"Who's Zoomin' Who" was the title of an Aretha Franklin album many years ago, but the phrase jumped into my head while watching the Catholic talking heads and their Republican pals this week...They may be foolin' somebody, but it ain't me.
All the babble about violating the religious freedom of Catholic organizations has been dealt with successfully here on DKos by pointing out that 28 states already have rules similar to the new White House rule regarding employee contraception (and no one bitched when such "Kenyan Muslim" states as GEORGIA put the rule in place). And there is the argument that 98 or 99% of women use contraception during their lives -- meaning contraception is not a "nice to have", but a must.
But I want to point out that the live birth rates in the most Catholic countries in Europe are actually LOWER than the predominantly Protestant ones. Below are the birth rates for Europe in ascending order (as of 2009 - from World Bank). Bolded countries are majority Catholic (as best I could determine).
Note: NONE are at replacement level --- considered to be at least 2.1.
Andorra: 1.19
Bosnia/Herzegovina: 1.21
Latvia 1.31
Portugal 1.32
Hungary 1.32
Germany 1.36
Romania 1.38
Austria 1.39 <<<<<<<<<<<
Spain 1.40 <<<<<<<<<<<
Poland 1.40 <<<<<<<<<<<
Serbia 1.40
Slovak Republic 1.41
Italy 1.41 <<<<<<<<<<<<
Malta 1.44
Macedonia 1.44
Croatia 1.47
Cyprus 1.52
Greece 1.52
Slovenia 1.53
Lithuania 1.55
Bulgaria 1.57
Luxembourg 1.59
Estonia 1.62
Montenegro 1.64
Liechtenstein 1.71
Denmark 1.84
Belgium 1.85
Finland 1.86
Sweden 1.94
Norway 1.98
France 2.00
United Kingdom 2.03
Ireland 2.07
Special Bonus:
United States 2.05
Mexico 2.07
The world average is 2.52.
Notice that France and Ireland are the only Catholic European countries close to replacement level. Perhaps the Muslim population is driving that French number up a bit. France's number is genuinely puzzling; the birth-rate appears to be going up during an economic downturn. The government appears to be encouraging people to make babies more than other European countries, but it seems to be an outlier. The other amazing stat is that Mexico, for all its troubles, is already down to a first-world birth rate. It is good news for everyone that one of the largest Catholic countries is starting to ignore the Pope [you remember the joke: the Italian lady says of the Pope defining birth control rules -- "you no play a da game, you no make a da rules]!
There used to be an expression: "Cafeteria Catholic", which was supposedly a put-down of those who didn't follow all of the church's rules/regs...This term comes to mind when I look at these eye-openers:
Almost 90% of Catholics ignore the church's teachings about birth control -- ~10% say they "grant the church moral authority on birth control". {I'll bet most of them are men}....
Only 21 percent of American Catholics in a survey said they think maintaining the celibate priesthood is important. Only 35 percent regard the opposition to same-sex marriage as a priority. Opposition to abortion came in at 40 percent, well behind prayer, the sacraments, helping the poor and belief in the resurrection in importance.
So here's the deal: the Catholic church pretends that the people are obeying its rules, and the parishioners pretend that they are obeying the rules. Then, they both get up in arms when anyone points out the obvious. I guess they would say this diary represents a "war on religion" ...or something....
I will wait patiently while the mainstream media discusses these issues. We live in a strange world --- a world in which pointing out facts is considered "rude", and a violation of interfaith dialogue or the ecumenical spirit --- or something. The same thing happened when Tim Tebow started doing his thing. We weren't suppose to point out the dangers of his openly proselytizing on behalf of Jesus. It was rude and a violation of his freedom of religion --- or something...But the danger is real, not the product of bad manners. Facts are good things. They illuminate for all but the blindest among us.