I received this message from Jim Begley and wanted to pass it along to everyone. Since I’m a Catholic and a Democrat, I will be going to this meeting.
Greetings fellow Democrats!
As the fall semester begins, I would like to invite you to join a newly formed group called Catholic Democrats of Nebraska. The Catholic Democrats of Nebraska is a grassroots organization focused on strengthening the Democratic state party by reaffirming the strong correlation between the social justice teachings of the Catholic Church and the progressive ideals of the Democratic Party. Feel free to learn more about us at www.catholicdemocratsofnebraska.org
Please read the op-ed article included at the end of this e-mail, which was published in today’s Omaha World-Herald and written by Dan Schinzel, the president/founder of Catholic Democrats of Nebraska.
We invite you to attend our next meeting to discuss a variety of items that have developed since our last meeting in June. Please join us at the Brazenhead Irish Pub, 319 N. 78th St. on Wednesday, August 24 at 6PM. We are moving ahead and rapidly becoming a very visible entity in Nebraska politics.
Please forward this invitation to anyone you might know that would be interested in our important cause.
A tentative list of items to be discussed is as follows:
1. Preparations for September 28 “debut”
2. Mailing
3. W-H op-ed
4. PAC status
5. national organization
6. membership dues
7. Committee assignments
Please feel free to contact me with any questions. We look forward to seeing you on August 24!
Sincerely,
Jim Begley
Catholic Democrats of Nebraska
P.S. The op-ed article by Dan Schinzel can be read by clicking here.
Bravo, Dan, very appropriate thinking. As a party/organization/tent/movement, we Dems must find some way to not allow this single issue of abortion from preempting and overshadowing all of the other critical issues with which we are in agreement. This will require some grounds for compromise on this sticky wicket issue of abortion. For me, I believe that abortion is a spiritual crime, but a crime that should be “rendered unto Ceasar.” (Of course, the Almighty is the final arbiter of all crimes - regardless of what we do down here.) From there, I believe the first soul into a body has “seniority” (i.e., the mother), and therefore has earned the right to call the shots relative to any newcomers (i.e., the embryo, fetus, baby, etc) — but within reason, relative to the timing (i.e., no 3rd trimester abortions, except to save the soul with seniority. . .
Even though this is not on topic, I would like to congratulate everyone on a great first meeting. With barely any advertisement, there were at least 60+ people there, and an equally impressive after-meeting at clancy’s. That shows how much potential our group has, and how dedicated our members are. After we get some tables up on campus and start making some buttons, I think this year will be even better than the last. Here’s to a great year!
You can’t call yourself a Catholic when you believe for abortion. Abortion is against one of the Ten Commandments, Thou Shall Not Kill. Abortion is NOT a “spiritual” crime; it’s the actual act of killing an unborn child! As a Catholic, you WERE taught that abortion is murder and you know that it is! No matter what form or trimester the child is in, no matter if it is an embryo, fetus, or baby you know very well that it is murder. Put yourself in the place of an unborn child, if that was you, you would be hoping and praying that someone stood up for your unborn body and soul! Thou Shall Not Kill…..it’s one of the Ten Commandments!
100% agreement with you Michaela.
I 100% agree with you Michaela! You can’t call yourself a true Catholic when you don’t believe in killing innocent, unborn children! Wake up Democrats!
and You can’t call yourself a true Catholic If you think it ok to start a war based on lies and kill tens of thousands of Irqai People. If we go off of the above interpretations “killing’ is wrong no matter what. Yet, there is no outrage about innocent people and soldiers who are dying everyday in a meaningless war.
No outrage that the left by using two hot button issues have tottally hyjacked christianity.
Abortion is anti-life, anti-Christian, anti-everything. The Democrats will never win in Nebraska or the nation with this one issue hijacking their party.
P.S. Good job Robin on changing the subject.
There is so much hypocrisy in the Catholic church and the Republican party. Abortion is wrong but capital punishment is ok? According to many Republicans, “Thou shall not kill” only applies in certain situations.
What about what happens to the child after it is born into poverty and has absent or drug addicted parents? What happens when it doesn’t have healthcare? What happens when it gets shoved into the system? Have you seen the foster care system up close, it ain’t pretty folks. Then once they get through that they have prison to look forward to.
Catholics can’t have it both ways. They can’t say no to birth control and then scream about murder when women have abortions. Much the same way Republican’s can’t scream about abortion but refuse to pay welfare for these kids.
I am a Democrat and Catholic. I think abortion is tragic. But we don’t get to run on about outlawing it until we have successfully prevented the need for it. An ouce of prevention is what is called for here.
There are 10 commandments and I am pretty sure the pope broke all of them when he decided to be a nazi. Don’t give me that they force him crap. Genocide is just as bad and likely worse than abortion. A truly pious man would have died before doing such a thing. NO excuses about how young he was either, most women having abortions are young and foolish too.
