Divider-in-Chief (19 page)
Authors: Kate Obenshain
After the HHS mandate controversy, Matthew N. Schmalz, professor of religion and comparative studies at the College of the Holy Cross, said, “This has hurt the case that some Catholics have made that voting for Obama in some ways is a vote for Catholic social teaching.”
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Kathy Dahlkemper and Bart Stupak are both Catholic Democrats who lost their congressional seats in 2010 after supporting Obamacare. They were both assured by President Obama that the law would not provide abortions. They both now regret voting for the law.
“I would have never voted for the final version of the bill if I expected the Obama administration to force Catholic hospitals and Catholic colleges and universities to pay for contraception,” Dahlkemper said in a 2012 press release sent by Democrats for Life.
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Stupak, whose support was instrumental in passing Obamacare, told Fox News' Greta Van Susteren in February 2012 that he was “disappointed” with the HHS mandate.
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Doug Kmiec was head of the Office of Legal Counsel under presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush and a former dean of the Catholic University Law School. Kmiec gave Obama a timely endorsement in 2008. Obama, Kmiec believed, was a “person of integrity, intelligence and genuine goodwill.”
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Kmiec felt that Obama's books showed how bipartisan he could be. “I'm convinced,” he wrote, “based upon his public pronouncements and his personal writing, that on each of these questions [abortion, traditional marriage, constitutional interpretation and religious freedom] he is not closed to understanding opposing points of view, and, as best as it is humanely possible, he will respect and accommodate them.”
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He later stated, “Beyond life issues, an audaciously hope-filled Democrat like Obama is a Catholic natural.” Kmiec even wrote a book ahead of the 2008 election titled
Can a Catholic Support Him?
and concluded, “Barack Obama has my vote.”
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For his support, President Obama named Kmiec ambassador to Malta.
Can a Catholic Support Him?
and concluded, “Barack Obama has my vote.”
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For his support, President Obama named Kmiec ambassador to Malta.
Kmiec continued to be a vocal supporter of the president until he heard news of the contraceptive mandate, at which point he wrote a letter to Obama expressing his disappointment. He suggested that the president had forced him to choose between “friendship” and his “duty to faith and country.” He ended with, “The Barack Obama I knew would never have asked me to make that choice.” Later, he told
The Hill
newspaper in response to a question about who he would support in 2012, “I am for now (unhappily) without a candidate.”
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The Hill
newspaper in response to a question about who he would support in 2012, “I am for now (unhappily) without a candidate.”
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Another example is the case of Jo Ann Nardelli, who, in late May 2012 defected from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party, citing her Catholic faith and Biden's and Obama's embrace of same-sex marriage. Nardelli was an elected member of the Pennsylvania State Democratic Party and a Pennsylvania State Democratic Committee Executive Board member.
She explained in a press conference that, “as the Democratic Party has taken the stand for same-sex marriage, then I must make a stand on my faith that marriage is between a man and a woman. God's principles for life never change. His guidelines, given in Scripture, produce fruitful lives when you follow them.”
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Nardelli, a pro-life Democrat for more than forty years, explained her decision in greater depth in an interview:
I always knew that being a pro-life Democrat was a little difficult but doable in our party. The contraceptive mandate bothered me . . . but the last straw came a few weeks ago on Sunday, May 6. In the morning before church, my husband and I were eating breakfast watching Vice President Biden on
Meet the
Press
. I respect Joe Biden. I know he is of deep Catholic faith and his Irish Catholic ways remind me very much of my own father of Italian Catholic background. But when I heard Vice President Biden make the statement on same-sex marriage . . . I was sick, I had a pit in my stomach. But I knew that was only the beginning. Once the president came out with the support of same-sex marriage and the Democratic Party platform was set for us leaders, I knew I had to make the change.
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Meet the
Press
. I respect Joe Biden. I know he is of deep Catholic faith and his Irish Catholic ways remind me very much of my own father of Italian Catholic background. But when I heard Vice President Biden make the statement on same-sex marriage . . . I was sick, I had a pit in my stomach. But I knew that was only the beginning. Once the president came out with the support of same-sex marriage and the Democratic Party platform was set for us leaders, I knew I had to make the change.
