Obama Catholics - Vortex

As usual, many good points are made by Michael Voris in this May 3rd episode of The Vortex (follow the link to sign up for a premium subscription to RealCatholicTV). I've included the script below, with just a slight bit of editing.

…For Catholics, election fever doesn’t seem like it could get any hotter. The Obama health mandate requiring Catholic institutions to chuck their consciences and pay for birth control and abortion-causing drugs for their workers has already engaged a good portion of Catholics.

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But what’s surprising is that it seems like, despite all the uproar in the Catholic blogs and media, MOST Catholics in America are somehow either blissfully unaware OR simply don’t care about Obama’s conscience incursion.

In a recent Gallup Poll, Catholic voters nationwide remarkably still somehow favor Obama 51-45%... This poll and others which agree with it would seem to indicate that faithful Catholic still have a yeoman’s worth of work to do in informing fellow Catholics about Obama.

When you stop to consider ALL that has been written and said about this issue – including in the secular press – it seems astonishing that the needle has barely moved among Catholic voters who support Obama. In the ’08 election, the Obama margin among Catholics was 54 to 46%. While the number supporting Obama has shrunk a little bit, from 54 down to 51, it’s certainly not clear that this can be attributed to the Obama attacking Catholic principles and religious liberty factor.

Obama has seen his numbers decline among almost EVERY group across the board. But alarmingly from a Catholic point of view, his numbers among Catholics still remain some of his strongest support compared to other groups and THAT suggests that the message of Obama’s campaign against the Church just hasn’t gotten out to Catholics in the street – or if it has, even more disturbing is the possibility that they HAVE heard it...and simply dismissed it.

What IS certain is that the vast majority of Catholics in America are simply disengaged from the Church in any meaningful manner. 75% don’t go to Mass on Sunday…and that’s on a GOOD day.

Most – huge numbers – disagree with and reject Church teaching on practically every area regarding sexual morality, which is perhaps why Obama decided to strike at the issue of contraception.

This was a battle he did not need to engage in. A majority of states already required that Catholic employers – as well as all other employers - provide birth control to workers through health insurance plans. So – it makes sense that the average Catholic – who remember, doesn’t go to Mass and rejects Church teaching – would say – what’s the big deal, who cares? I’m not gonna decide my vote based on this issue – which seems like a tempest in a teapot.

Obama has chosen an issue which he knows MOST Catholics simply do not care about – contraception – which is why the bishops have chosen to fight this as a religious liberty issue as opposed to what it really is: a violation of natural law, imposed by the state on all of its subjects.

Perhaps the destruction of Catholic moral teaching over the past 40 plus years – as

Cardinal Timothy Dolan openly admitted a few weeks back – has been so widespread that there is no hope that this can be fought any other way other THAN as a First Amendment issue. If that’s true, it’s hard to see that a massive Catholic vote could be mobilized against Obama based on this issue. Bottom line is this: most Catholics don’t agree with the Church teaching on birth control. So they aren’t gonna rally around the issue come November.

In principle – in a poll or when talking with friends – sure some might say AND agree – that they think it’s wrong for Obama to try and pull this. But don’t count on that being anything top of mind with them when they walk into the voting booth.

Faithful Catholics in the blog and on the internet in general can tend to get a very myopic vision of the world – as can any group that hangs out with just its own members.

The very real danger of Obama is the man pushes laws that violate the natural law, not just the Constitution. This battle needs to be fought in that arena – not the religious liberty arena. The religious liberty issue is a loser…sure fire loser. People won’t remember it all come November.

Catholics in general have already largely dismissed it right now, in the heat of intense media coverage. They certainly won’t care about it 6 months from now.

This is a perfect opportunity for the Church to open up the much more important discussion of natural law and evil. Let’s just hope that it happens.