For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me.
Not content to leave the above warning where the Book of Deuteronomy does, certain Roman Catholic clergymen have taken it upon themselves to extend it, punishing supporters for the sins of their candidates.
Consider the case of Douglas Kmiec, a supporter of Barack Obama’s presidential run who was denied Communion in April by a priest who takes exception to Obama’s pro-choice views.
Mind you. Kmiec is no wild-eyed, tax-and-spend flag-burning leftie. In fact, he has impeccable Republican credentials, including time within the Reagan Justice Department. He’s even on record as opposing Roe v. Wade. Still, during a Mass for businessmen, an unnamed representative of Mother Church took it upon himself to wield the wafer as a weapon in the fight against legalized abortion.
In a column by E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post, Kmiec has argued that there must be some way to promote a culture of life that does not rest solely rely upon the elimination of legalized abortion.
"To think you have done a generous thing for your neighbor or that you have built up a culture of life just because you voted for a candidate who says in his brochure that he wants to overturn Roe v. Wade is far too thin an understanding of the Catholic faith," Kmiec, is quoted as saying. Kmiec, a critic of the Bush administration's Iraq policy, added that Catholics should heed "the broad social teaching of the church," including its views on war.
Exactly. An authentic pro-life position would include concern for criminals sentenced to execution and all the casualties that have occurred in the wake of the Bush War on Terror. Not just the brave men and women who have given their lives in a misguided effort to spread democracy at gunpoint, but the uncounted innocent Iraqi lives lost as well.
But let’s get back to the issue of abortion. The good old days before Roe weren’t all that good, as witnessed by Dr. Waldo L. Fielding, a retired gynecologist and obstetrician:
"The worst case I saw, and one I hope no one else will ever have to face, was that of a nurse who was admitted with what looked like a partly delivered umbilical cord. Yet as soon as we examined her, we realized that what we thought was the cord was in fact part of her intestine, which had been hooked and torn by whatever implement had been used in the abortion. It took six hours of surgery to remove the infected uterus and ovaries and repair the part of the bowel that was still functional."
Research indicates that one reason endure the invasive abortion procedure is that they cannot afford the economic burden of another mouth to feed. So it stands to reason that removing from power the political party that transformed a budget surplus into a monstrous deficit could well save lives – more lives than the ban on late-term abortions.
Kmiec told Dionne that he was supporting Obama in the hope that the Illinois Democrat’s emphasis on personal responsibility in sexual matters might change the nature of the nation's argument on life issues.
But all that will never be done if members of the Roman Catholic clergy refuse Communion to some people through reasoning that’s thinner than the Host itself.