An article in the Washington Independent by David Weigel today described the outcry against Obama as little more than bickering between conservative and liberal Catholics. And I guess he's right… in a sense. Here's the article:
But like most outsiders (and quite a few insiders) he misses the bigger point.
While it might be the conservatives and liberals fighting back and forth, the conservative side (at least, those labeled as conservative) have knowledge of something that the liberals will never quite understand: There is no room in the Catholic Church for certain beliefs.
I might believe priests should be able to marry. There's room for that. I might believe that charismatic Christians are great and that the hooping and hollering is uplifting. There's room for that. But I CANNOT believe that ANYTHING justifies killing an innocent child.
You see, abortion is one of the beliefs that must split us. Not because it will create healthy debate, but because it will show us where the cancer is in the church. Let's face it, the Catholic Church will not get better unless one of two things happen—we either cut the infected sections from the body of the church (meaning we strip certain people and institutions from their right to call themselves Catholic) or God, by some miracle, makes them Catholic again.
Lines are being drawn. Not for war, but for us to know who is who. I don't know what will happen next, but I think the line is important no matter what. It's like when Moses told the Israelites to choose sides. "Who is for God and who is against Him?" The abortion issue is one of those deciding views. Who is Christian, and who is not?
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