As I read E. J. Dionne's column "For an 'Obamacon,' Communion Denied" in today's Washington Post, I was reminded -- once again -- of the abortion issue's great power to create confusion.
Dionne writes of Catholic scholar Douglas Kmiec, "a staunch Republican, firm foe of abortion and veteran of the Reagan Justice Department," being denied receipt of the Holy Eucharist because he supports abortion-friendly presidential hopeful Barack Obama.
Abortion confuses and misleads women, men and nations.
Now Catholic priests who refuse to serve Communion to pro-aborts and their supporters create more confusion about the issue by politicizing the sacred Host and heart of the pro-life Church.
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What this action serves to promote is the idea that the R.C. Church considers abortion and sexual issues the be-all-and-end-all of morality. I keep defending my religion as a provider of education, hope, and basic services to the poor worldwide. But do we deny communion to those who exploit the poor? No. Do we deny communion to politicians who sow war and destruction? No. We deny it not to the pro-choice politician, but to an anti-abortion politician who said that a pro-choice presidential candidate happens to be the best of our available options. And guess what? He IS.
Congratualations, Cardinal. If you wanted to convince the world that the Church cares more about ruling women's bodies than about helping people who are indisputably human, then it worked.
For years, various pro-life activists have unwittingly promoted abortion by pursuing big-government, authoritarian, legislative bans while opposing comprehensive educational programs that encourage personal responsibility.
However, many anti-abortion people, in good conscience, support anti-abortion programs and candidates who are falsely labeled "pro-abort" or misleadingly labeled "liberal" by partisan activists.
They support these initiatives because they support the teaching of individual personal responsibility and they trust that most individuals, given all the facts, will choose 1) not to abort, and 2) not to engage in risky sexual behaviors.
Too many pro-life activists support the old myth that big government should do -- or ban -- whatever it pleases.
Meanwhile, people who genuinely oppose abortion understand the power of education, and charity for women in need, to help people make the right choices and minimize immoral and unwanted choices.
In the 1990s, the United States made progress in reducing both abortion and STDs by encouraging personal responsibility through improved comprehensive sex education that encouraged 1) abstinence, 2) monogamy, and 3) condoms if all else fails.
That progress has been lost since 2001 through ideologically motivated abstinence-only programs that teach youths a false choice between total celibacy and the reckless promiscuity that leads to pregnancy and abortion.
When young adults are not armed with the facts -- when they are not taught the importance of making responsible, well-informed moral choices -- they are much more likely to succumb to temptation and unwise behaviors, and they are much more likely to feel trapped by the consequences and unable to respond in a manner that promotes life and health.
My point being, Douglas Kmiec is truly pro-life and anti-abortion.
Political partisans who punish people for honoring broad moral considerations and personal responsibility are not pro-life. They are pro-big-government. Through a mix of arrogance and ignorance, they promote the abortions that they seek to ban.