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Nardelli went on to explain that she'd been considering changing parties for a while, but that until Biden's and Obama's same-sex marriage announcements, she “really thought I could make a difference and bring back the party I used to know.” She added:
I began to receive notices of state meetings and more and more the platform of same-sex marriage was on the table as supporting our president. Now, I knew that eventually I was going to have to sign on to this agenda. I could not. I was raised in my Catholic faith that marriage is between a man and a woman. I don't have a problem with gays, rights to properties, or whatever those unions bring; however it is not marriage! Marriage is between a man and a woman in the Bible, and I firmly believe that. Therefore I knew I had to resign my positions, dissolve my affiliations, take a stand, and change to the Republican Party.
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At the press conference announcing her switch, Nardelli, one-time member of the Tri County Women for Obama Steering Committee, said, “I thought I could make a difference to change our party. It didn't work.” She continued, “I noticed that it's been going more and more to the left. This is not my father's party. I did not leave the party; the party left me.”
Obama's Catholic support has plummeted as a result of his attempts to attack the church. According to a March Pew Research Center poll,
31 percent of white Catholics described the Obama administration as unfriendly to religion, compared to 17 percent in August 2009.
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And from early March to mid-April 2012, Obama's Catholic support dropped from 53 percent to 45 percent. A recent Gallup poll found a similar result, with Obama's Catholic support dipping to 46 percent.
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31 percent of white Catholics described the Obama administration as unfriendly to religion, compared to 17 percent in August 2009.
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And from early March to mid-April 2012, Obama's Catholic support dropped from 53 percent to 45 percent. A recent Gallup poll found a similar result, with Obama's Catholic support dipping to 46 percent.
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A May 2012 Pew poll found that among Catholic voters with a preference, 47 percent would vote for President Obama, and 52 percent for former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.
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If that margin were to hold on Election Day, it would mark a swing of 18 million voters
away
from Obama.
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If that margin were to hold on Election Day, it would mark a swing of 18 million voters
away
from Obama.
At least one poll has linked Catholics' abandonment of Obama with the HHS mandate. A Catholic Association poll conducted by QEV Analytics found that 29 percent of Catholics said they were less likely to vote to re-elect Obama because of the mandate, while 13 percent said they were more likely to do so.
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Religiously active white females were a stunning 38 percent less likely to vote for Obama (against 12 percent more likely), and independent voters were 28 percent less likely (against 15 percent more likely).
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Religiously active white females were a stunning 38 percent less likely to vote for Obama (against 12 percent more likely), and independent voters were 28 percent less likely (against 15 percent more likely).
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Barack Obama's abortion stridency has provided the Catholic Church with a powerful opportunity to practice one of its most important missions: to educate the faithful. Each of Obama's forays into debates over moral issues has prompted Catholic leaders to reassert the church's position on those issues.
Priests read statements clarifying what the church believes; Catholic leaders appear on popular television shows to do the same; and the Obama administration is put on the defensive as many Catholics ask themselves: I've got my own issues with the church, but do I want the federal government telling us what to do?
With his efforts to divide the Catholic Church, Obama is making more than a political calculation. He's making a high-stakes bet that the bishops and the church teachings they are entrusted to uphold no longer have the respect of the faithfulâbut that he, the self-proclaimed chosen one, has.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Obama's Politicized Faith
All effective action requires the passport of morality.
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âSaul Alinsky,
Rules for Radicals
Rules for Radicals
Â
Â
I
n
The Audacity of Hope,
Barack Obama states that it's important for liberal politicians to talk about faith. “I think we [liberals] make a mistake when we fail to acknowledge the power of faith in the lives of the American people, and so avoid joining a serious debate about how to reconcile faith with our modern, pluralistic democracy.”
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n
The Audacity of Hope,
Barack Obama states that it's important for liberal politicians to talk about faith. “I think we [liberals] make a mistake when we fail to acknowledge the power of faith in the lives of the American people, and so avoid joining a serious debate about how to reconcile faith with our modern, pluralistic democracy.”
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Then Obama offers an openly cynical reason why he thinks it's wrong for liberals to dismiss faith: “It's bad politics.”
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“There are a whole lot of religious people in America, including the majority of Democrats,” he explains: “When we abandon the field of religious discourseâwhen we ignore the debate about what it means to be a good Christian or Muslim or Jew; when we discuss religion only in the negative sense . . . others will fill the vacuum.”
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It is fitting that Obama mentions politics first in explaining why Democrats should engage with religion: Obama's faith is overtly political.
