free to grieve however they need -- BUT --

    forcing your children to spend the day with a dead relative?

    Would this have been okay if it had been a little boy, not infant, who died at the hospital -- and they brought him home AFTER HE WAS DEAD???

    How is that even legal, really?

    As far as death being a "part of life", well, SEX is the LIFE FORCE and I'm pretty sure Rickles ain't letting his kids watch that!!!!!!

    I have never seen a dead person in my life (thank you, God!).

    I cannot imagine the first time I see a dead body, it would be my baby brother - in my house.

    My mother didn't even want me to see my grandmother at her funeral b/c she wanted me to remember her "the was she was", not there in a coffin. I'm still okay with that. I was younger, 12 or so.

    This story is just. too. BIZARRE!!!!!!

    Creepy ass family.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Anonymous9:47 AM

    A vote for Newt Gingrich = a cop in every bedroom.

    A vote for Rick Santorum = a cop in every bedroom, every medicine cabinet, and every doctor's office.

    A vote for Mitt Romney = only rich people get cops – for the purpose of 'protecting' them from poor people.

    A vote for Ron Paul = no cops –except where absolutely necessary for the public welfare, safety, and well-being.

    ReplyDelete
  33. Anonymous10:05 AM

    Just like "every" institution made by man, there will always be pedophiles. But not every priest is a pedophile. There are many many good decent priests and bishops out there who have borne the lives of sacrifice and helped many.

    The church should concentrate on allowing priests to marry. Saint Paul said in the epistles that he would rather that chosen disciples and all christians marry than to burn. He knew that celibacy wasn't an easy thing and not all men could tolerate it. The catholic church, however, is steeped in tradition.

    Rick Santorum will say anything to get him voted in. It's true he seems to ignore some laws, but obsesses over the use of contraceptives. He seems to want to control everything that ultimately allows a woman to make her own decisions. Hmmmmmm. Does that mean that Rick doesn't let his kids watch their cable television provider or their satellite dish provider services? I ask this because these companies provide adult entertainment. It's up to the individual whether he/she wants to select that option or not. But it's a paid service and the Santorums, no doubt, like every other family, are contributing their dollars towards the "Playboy" channel among many others.

    Just like so many other venues where families have no choice but to indulge in any kind of entertainment that no doubt has it's investments in the porn industry. If one lives in the world, they are part of it. It's a matter of choice. Does one choose wisely or poorly? The church seems to want to take on each individual's right to make their own choice, which ultimately comes down to each individual when they stand before God on judgment day.

    Rick Santorum is interfering in this debate because of pure selfish reasons. If he's not going to try to clean out all the vessels, then how does he think just cleaning out one vessel makes him so righteous?

    ReplyDelete
  34. And, not only all of that, his wife had an abortion while married to him. Before that, we don't know how she handled unwanted pregnancies when she was living, without the benefit of marriage, with her obstetrician.

    ReplyDelete
  35. I'm loving this picture of "Frothy"! What CAN he be thinking?

    "Damn I look good in this sweater vest".

    "Now how many kids do I have again?"

    "I really hate Google".

    "I know I'll never be President, but who cares...I'm FAMOUS now...thanks Pitbull with lipstick".

    ReplyDelete
  36. And, not only all of that, his wife had an abortion while married to him. Before that, we don't know how she handled unwanted pregnancies when she was living, without the benefit of marriage, with her obstetrician.

    10:10 AM

    ____________

    Yes, we do. :)

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    From the Daily Beast:

    Mary and Herbert Greenberg, longtime friends of Allen’s through Herbert’s job as concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony, recall that Karen had seemed entirely familiar and comfortable with the subject of abortion when the couples socialized.

    In October 1983, Mary Greenberg (who had moved to Baltimore with her husband) flew to Pittsburgh to consult Allen about an abortion. He directed her to colleagues at the Women’s Health Center; Karen, recalls Mary, immediately offered to accompany her to the clinic.

    “She told me it wasn’t that bad, that I shouldn’t be worried,” says Mary, who ultimately went on her own, and met Allen and Garver for dinner later that night.

    “She was very supportive.”


    http://tinyurl.com/7yytd98

    ReplyDelete
  37. Beldar Litella Conehead3:36 PM

    Oh, this is embarrassing... I thought you were going to reveal the top 10 Catholic Church approved sex positions.... I hadnt been aware that they approved of more than one. But this post isnt at all about that.

    Nevermind.

    ReplyDelete
  38. Anonymous5:18 PM

    The Late Great Mike Royko once pointed out that the Catholic Church threatens to excommunicate politicians who say abortion should remain legal.....but has NEVER threatened to excommunicate John Gotti or any other member of the Mob. Interesting, eh?

    Tom, in FL

    ReplyDelete
  39. Anita Winecooler7:34 PM

    Santorum is a sick individual. When in power in Pennsylvania, one of his "pet sex peeves" was the absurd argument that if Gay people were allowed to marr, it would open up a pandorras box where even bestiality would be considered a maarraige. It appears to me he obviously didn't learn much since then

    The wire's past, the taking of an aboredted fetus home t meet the sibs and spned a specal family night, paraphrazing from memory " So the children could see for themeselves that a fetus is a baby", they thought it best to bring baby Gabriel home.

    This makes Disney villains look like saints. Who the hell thinks that idea, in any way, is good for the kids, helps them deal with loss, or learn about life?

    even if he's the last man on the island, President Obama cand debate the points, stick with the issues, and win any debate with angry Ricky.

    ReplyDelete

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