Guest Opinion: Overturning Tables, Pro-Obama Catholics and Common Ground

A former law student of Professor Doug Kmiec gives his strong reaction to the results of the recent Presidential election in the United States.

LOS ANGELES, Ca. (Catholic Online) - On this website Professor Kmiec has expressed a desire to comply with Church teaching. In fact, he made various arguments on this site regarding why his approach of voting for a candidate who wanted to enshrine abortion as a fundamental right, pay for abortions, force insurance companies to pay for abortions and fund the creation and killing of millions of babies with embryonic stem cell research was in keeping with Catholic teaching. An effort that unfortunately was proven to be successful.

However, recently on slate.com, when speaking to a general audience, he revealed his true colors. When discussing his proposal of supporting a constitutional amendment that would recognize that human life begins at conception, but requiring that no government could pass legislation based on this fact without a super-majority he stated: "This is not the ideal Catholic position, but it's closer, and the Catholic Church has less standing to complain about a grant of freedom that could then be fairly influenced by the moral instruction associated with a woman's religious choice." (emphasis added).

With all due respect to Professor Kmiec, Holy Mother Church does not complain nor is Her teaching on the necessity for the legal protection of life a complaint. She teaches us how to live according to the will of Christ, our Lord. When her pastors tell us that "[t]he common good can never be adequately incarnated in any society when those waiting to be born can be legally killed at choice" or that "[a] person who supports permissive abortion laws, however, rejects the truth that innocent human life may never be destroyed. This profound moral failure runs deeper and is more corrupting of the individual, and of the society, than any error in applying just war criteria to particular cases," end of story.

Should there be any doubt, Pope Pius XII, Defender of Civilization, the visible head of God's Church on earth could not have been any clearer: "[a] social teaching or a social reconstruction program which denies or prescinds from [the] internal essential relation to God of everything that regards men, is on a false course; and while it builds up with one hand, it prepares with the other the materials which sooner or later will undermine and destroy the whole fabric [of society]."

The 2008 Democratic Party platform states that "[t]he Democratic Party strongly and unequivocally supports Roe v. Wade and a woman's right to choose a safe and legal abortion [to murder her child], regardless of ability to pay, and we oppose any and all efforts to weaken and undermine that right."

In 2007 Obama stated: "On this fundamental issue [continuing to allow the murder of innocent babies], I will not yield and Planned Parenthood will not yield." Now, this past week, Obama's transition team is already planning on rescinding the executive orders put in place by Bush to prevent American taxpayer funding of abortions worldwide and the domestic creation and destruction of millions of embryos specifically for the purpose of embryonic stem cell research.

The social teaching of the Democratic Party and President Elect Obama which allows, protects and pays for the right to kill an unwanted innocent person by definition "prescinds from [the] internal essential relation to God of everything that regards men." Their social teaching and program cannot be considered a good under any legitimate interpretation of Catholic teaching.

Our bishops warned us of the moral peril of voting for Senator Obama and we, as a group, refused to listen at our own spiritual peril. As St. Ignatius of Antioch's letter to the Ephesians still reminds us: "It is manifest, therefore, that we should look upon the bishop even as we would upon the Lord Himself." When our bishops told us that the common good cannot be achieved by voting for a politician who wants to pay for the killing of innocent babies or protect baby killing as a right, what was the response of pro-Obama Catholics like Professor Kmiec? Argumentation. Is this how we would treat our Lord? The endorsement of Obama, a man who supports the death of innocent babies, a man who like Pontius Pilate thought that the truth of when human rights begin is above his "pay grade," and then referring to his election as a "miracle" is inviting us to praise the election of a man who practices things unworthy of God, the author and protector of life.

Against those who would wish to take us away from the teachings of our bishops and the Catholic Church regarding the importance of protecting human life from conception to natural death, St. Ignatius further warns us: "For some are in the habit of carrying about the name [of Jesus Christ] in wicked guile, while yet they practice things unworthy of God, whom you must flee as you would wild beasts. For they are ravening dogs, who bite secretly, against whom you must be on your guard, inasmuch as they are men who can scarcely be cured."

Now at this point, I know some will complain and argue that we must find common ground with those like Obama who tell mothers they have a right to kill babies, that I am being divisive. Indeed, some argue that the Christian approach is to sit at the table with pro-Obama/pro-choice Catholics and try to find common ground on the "life issue." However, the Gospel reading from last Sunday reminds us what Christ would do to a table where those who act contrary to the faith sit:

"Since the Passover of the Jews was near, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. He found in the temple area those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves, as well as the money-changers seated there. He made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the temple area, with the sheep and oxen, and spilled the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables, and to those who sold doves he said, "Take these out of here, and stop making my Father's house a marketplace." John 2:13-16.

We must reject the invitation to sit at the same table with those who are willing to compromise our faith, who are willing to support and encourage politicians who want to support legally and financially the murder of innocent babies. We must reject the views of Catholics who ask us to accept this situation as the permanent status quo. However, Professor Kmiec in an October 17, 2008 opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times invited us to make such a compromise:

"Sometimes the law must simply leave space for the exercise of individual judgment, because our religious or scientific differences of opinion are for the moment too profound to be bridged collectively. When these differences are great and persistent, as they unfortunately have been on abortion, the common political ideal may consist only of that space."

As Cardinal George so forcefully reminded us this week, "common ground cannot be found by destroying the common good."

Indeed, our bodies are God's temple, the bodies of unborn children are God's temple and "[d]o you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy that person; for the temple of God, which you are, is holy." 1 Cor. 16-17. Would God find common ground with those who pay for and support the destruction of his temples? I think not. What He wants is the conversion of pro-choice politicians!

Let us not fall into complacency, let us not take the invitation of our fellow Catholics to give up on seeking legal protections for the unborn. We must remember the Catholic understanding of government: "But if you do evil, be afraid, for it [government] does not bear the sword without purpose; it is the servant of God to inflict wrath on the evildoer." Romans 13:4. It is the job of government to actively stop evildoing, which includes abortion. Therefore, we as a self-governing people have an obligation to speak up! We must stand up to their false teaching; we must not give them a platform to lead our fellow Catholics astray. Catholic parishes, schools and media are for one thing, building up the faith, not for giving voice to those, whether intentionally or not are trying to lead us away from our faith.

It is my sincere prayer that we can all be united, not in Obama, but in Jesus Christ the author of life! May Christ have mercy on all of our souls, especially those most in need of His mercy and may God give us the strength to never waiver in defending the unborn and to refuse to allow misguided Catholics from spreading distortions and untruths through parishes, media and schools dedicated to spreading His Gospel, no matter how well regarded or good a friend.

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Gunnar Gundersen graduated number one in the Class of 2007 from Pepperdine University School of Law, where he studied Constitutional Law under Professor Douglas W. Kmiec. He is also a former law clerk of Judge O'Scannlain of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He currently resides in Los Angeles, California.

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