Deacon Fournier Editorial: "Not Your ‘Average Joe’: Maybe I will vote for Joe Schriner?"
Deacon Keith Fournier editorializes at Catholic Online on the Catholic candidacy of Joe Schriner:
... So far, I only know who I cannot vote for. I will not vote for any candidate who fails to hear the cry of the poor coming from our youngest neighbors, children in the first home of the whole human race, their mother’s wombs.See also Deacon Fournier's recent editorial "Abortion, the ‘800 lb. Gorilla’ in the Campaign":
So, unless Senator Obama has a conversion over the fundamental human rights issue of our age, the right of every person to life, and the first freedom, the freedom to be born, I cannot vote for him.
There is a hierarchy of values and there is a certain kind of hierarchy of evils! Killing innocent children in the womb, who have no voice, and calling it a “right” is simply wrong.It is the worst evil.
***
I have been writing multiple articles concerning the current U.S. Presidential campaign. Anyone who has read me knows that neither of the two candidates who have emerged were my choice.
I cannot vote for one of them, Senator Obama. I do not yet know if I can even vote for the other one, Senator McCain. My reasons on both fronts are in past articles, commentaries and editorials.
***
I wish there was another candidate who more closely reflected the common sense truth which I find in wonderfully expressed in the principles of Catholic Social Teaching.
***
That was until I discovered, by accident, the candidacy of “Average Joe Shriner”
(http://www.voteforjoe.com/index.html).
I commend this man to my reader’s attention. His small town honesty, his love for his family, his country, his Church and his common sense exposition on the great issues of our age in these nonsensical times.
Joes campaign theme is, “Common Man, Common Sense, Un-Common Solutions!”
Mike Haynes of the Amarillo Globe-News discovered Joe before I did. He wrote concerning him"...America needs to hear his (Schriner's) appeals to simplify lifestyles, save the unborn, heal the family, return to rural values and expand local charity efforts."
***
To my readers, I may have actually found a candidate to consider who is really “Whole Life/Pro-Life”.
[More]
... Let’s be honest, the difference between these two candidates [McCain and Obama] on the most fundamental of all human rights, the right to life, is the “800 lb. Gorilla” in the U.S. Presidential Campaign...My Comments:
Sen. Brownback was such a "Whole Life/Pro-Life" candidate. It's just a shame more Catholics didn't rally to his cause. Sen. McCain could go a long way toward helping his candicacy among people like me by naming Brownback as his running mate (or, better yet, promising to nominate him to the Supreme Court). McCain would also have to reverse his position on ESCR.
Otherwise, I may be looking long and hard at Joe Schriner.
Labels: Catholic Identity, Catholic Social Teaching, Elections, Pro-Life, The Catholic Vote, Voting Your Values
posted by Pro Ecclesia 9:03 AM
4 comments
4 Comments:
I looked over his stances on the issues (not the full papers, but the summaries), and I cannot get behind him on a great deal of the issues. I'm totally on the fence about complete amnesty for illegals and a work-pass program, the local taxes to pay for government run healthcare only serves to take MORE of my money (plus who will force doctors and nurses to do volunteer work outside of the 80 to 100 hours a week they are already working?). And "Department of Peace"? Really?
I give him credit for standing up to the Green Party and sticking by his Pro Life stance, but I just find so little else that I agree with whole-heartedly in his issue outlines. (There are a few things, but not much. I mean, do our public schools really need MORE diversity training starting in elementary school?) And he's telling me to keep my AC temp high and my heating temp low - wear a sweater, etc. Well, I already DO that; what next?
No matter what, I'll be holding my nose this Fall when I vote. Aside from that, the only other thing I can tell you for sure is that we'll not be voting for Pro-Death Obama. And all the while, I'll be remembering that a president's actual power is limited, which means that most of what a president promises is just not going to actually happen. (Remember Social Security Reform? Yeah, I voted for several people based on that lie.)
Where was Deacon Fournier during the primary?? He should have got behind Brownback. I love how there are all these complainers about McCain yet they didn't endorse Brownback in the primary, if anyone at all. Such whiners.
The very best part of this piece is one you did not cite--the part where he explains why he parts company with the neo-cons who either ignore Catholic social teaching or selectively cherry-pick those points that will support an agenda (including the war in Iraq) that is antithetical to the teachings of the Church. It is a brilliant analysis, one that I plan to share with our deacon-candidates.
I love the way 100 people can use the term "neo-con" to mean a hundred different things, so long as it's a negative representation of some "conservative" (or, rather, "Republican" stereotype...).
My problem, really, is that I don't see the point of casting a protest-vote against both parties' candidates. I would vote for a lot worse than McCain to keep Obama out, as long as I could reasonably expect that vote to help accomplish that goal. As it is, in my state, it won't matter. The issue that this campaign really raises is the problems inherent in the two-party system as it currently exists. When such a HUGE percentage of Americans rejects BOTH candidates as desirable or even suitable, there is a problem. So where do you go from there, when the system is so entrenched as to be untouchable? Something needs to be shaken up, but I don't think the "protest vote" strategy is effective, since the fact remains that one of these two guys is going to be the next president...
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