Crystal –
I think we should kill all the undesirables like the Nazis tried. Conveniently you brought them both up in you comments.
Did you just call Pope Pius XII a Nazi?
After the Holocaust, the Jews didn’t criticize the war time pope one bit. Why do you get to say anything?
Pinchas Lapide, Israel’s consul sad that Pius saved roughly 800,000 Jews from death camps through smuggling.
If Pope Pius XII did little, the other spiritual leaders of the world did nothing.
Crystal,
It’s WRONG to kill a child. You’d rather see an innocent child killed than have it born into poverty? No, there wouldn’t be a problem if society didn’t run wild sleeping with one another.
These women who are young should THINK before they act and think of the consequences about the fact that they could produce a child. These women who you are referring to should have more values and morals, especially if they are Catholic.
If a mother does have a child, then she should work like many women do to support the child. There are also MANY parents out in the world that would love to adopt a new baby. Newborns are highly demanded for adoption. I do know single mothers who refuse welfare and adopted their children because they want to prove that they don’t have to lower themselves to that degree and be on welfare.
The welfare system was and is NOT supposed to be a lifelong system a person stay’s on either. These people who sit at home and don’t work, we as taxpayers are tired of paying. Then they teach their kids that is ok to sit at home and suck money from the government! The Republicans don’t want to give money to people who are LAZY!
Pray that God forgives you Democrats who are pro abortion. It is MURDER DEMOCRATS!
Daniel,
No I was not calling Pius XII a Nazi. I was calling Pope Benedict XVI a nazi. Which he was.
Michaela,
In a perfect world all women would “think” before acting, unfortunately that isn’t always the case. As to your moral and values, I know a lot of people with morals and values who have unintended pregnancies. What I am saying is it isn’t moral to only care about children until they are born and then not worry about what happens to them after that.
As to your remarks about high demand for babies. Not really. There are hundreds of thousands of children who are adoptable and yet they are shuffled from foster home to foster home and pumped full of medication they don’t need because the more perscriptions they take the more money they are worth to the foster parents. I encourage you to work for state adminstered social services a couple of months and see what you think then.
I can also tell you that you have no experience with the welfare system or poverty. First of all poverty is not a moral failure. Perhaps you should pay closer attention at mass and think about what Christ had to say about dealing with the poor.
I will also share a story with you about a young woman I know. She had a child at 21. She was unmarried, is pro-choice and her choice was to have her child. Her child was born very ill. Although she had a “good” job and private insurance there were still several thousand dollars her insurance company would not cover. She turned to the state and asked them to subsidize the special formula her infant required (he could not be breast fed and the cost was more than $400 a month) The state said her 25K salary was too much money. The state encourged her to quit her job and then everything her child needed would be covered. She declined, worked two jobs and made it through. My point is there does need to be further welfare reform no doubt, but the system encourages dependence in this regard, so change the rules don’t be angry at those who are imprisoned by them.
By the way Clinton reformed welfare so you can’t get more than five years now anyway, so your remarks about it becoming a way of life is no longer valid. It’s not about Lazy. You think people like living in poverty? IF thats what you think poverty=lazy, I will be the one praying for you.
Crystal, Everyone who is was a youth was a nazi. Haven’t you read your history books.
Yeah Crystal -
Anybody can throw out a small amounts of facts, stats or charts to influence any group of anything.
If you want to talk about this, you need to talk about it in context and in its entirety.
That is how you debate or any educated person will dismiss your argument (not you) as unintelligent.
So please get more information on the situation, then come back and we will see where we stand.
Daniel O
Crystal,
You don’t know me, so you can’t judge my amount of experience with this situation. As a matter a fact, I have a great deal of job and classroom experience related with this topic. Plus I am a Catholic. You and I both know that as Catholics we are taught that abortion is wrong! There’s no way around this FACT!
Perhaps you should pay A LOT of attention at church when and THINK about what the Ten Commandments “THOU SHALL NOT KILL.” You keep dodging the topic of murder and worry about poverty. Killing is A LOT worse than poverty! So, you’d rather have a child killed than allow it to be born into our society that can allow them to be a productive person?
Again, have morals, have values and think before you get in any situations and have to deal with this issue! If you have morals and values, you can abstain from this situation!
God will judge those who believe in abortion…..and I’ll be praying for your soul!
Crystal,
I agree wholeheartedly with your observation that poverty is not a matter of laziness, or moral failure. You state as much in the second paragraph of your Aug. 25 posting. The last sentence of that same paragraph is very important because it shows a few flaws in the logic of your argument.
We are talking about abortion, poverty and being Catholic.
We can start with being Catholic. As you say Jesus teaches us how to treat the poor. But you are mistaken if you think that Jesus limited his teaching to include only the financially destitue.
