{"id":3354,"date":"2007-11-28T07:58:00","date_gmt":"2007-11-28T07:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2007\/11\/greeley-i-wonder-if-its-proper-to-impose-our-view-on-a-society-that-doesnt-agree-with-us.html"},"modified":"2007-11-28T07:58:00","modified_gmt":"2007-11-28T07:58:00","slug":"greeley-i-wonder-if-its-proper-to-impose-our-view-on-a-society-that-doesnt-agree-with-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2007\/11\/greeley-i-wonder-if-its-proper-to-impose-our-view-on-a-society-that-doesnt-agree-with-us.html","title":{"rendered":"Greeley: “I wonder if it’s proper to impose our view on a society that doesn’t agree with us”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andrew Greeley has weighed in on the bishops’ document on “Faithful Citizenship”<\/a> and, as always, he has some provocative points<\/a>: <\/p>\n

If we are to believe the media, the Catholic bishops warned American Catholics that if they voted for a candidate who supported abortion, their eternal salvation might be in jeopardy. I don’t think that’s what they really said, but, alas, the bishops generally have a hard time making clear what they actually are saying. The media don’t do nuance very well, and bishops have a hard time conveying their intent in words that fit into a 750-word story or a 90-second TV clip. Hence, they add confusion upon confusion, and many Catholics simply dismiss them with a snide comment about the sexual abuse of children.<\/p>\n

Yet, let us assume that it is mortally sinful to vote for an abortion rights candidate. What happens, then, when the three New York candidates show up on the ballot next year — Sen. Clinton, Mayuh Giuliani and Mayuh Bloomberg?<\/p>\n

The only conclusion I can come to is that Catholics should not vote at all under those circumstances. Is this what the Vatican and the American bishops are telling us? In effect, American Catholics, faced with the New York choice, must withdraw from the political system?<\/p>\n

To many Americans it seems that the Catholic leadership is trying to use its political muscle to impose Catholic morality on that majority of Americans who do not accept Catholic teaching. Abortion, the response comes, is against the natural law. Everyone knows what the natural law is, and therefore abortion is self-evidently wrong. To which those who disagree will say that they don’t think it is self-evident at all. Then the Catholic crusader will reply that if you don’t admit that, then you are in bad faith and you are baby-killers. It is difficult to see what is accomplished by such an exchange.<\/p>\n