The ConversionBiographies about Obama shed light on the politicized environment in which he embraced Christianity and practiced his faith under the guidance of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, senior pastor at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.
In his book
The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama
, David Remnick interviewed many of Obama's friends and family members about Obama's decision to attend Trinity. He writes:
The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama
, David Remnick interviewed many of Obama's friends and family members about Obama's decision to attend Trinity. He writes:
Obama's black and white friends say that his motives for joining Trinity were complicated, yet Trinity was undeniably a “power church” in town. Obama “saw it as a power base,” Mike Kruglik said. “You can't interpret what Obama does without thinking of the power factor. Even then. For a long time, I wouldn't talk about this, but he told me way back then that he was intrigued by the possibility of becoming mayor of Chicago. His analysis was that the mayor in this town is extremely powerful and all the problems he was dealing with then could be solved if the mayor was focused on them.”
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Politically, joining Trinity seems to have been the right move for Obama, at least initially. Obama formed a deep bond with the Reverend Wright at a time when Obama was just getting to know the lay of the political land in Chicago.
In
The Amateur
, Edward Klein interviews many of Obama's past friends and colleagues about Obama's faith, including Wright. From these interviews, Klein concludes:
The Amateur
, Edward Klein interviews many of Obama's past friends and colleagues about Obama's faith, including Wright. From these interviews, Klein concludes:
Jeremiah Wright became far more than a religious and spiritual guide to Obama; he was his substitute father, life coach, and political inspiration wrapped in one package. At each step of Obama's career, Wright was there with practical advice and counsel. Wright
encouraged Obama to make a career of politics, and he offered to hook up Obama with members of Trinity United Church of Christ who had money and important connections.
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encouraged Obama to make a career of politics, and he offered to hook up Obama with members of Trinity United Church of Christ who had money and important connections.
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Wright told Klein, in a 2011 interview, that he believes Obama attended Trinity for political, not spiritual, reasons. “What I remember,” Wright said about his first meeting with Obama, “is that he came to talk to me as a community organizer, not in search of Christ.”
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“[E]ven after Barack and Michelle came to the church, their kids weren't raised in the church like you raise other kids in Sunday school. No. Church is not their thing. It never was their thing.... So the Church was not an integral part of their spiritual lives after they got married.”
“But,” Wright says, “the church
was
an integral part of Barack's
politicsâ
because he needed that black base.”
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was
an integral part of Barack's
politicsâ
because he needed that black base.”
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It would be easy to dismiss Wright's comments as personal pique. When the contents of some of Wright's more provocative sermons came to light in 2008, Obama gave a speech denouncing them and distancing himself from his former mentor. Wright clearly felt stung by this and is perhaps bitter. In 2010, Wright claimed Obama “threw me under the bus” during the 2008 campaign.
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But it is still hard to dismiss what he says about Obama's motives for joining his church, especially given the way Obama has politicized his faith as president.
Taking God's Name in Vain9
But it is still hard to dismiss what he says about Obama's motives for joining his church, especially given the way Obama has politicized his faith as president.
President Obama talks about Godâa lot. In fact, a
Politico
story six months into his presidency claimed Obama had cited the Almighty even more often than the evangelist president George W. Bush. And the Godtalk seems to have increased since then.
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Politico
story six months into his presidency claimed Obama had cited the Almighty even more often than the evangelist president George W. Bush. And the Godtalk seems to have increased since then.
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But Obama employs his religious rhetoric in a way that is unusual for liberals. Most liberals confine their religious references to public statements about welfare for the poor, minimum wage increases, and foreign aid programsâall about generosity and charity. But Obama goes much further.
He tends to invoke God at the most implausible timesâoften in support of policies outlawed or condemned by the Bible and most major religions.
Consider abortion and its related issues. Most pro-choice advocates steer clear of invoking God or their faith to justify the taking of innocent human life. But not Obama. He says he comes about his stance not despite his faith, but in part because of it.
Early in his administration, Obama lifted an executive ban on federal funding of stem cell research, which destroys human embryos. He explained his decision by saying, “As a person of faith, I believe we are called to care for each other and work to ease human suffering. I believe we have been given the capacity and will to pursue this researchâand the humanity and conscience to do so responsibly.”
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At Notre Dame in 2009, he told graduates, “Maybe we won't agree on abortion, but we can still agree that this is a heart-wrenching decision for any woman to make, with both moral and spiritual dimensions.”
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