Here’s yet another issue I never touched in public. What got me “inspired” today was yet another article about some Catholic Bishop equating one’s vote for a Democrat as somehow “Satanic” because of their pro-choice stances.
Let me state for the record that as a Muslim I too do not believe in abortion, I believe it is a horrible act, and I do not agree with President-elect Obama’s support of it…………………………………………………………………………….. HOWEVER,
There are many things I do not believe in and my vote couldn’t possibly be based on them or I would never be able to vote.
My point is there has been a rash of religious craziness going on lately which in truth is sheer hypocrisy practiced openly. I truly understand how Bill Maher can make a movie called “Religulous” because us religious people are acting quite ridiculous these days especially in the political realm.
The “pro-life” crowd God bless them, but they make absolutely no sense. They vote on this single issue as if the candidates that support it don’t commit other sins. Case in point, from the article in question I read this morning:
“Voting for a pro-abortion politician when a plausible pro-life alternative exits constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil, and those Catholics who do so place themselves outside of the full communion of Christ’s Church and under the judgment of divine law. Persons in this condition should not receive Holy Communion until and unless they are reconciled to God in the Sacrament of Penance, lest they eat and drink their own condemnation.”
and…
“I don’t understand anyone who would call themselves a Christian, let alone a Catholic, and could vote for someone who’s a pro-abortion candidate,” said Ted Kelly, 64, who volunteers his time as lector for the church. “You’re talking about the murder of innocent beings.”
This is the hypocrisy I’m talking about. What kind of one track mind God do some people believe in? If voting for someone who supports a sin that you are obviously against means you are also a sinner, than religious people shouldn’t vote at all!
Jesus (as) and or God, take your pick, did not just throw the baby out with the bath water. “Pro-life” candidates, heck even the term is a joke, tend to support war, capitalism, aggressive foreign policy, top-down economics, and are anti social programs. So if we are to listen to these pro-life folks that means that God is more concerned about gay marriage or abortion, than lets see…..the death of thousands of Iraqi’s and Americans in a war against a country who never attacked or threatened us. Or a stumbling economy based on policies where CEO’s get millions of dollars while regular Americans can barely afford to even drive to work. Then to keep it real and specific as it relates to this past election cycle, let me point out the obvious: John McCain was an Adulterer. He cheated on his wife and married Cindy before his divorce was finalized. No one knows how much he goes to Church or if he even does, yet he was the choice candidate for many religious folk. Yet, Obama, even though you don’t agree with the theology of his church, we know was a regular church goer and married to the same woman committed for years. I could go a step further, and talk about the amount of wealth the McCain’s acquired backed by a beer industry inheritance, meanwhile the Obama’s just recently paid off their student loans and instead of using his hard-earned and worked for Harvard degree to become wealthy, Obama was in the streets helping the poor and downtrodden.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to insult John McCain, but I want to point out the foolishness and hypocrisy of some “religious” people. It’s like Bill Maher said on his show a couple of weeks ago, “Barack Obama goes to church regularly for 20 years and is told he’s not a Christian, but John McCain almost never goes, but he is a Christian”.
So here we go with the foolishness yet again. One of my neighbors even asked me how I can support a pro-choice candidate and I just laughed, because it is comical. I would rather support a candidate whose policies focus on the meek and humble, you know the least of the people, than candidates who run on two issues gay marriage and abortion to fool the masses of the sheep, in order to help the rich get richer while the poor suffer, and openly support war. These same people mocked Obama for wanting to talk, you know try to be a peacemaker, and would rather sing songs about bombing Iran, another country who has not attacked us.
I’m sorry, but in my personal belief and faith in God, I believe that God wouldn’t frown on me supporting a candidate who gives people the choice to choose their destinies, you know that thing called free will, even if I don’t agree with that choice. It’s a hell of a lot better than supporting a candidate who like Caesar cares more about building the empire on the backs of the helpless and waging war with any who don’t agree with them.
Oh you hypocrites! How dare you invoke God and the righteous name of Jesus (as) to play your political games. You should all be ashamed, because you make zero sense scripturally, morally, or logically.
Related Article:
An American Muslim 
Pro life/ Pro choice
I am a muslim who might be “Pro-choice”. There are several reasons for this. Islam is very diverse with a large body of scholarly works in its 1400 year history. Among these are works/discussions about when does life start? In Islam (and other non-christian religions)”WE” or “SELF” is not the body/form. Self inhabits the body/form. Self/soul/consiousness is called “Nafs” in the Quran (Nefesh in Torah). When this self/soul enters form/body —that is when we become fully functioning human beings. When does this happen? —from conception to birth, feotus to baby, there are many stages of development. Various (Islamic)schools of thought have different ideas on this issue. Another reason is the stance of the Quran on marriage. Marriage, in the Quran, is for companionship so that our mate/spouse can help us in our spiritual journey by encouraging us to have the right intentions that create right actions. This is why contraception is acceptable in many Islamic schools of thought and the choice of having children is one based on mutual consent. This presupposes that both men and women have rights. Thus, the pursuit of justice must consider and balance these rights so as not to cause injustice or oppression (especially of women who are the most vulnerable in these situations) Justice, harmony and balance are important concepts in the Quran and Allah is most merciful and compassionate. (see articles by Aziza al-Hibri on women’s issues in Islam — some are available at Karamah.com)
If you take a look at the stance of some religions on this issue you can see the very difficult position a woman is placed. In a religion where marriage is primarily for the sake of “procreation”, and contraception is not encouraged, the woman has little choice. She will get pregnant unless her husband co-operates with her and abstains from sexual intimacy with her. Things get more difficult when a woman is unmarried and pregnancy is forced upon her due to physical or emotional abuse. The woman/girl’s schooling or job would be interrupted. If she has to take care of the child on her own, her future will be limited–cutting off her choices further. These situations often put women and children into a cycle of poverty and abuse–creating injustice and oppression. Often, in issues of “morality”, women end up shouldering all of the burden. It is important to view issues holistically so that a moral stance can be achieved without creating more immorality, injustice and abuse in the process.
Hi, I was just looking up, out of interest, how Muslims generally feel about abortion. I enjoy reading your blog posts. I just want to mention, if I may, that I am a Catholic who cannot abide by abortion and I voted that way. I think that it’s not wrong to practice one’s faith. I am disturbed by people who think all who are Muslims are terrorists and a threat to the world. I don’t like that at all. Equally, I am saddened by Muslims being upset with Catholics for voting against abortion as the main reason for choosing the politician for life. But that really wasn’t the only reason not to vote for Obama. For example, having only 143 days present in his 2 years as a senator, puts many people more qualified a better option. But, our priests are telling us what we should or should not do. They aren’t telling any other religion what to do. The news media loves to pick at us. Not everything one hears about the Catholic Church and it’s priests is the truth. The MSM also loves to twist and distort. I would have to say that you will not find me saying anything derrogatory about the Muslim faith because that is my Catholic teaching that I can’t do that…everyone is a child of God. So, that’s all I wanted to say. God bless you and all here.