I subscribe to the position that abortion, no matter how nearly universal in human history, is morally unacceptable (as is infanticide, which was far more frequent). But I wonder if it is proper or prudent to try to impose this Catholic moral view on a whole society that does not agree with us, especially when we cannot even persuade most of our own people. Might it not be a wiser strategy to strive to persuade the Catholic faithful, four-fifths of whom do not believe that it is always wrong, before trying to make Catholic morality the law of the land? <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There’s more, with other arguments and questions, at the link<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Andrew Greeley has weighed in on the bishops’ document on “Faithful Citizenship” and, as always, he has some provocative points: If we are to believe the media, the Catholic bishops warned American Catholics that if they voted for a candidate who supported abortion, their eternal salvation might be in jeopardy. I don’t think that’s what…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":204,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,12,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media","category-ripped-from-the-headlines","category-the-pope-and-bishops"],"yoast_head":"\nGreeley: "I wonder if it's proper to impose our view on a society that doesn't agree with us" - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2007\/11\/greeley-i-wonder-if-its-proper-to-impose-our-view-on-a-society-that-doesnt-agree-with-us.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Greeley: "I wonder if it's proper to impose our view on a society that doesn't agree with us" - The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Andrew Greeley has weighed in on the bishops’ document on “Faithful Citizenship” and, as always, he has some provocative points: If we are to believe the media, the Catholic bishops warned American Catholics that if they voted for a candidate who supported abortion, their eternal salvation might be in jeopardy. I don’t think that’s what…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2007\/11\/greeley-i-wonder-if-its-proper-to-impose-our-view-on-a-society-that-doesnt-agree-with-us.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-11-28T07:58:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Deacon Greg Kandra\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Greeley: \"I wonder if it's proper to impose our view on a society that doesn't agree with us\" - The Deacon's Bench","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2007\/11\/greeley-i-wonder-if-its-proper-to-impose-our-view-on-a-society-that-doesnt-agree-with-us.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Greeley: \"I wonder if it's proper to impose our view on a society that doesn't agree with us\" - The Deacon's Bench","og_description":"Andrew Greeley has weighed in on the bishops’ document on “Faithful Citizenship” and, as always, he has some provocative points: If we are to believe the media, the Catholic bishops warned American Catholics that if they voted for a candidate who supported abortion, their eternal salvation might be in jeopardy. I don’t think that’s what…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2007\/11\/greeley-i-wonder-if-its-proper-to-impose-our-view-on-a-society-that-doesnt-agree-with-us.html","og_site_name":"The Deacon's Bench","article_published_time":"2007-11-28T07:58:00+00:00","author":"Deacon Greg Kandra","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2007\/11\/greeley-i-wonder-if-its-proper-to-impose-our-view-on-a-society-that-doesnt-agree-with-us.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2007\/11\/greeley-i-wonder-if-its-proper-to-impose-our-view-on-a-society-that-doesnt-agree-with-us.html","name":"Greeley: \"I wonder if it's proper to impose our view on a society that doesn't agree with us\" - The Deacon's Bench","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/#website"},"datePublished":"2007-11-28T07:58:00+00:00","dateModified":"2007-11-28T07:58:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/5a7b3c6e9d155e382842aa310ff9b1ee"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2007\/11\/greeley-i-wonder-if-its-proper-to-impose-our-view-on-a-society-that-doesnt-agree-with-us.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2007\/11\/greeley-i-wonder-if-its-proper-to-impose-our-view-on-a-society-that-doesnt-agree-with-us.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2007\/11\/greeley-i-wonder-if-its-proper-to-impose-our-view-on-a-society-that-doesnt-agree-with-us.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Greeley: “I wonder if it’s proper to impose our view on a society that doesn’t agree with us”"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/","name":"The Deacon's Bench","description":"Where a Roman Catholic Deacon Ponders the World","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/5a7b3c6e9d155e382842aa310ff9b1ee","name":"Deacon Greg Kandra","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/114\/1144d939be636f641ea021e1d347f9fdx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/114\/1144d939be636f641ea021e1d347f9fdx96.jpg","caption":"Deacon Greg Kandra"},"description":"A Roman Catholic deacon serving the Diocese of Brooklyn, New York, Greg Kandra is News Director for the diocese's cable channel, NET (New Evangelization Television.) Prior to that, Deacon Greg worked for 26 years as a writer and producer for CBS News, where he contributed to \"The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric,\" \"60 Minutes II,\" \"48 Hours,\" (Emmy Award, Writers Guild of America Award) and \"Sunday Morning.\" He was co-writer for the acclaimed documentary \"9\/11,\" hosted by Robert DeNiro. (Emmy Award, Christopher Award, Peabody Award, Writers Guild of America Award.) His radio essays were featured in the bestselling book \"Deadlines and Datelines\" by Dan Rather. He's also a two-time winner of the Catholic Press Association Award. Other places you may find him: AMERICA, U.S. CATHOLIC, CATHOLIC DIGEST, REALITY (Redemptorist Communications) and THE BROOKLYN TABLET. He also contributes homiletic reflections to the parish resource CONNECT!, published by Liturgical Publications. In November 2009, he began serving a three-year term as a consultant to the Communications Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Deacon Greg grew up in Maryland (Go Terps!) but he and his wife today live in the beautiful borough of Queens, New York. You can contact Deacon Greg at dcngreg@gmail.com.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/author\/gkandra"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/204"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3354\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}