When You Think About It, 'Pope' And 'Pops' Are Only Different By One Letter
The world has gone completely crazy. I was sort of joking about the coming Apocalypse a few days ago, but now I'm not so sure.

First of all, I had turned off the Yankees-Red Sox game (Game 6) last night to put the kids to bed. I came back in the room a few minutes later to find Mrs. Pops had not only turned the TV back on but was watching baseball all by herself.

The highest rated show on TV all last night was baseball. Crazy.

Also, in political news, some key endorsements were announced. The New York Times endorsed John Kerry. No surprise.

Slightly more surprising, Iran endorsed Bush. Axis of Evil Iran. They want George W. Bush to be re-elected. Sure, there are complicated geopolitical reasons for this, but just the very fact they endorsed him is enough to cave my skull in. If this isn't the banner headline over at the John Kerry website, they should just pull the thing down and stop trying.

Apart from the coming Apocalypse, the other thing that caught my was a plot by some religious conservatives to try to fake-out the Vatican. The idea is to get John Kerry excommunicated and thus turn Catholic voters against him.

First of all, as a Catholic, let me say how hysterically funny this story is, not from the religious aspect, but just as an observer of politically motivated behavior by campaign operatives.

Now, it's not that hard to fool the Vatican. I mean, look how hard they fell for that whole Resurrection thing. I think there's something to the etymological linkage between the words credo and "credulous". If we'll fall for that Messiah stuff, we'll fall for anything.

Add that to the crushing weight of 2,000 year-old bureaucracy and it's just about possible to get anything past the Vatican. Just so long as you're not gay and looking to get married.

So this guy (who is Catholic, just like me... OK, not exactly like me) takes it upon himself--no help from the Bush campaign, no, and how dare you suggest it--to write a letter asking a question about a nameless hypothetical believer (using their own prejudiced language to characterize) who loves loves loves abortion. Shouldn't that person be excommunicated?

And the letter gets shuffled down the ladder to someone who has time to answer it and they say "Yeah, I guess so", to which the original inquisitor responds by screaming as loudly as he can "Look! The Vatican hates John Kerry!"

It's a cheap, badly executed trick, but let me give you two reasons for being amused/irritated by this, both on the theme that it was/is assumed that any such decision would make a difference among Catholic voters.

First: I am a Catholic voter. Popular anti-Catholicism has a long history in this country, imported honestly from Europe from both post-Reformation and post-Enlightenment positions. When Kennedy ran in 1960 he had to face the question that as a Catholic he would make some decisions based on the bidding of the Pope. By squashing those preconceptions with elegance and style (banging secretaries two at a time also doesn't hurt when trying to distance yourself from a stridently religious stance), Kennedy did a great deal to finally kill off the most rampant remnants of anti-Catholicism.

But still, one lingering after effect is the persistent perception that we as Catholics do things en masse and will do as we're told, especially if it's from a religious figure. Now, this is not unique to us as a voting bloc, as it is generally assumed in the media that blacks, Latinos, gays and (most absurdly considering they make up over 50% of the voting population) women are generally motivated/moved by the same things.

The fact that this trick was perpetuated by a Catholic and meant to work on Catholics only makes it worse.

Second: There really is more to Catholic belief than anti-abortionism. There's the whole homophobia angle not to mention good old fashioned misogyny. We have alot to offer.

No, what I mean is that among non-Catholics, Catholics themselves, even priests, there tends to be a persistent, annoying drumbeat of abortion abortion abortion. That's supposed to be the great test of a person's worth, what they think of abortion.

No mention at all of the death penalty, for example. Everyone wants to talk about Kerry's nuanced pro-choice position (one that closely echoes my own) but why isn't anyone all twisted in knots about Bush's record as the Most Executin'-est Governor In American History? Isn't the death penalty as much a part of a "culture of life" (the Pope's phrase that Bush not-so-subtly used in the debates) as abortion?

OK, so this turned out to be less funny than I'd hoped.

But just so you all know, as a Catholic, there's more to my political outlook than abortion. I'm also interested in basic competence, economic factors, national security, education, social programs, Renaissance art, cherry ice cream, long slow walks on the beach and men who aren't afraid to cry.

Those last few don't really reflect how I choose for whom I vote, I just thought I'd share.

And apologies to my close personal friend c'lam for posting more US politics junk. It could have been worse, though. I could have made the whole thing about baseball.


This post on the Narcissus Scale: 9.0


Pops

- posted by Pops @ 12:09 PM