I am pro-life and Catholic.  However, this year I will be voting for Barack Obama, despite the best efforts of my priests and the Missouri and American archbishops to get me to vote for McCain/Palin.  For the past month, they’ve been telling us in Sunday homilies (without specifically mentioning names) that we cannot vote for a particular candidate when they support abortion rights and the other candidate does not.  Period.  End of story.  Don’t even think about it.

I’m sorry, but with all due respect, I think they are wrong on this one for the following reasons:

First of all, I refuse to be a single issue voter.  God gave me a brain so that I can reason and weigh multiple variables in coming to a conclusion.  It seems like a waste of a good brain to just vote yes/no on a single issue.

Second, there is a difference between being anti-abortion and being pro-life.  John McCain may be anti-abortion, but he is most certainly not pro-life.  In my world, you can’t sing “Bomb, bomb, bomb – bomb, bomb Iran” and still call yourself pro-life.  Pro-life is “womb to tomb”, not just up until birth.  If you are pro-life, you don’t promote those things that reduce and demean that life – war; torture; the death penalty; denial of health care, a good education, a living wage and a social safety net; and the taking away of civil liberties.

Third, if the last eight years have taught us Catholics nothing else, it is this:  the Republican party is using us and playing us for chumps.  Do we really think that Karl Rove and the rest of the Republican machine care whether little black/brown/yellow/disabled babies are born?  They don’t – they just want to dust off the abortion issue every four years so that they can divide the electorate, win elections, stay in power and line their pockets and those of their friends.

If they really wanted to significantly reduce the number of abortions, they would include exceptions for the life of the mother and for rape/incest in the bills they pass.  Instead, they deliberately draft bills that they know will be rejected by the Supreme Court, so that the issue is still out there to be used during the next election cycle.

Fourth, I’m a pragmatist.  I’m for any measures that reduce the number of abortions.  I don’t think that reversing Roe v. Wade is as effective in reducing them as creating an environment where women feel that they can keep their babies or put them up for adoption.  An environment that would also include things like sex education and certain types of birth control to help prevent conception, to help women avoid pregnancy.  The Republican policies of the past 28 years and in particular, the last eight years, have done nothing to create that environment.  I don’t see any reason to believe that a McCain administration would either.  

Fifth, I’m an American.  I believe in the separation of church and state and I bristle when I hear my church leaders tell me who I can and can’t vote for.  I understand their intentions, but I feel that in their single-minded zeal to outlaw abortions, they’ve stepped way over the line.  I’m also alarmed at the loss of civil liberties that we’ve experienced under the Bush Administration.  I believe this erosion of liberties would continue to erode under a McCain presidency.  Liberty is a pro-life concept.

Even though he supports abortion rights, I truly believe that an Obama administration would do more to reduce the incidence of abortion in this country.  He is a pragmatist and I believe his policies would create that environment where abortions are less common.  Beyond abortion, I also believe that Obama would do more to create a “culture of life” than would McCain.  McCain’s whole life is centered around war – Obama’s has been centered on making a difference in people’s lives.  His positions on the war, health care, education, immigration, and a social safety net also help separate him from McCain.

I recently attended the Obama rally in St. Louis where over 100,000 people showed up.  I remember thinking at the time that I felt much safer bringing my family into the middle of 100,000 people of all racial and economic backgrounds at an Obama rally than I would in bringing them into the middle of a 2,500 person, mostly white McCain/Palin rally.

As I walked through the very diverse crowd with my family, I was more amazed by what I didn’t hear than by what I did hear.  What I didn’t hear were racial epithets, shouts of “Kill him!” or “Terrorist!” at the mention of the other candidate’s name.  I didn’t hear angry words – I heard words of hope.  Hope for a better life.  Hope for a better country.  An appeal to the better angels of our nature instead of to the darker angels.  

Nothing good can come out of an environment of anger, fear, racism and resentment.  Hope is much more fertile ground for a true “culture of life” to develop in.  I believe that Obama does more to advance that than McCain does and that’s why this Catholic will be voting for him.