The poor that Jesus talks about are those who are unable to provide (not just material goods, but emotional, mental, spiritual goods included) for themselves. We as Catholics seek to help our brothers and sisters with ALL of their needs financial and otherwize.
Abortion as you can see is a flash point for Catholics because we see that a truly poor person- the child- can provide nothing for him/herself. The child has life; without any thought to the future cost or benifit to our society we must protect that life because it is in itself valuable enough to protect.
Crystal, you tried to set up a dicotomy between the Catholic stance on contraception and it’s stance on abortion. I assure you that no such problem exists. The Church is not “trying to have it both ways” by rejecting both contraception and abortion. It is promoting the sanctity of life in one cohesive and coherent outlook. The thought that rejecting contraception creates a “need” for abortion is truly misguided. There is never the “need” to eliminate an innocent person- even if that person is “undesired”.
Sorry but just one last note.
Daniel O. is right to suggest a need for education on the topic of Benedict XVI. Your history on this topic is very weak, and seems to be heavily influenced by mass media instead of fact.
Let’s get this point straight. Democrats are not pro-abortion. Democrats let the women decide what kind of healthcare they want. In 1965 in Griswold vs. Connecticut, the supreme court unamously stated the constitution does include the right to privacy. This ‘right to privacy’ protects decisions concerning family planning. I believe the government has no right to interfere in people’s personal, private decisions.
Futhermore, if Roe v Wade is overturned, then the decision simply goes back to state legislatures. Thus, wealthier women would simply go to Massachusetts or New York………..states where there would be a right to abortion. If abortion is outlawed, then the result would be a rise in unsafe, back ally abortions. The number of abortions would remame high but would become dangerous.
I believe pro-choicers and pro-lifers could come together and find common ground. Abortions can be reduced by promoted contreptive, morning after pill, and comprehensive sex ed. This is better than criminalizing abortions.
If you can find the word “privacy” or any form thereof in the constitution or bill of rights, give me a call.
Democrats aren’t for abortion…. and the Nazis weren’t against Jews, they just liked killing them
There are alot of things that aren’t in the constitution explicitly. That is why the supreme court ruled in 1965 based on the ‘original intent’ of the constitution.
Ricky, no one is for abortion. Overturning Roe will not decrease the abortion rate. I personally don’t like abortion; however, I believe it is very important to give the choice to a women, her doctor, her deity.
You Democrats always want it both ways. Democrats support abortion. That means that you are pro-abortion, Adam. The Democrats definitely support abortion. Adam, your last statement says that you believe it is important for a woman to have a choice…..well, you just admitted that you support the murder of a child!
Being pro-choice in no ways gives personal support for abortion. Pro-Choice means that the government does not have the right to control a person’s reproduction or moral choices. If you have moral objections to abortion, which I find to be very reasonable, don’t have one. I just don’t believe that the federal government has the right to write legislation that pertains to people’s personal private decisions.
I will extend an olive branch to the catholic democrats by saying that I, like the catholic democrats, oppose the death penalty. I believe that there is room in the democratic party for those people who consider themselve pro-life. Moreover, most reasonable people agree that we can reduce the number of abortions by promoting adoption, providing better access to contraception including the morning after pill, and programs aimed at providing relief to single mothers.
I also believe there is room for pro-life people in the Democratic party, precisely because they are consistent with their pro-life position; being against the death penalty as well, and generally in favor of better educational systems, wanting to help people overcome poverty, access to health care, as well as numerous other issues. The Republican party seems to be simply pro-birth, not pro-life.
Being pro-life is not incompatible with the Democratic Party. In fact I’d argue that Democrats are the only ones who have presented actual plans to stop abortion. Check out the Democrats for Life 95-10 Initiative; reducing the number of abortions by 95% in 10 years. I know some of you will say it should be 100%, but that is simply not realistic. Overturning Roe vs. Wade is not the solution. If that happens, rich women will go to states or countries that allow it and poor women will resort to back-alley abortions, or to their bathtubs with coathangers.
Ending abortion does not have a simple solution. The lives of women need to be improved, they need to be educated on how to prevent unwanted pregnancies. I think the Abstinence Plus programs are the way to go. Enforcing the fact that abstinence is the only way to be 100% safe, but also telling them about birth control. Most parents won’t talk about that with their kids, and if they did, maybe we wouldn’t have the problems we did. No matter how hard people may try, there is no way to legislate good parenting.
I am a Dem. I don’t support abortion. I don’t support any killing. So I’m anti-war, anti-weapons, anti-death penalty and anti-inequity of wealth that sends 1 out of every 4 children in the country to bed malnourished. No, I’m not a communist. But I do try to be a Christian. The Christ wasn’t a killer. He attended to the poor. He lived a life of poverty. He warned us about wealth. And He warned us about judging others.