Religion & Law

Because my friend Michael likes to have fun tweaking me, by pretending that my thinking and action when it comes to policy and politics is shaped by a loyalty to "Republicans," or an aversion to "Democrats" (he knows this isn't the case, of course; he's just playing around), he asks, here, whether I'm "ready to join the Democrats on this one [i.e., the "Catholic take on the health-care debate], at least?"

I am, of course, happy to "join the Democrats" on any one that they get right.  (For example, given my work and activism in opposition to the death penalty, I would be delighted if the Democrats -- who have commanding majorities in both houses -- showed a little backbone and abolished the federal death penalty.  Given my commitment to educational opportunity for the poor, I would be delighted if the Democrats abandoned their hostility to school choice.)  But, Michael's question is the wrong one.  The right question is, "are the Democrats ready to join the Church on this one", i.e., on the basic propositions that the law ought to protect vulnerable human beings from private violence and, at the very least, that health-care "reform" should not involve public funding of the destruction of such persons or burdens on those who refuse to participate in such destruction.  So far, it seems, they are not.  Too bad.