This is Just the Beginning

Craig Richardson

Deal, the anti-Catholic statements from Edwards staffers are just some of the first salvos in what will be a simmering debate over faith and politics that will likely shape the 2008 elections.

As you know, up until the 2004 elections, our Liberal friends dismissed those of faith as simply marginalized wingnuts who made good fodder for the late night comedians.  After this election, when it became crystal clear that church goers were a formidable voting bloc, the Liberals did what anyone involved in politics would do...they figured out how to reshape their message and they aligned themselves with the "Religious Left" as a way of inoculating themselves from being viewed as anti-God.

Senator Hillary Clinton, for example, has hired a faith "guru" for her campaign.  We've already discussed in great length on this blog Speaker Nancy Pelosi' efforts to position herself as a "Catholic grandmother."

I view this as a real opportunity to have a national dialog on what it truly means to be  Catholic.  Saying your "Catholic" while supporting abortion-on-demand and advocating for homosexual "marriage," for example, is completely contrary to the 2000 year teachings of the Church.  We all know that this philosophy of "Cafeteria Catholicism"  cannot continue indefinitely and what I think we're seeing is a wide-open discussion that will eventually expose this hypocrisy for what it is.  Rooting out false teachings is never pretty, however.