Re. Catholics and abortion: shouldn't they refuse to pay taxes?

[Smarmie Doofus]

>>>>"I would say give consideration to your eternal salvation...you make yourself a participant in the act of abortion," Finn replied. That's gravely wrong. You must not do it because your eternal salvation is tied up with that important choice.">>>

The above is Bishop Finn of Mo. warning people against voting for Obama. But why should obedient catholics stop with voting? If abortion is murder, why pay the salaries of the five supreme court justices who established Roe v. Wade? And the salaries of thousands legislators around the country who have approved abortion access laws?

If voting for Obama is "gravely wrong" because it makes one a participant in the act of abortion, isn't paying taxes to a government equally wrong since it , just as much as voting, makes one a participant?

Obviously there's the difference between the volitional act of voting and the less-than-fully- volitional act of taxpaying. But if the Bishop truly believes that facilitating abortion is a "grave wrong", it's hard to see that paying for a government that facilitates abortion is any less evil in its essence.

I guess I'm asking this: " Why isn't the church... if it is truly convinced of it's position that abortion is murder... not calling on people to withhold taxes and engage in other forms of civil disobedience to obstruct and impede this "grave wrong?"

[Ilsa]

1. Abortion and so-called pro-life issues aren't the only

issues Catholics are supposed to be concerned with. They are also supposed to consider the rights of laborers and the dignity of work, human rights, solidarity with the rest of humanity, caring for God's creation, assisting the poor and vulnerable. Placing one issue above all others doesn't really work well. Te Bishops' document on Faithful citizenship convers more than just abortion.

I'm not Catholic, but it is an interesting document to read.

[happyslug]

5. The document is from September 12, 2008, not his recent comment

The paper issued on September 12, 2008 by Both the Diocese of Kansas City Mo AND the Arch-Diocese of Kansas City KS:
http://www.diocese-kcsj.org/_docs/JointPastoral-Moral-Cons-09-08.pdf

Here is the official US Bishop Guide on how to vote (No candidate is named, it is how Catholics are to review each candidate in relation to Catholic Doctrine):
http://www.usccb.org/faithfulcitizenship/FCStatement.pdf

Bishops Finn's REJECTION of Missouri proposed English only rule:
http://www.diocese-kcsj.org/_docs/English-Only-Ballot-10-08.pdf

His opposition to the proposed Federal Freedom of Choice Act:
http://www.diocese-kcsj.org/_docs/FOCA-08.pdf

In it the bishop makes an observation:
We can never for for a candidate because of his or hers permissive stands on abortion. At the same time we are inclined to vote for someone dispute their pro-abortion stand. The article then goes on to say some sort of proportional decision has to be made and then state he could not find one (Despite the fact in the letter of September 12, 2008 he list a whole list of other reasons to vote for a candidate.

Basically the Bishop is taking a position to the RIGHT of the Council of Bishops of the US, that there are NO proportional reasons to vote for a pro-abortion Candidate over an Anti-Abortion Candidate, while the Bishops, as a whole, do NOT take that stand.

[CatholicEdHead]

6. They are for the Bishops who want to get promotions to Rome

as fast as possible.

[Veritas_et_Aequitas]

2. Three reasons I can think of off the top of my head.

1) The whole "render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and unto God what is God's". When Christ was pressed with a question similar to yours, he gave that reason to support paying taxes to the Roman government while at the same time dedicating one's life to following God's teachings. Good Christians are supposed to remain in the world without becoming corrupted by it (quite a difficult task).
2) (The more ironic reason) The Catholic Church abhors scandal. In a democratic society where tax paying is expected of its citizens, a Catholic not paying his taxes would cast a bad light on the church
3) (The more practical reason) The hierarchy simply knows that's not feasible, particularly since taxes also pay for a number of programs that the Church fundamentally (or at least should) agree with, such as social services. It would be cutting off your nose to spite your face. On the other hand, mobilizing parishioners to vote a certain way is a less risky way of achieving its goals.

Catholic political thought is fairly complicated considering it has constantly changed over the last 2000 years and has a lot of apparent contradictions in it.

[rug]

3. This is the logical end of the bishops' "material cooperation with evil" bullshit.

Yet they are quick to apply the doctrine of double effect to war and capital punishment.

[Dems4me]

4. I'm Catholic and here in VA many Catholics are speaking out- My particular area is Repug highly, but

Sunday at Mass, we had a nun wear her Obama-Biden T-shirt.
I went to her an thanked her for standing up for our beliefs. :thumbsup: