Separating the Catholic Sheep From the CINO Goats

Reprinted from NewsMax.com

Separating the Catholic Sheep From the CINO Goats
Phil Brennan
Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2004

Except for a courageous handful, America's wimpish Roman Catholic Bishops won't say this, but I will: A significant number of proclaimed Catholics in this country are no more Catholic than the most secularized of their fellow Americans.

Yet the media insists on labeling them as being members of a church whose doctrines they dispute and whose disciplines they reject. It is members of this group whose dissent from the most vital teachings of the Church draws huzzahs from the neo-paganists who dominate the mainstream media today. And it also this group which distorts the true picture of what was once a solid voting bloc, but no longer exists as a political reality.

There are, in fact, faithful Catholics and there are people who call themselves Catholic but are, in reality, about as close to being atheists as they can get without completely banishing the idea of the Almighty from their lives. If He exists at all, to them He is merely an afterthought.

This has a serious impact on America's political future because, as George Marlin points out in his extraordinary new book, "The American Catholic Voter - 200 Years of Political Impact," both the real and pseudo Catholic vote will be the decisive one in the upcoming presidential election.

In a pair of recent Gallup polls it was revealed that Catholic registered voters who attend church weekly - about one-third of all Catholic registered voters - support Bush over Kerry. Those voters view Bush's moral policies as most closely resembling those of the Church, and Kerry's moral outlook as greatly at odds with the Church - by a full 10 percent margin, 52 percent to 42 percent.

But among those Catholics-in-name-only (CINO) voters who rarely if ever go to church - about 38 percent of the self-described Catholics - Kerry led by 57 percent to 39 percent.

Marlin points out that since the "Catholic" vote will determine the outcome - and he provides solid evidence for the veracity of this prediction - the election will be decided by how effective the Bush forces are in energizing the faithful Catholics to come out and vote for him, and how effective Kerry is in energizing the phony Catholic bloc of voters.

It's important to understand exactly what defines a Roman Catholic. Anyone wishing to be a member of the Roman Catholic Church must subscribe fully and not half-heartedly to what is called the "Depositum Fidei," the deposit of faith which contains the Church's doctrines. It's not up for debate. Take it or leave it. Leave it and you leave the Church.

Adhering to those doctrines faithfully makes a faithful Catholic. It is not easy. There are lots of inconveniences that prevent a Roman Catholic from living in accord with the current fun-and-games secularist lifestyle with which the media, Hollywood and the literary world are so enamored. It sets us apart from a majority of our fellow Americans. But as the old saying goes, "living Catholic is hard; dying Catholic is easy."

The CINOs reject the hard part - that which interferes with the decadent lifestyle they prefer. In the case of those in political life, the hard part interferes with taking positions opposite from those of voters on the left. And if that sets them at odds with their nominal religion, it's not their fault. They blame a Church which refuses to join the secularist parade and approve that which would deprive it of its very reason to exist.

Let's be blunt about this; people like John Kerry and Tom Daschle and their like - all CINOs - are well aware of the horrendous nature of abortion - the outright murder of unborn human beings in the eyes of the Church and most of humanity for most of the world's history.

But they would rather sacrifice babies over the political support of the multi-billion dollar abortion industry and its lavish campaign contributions.

Yet they continue to insist they remain members of the Catholic faith and are simply following their consciences by bartering their immortal souls for money and votes.

Let's be clear about this. They are not in any sense of the word Catholics. One can't support abortion and remain a Catholic. Nor can those who are faithful Catholics go down to their polling places on election day and vote for turncoats. By so doing they forfeit any claim to Catholicism and become apostates and accomplices in the murder of the unborn.

It's not just the issue of abortion that separates the CINOs from their former church. Other issues - same sex marriage and embryonic stem cell research and the requirement to attend Mass on Sundays - also puts them into the apostate column.

For them, living Catholic is just too hard. And dying outside their church will be hard. Damned hard.

Pray for them. And for God's sake, outvote them on election day.

Phil Brennan is a veteran journalist who writes for NewsMax.com. He is editor & publisher of Wednesday on the Web (http://www.pvbr.com) and was Washington columnist for National Review magazine in the 1960s. He also served as a staff aide for the House Republican Policy Committee and helped handle the Washington public relations operation for the Alaska Statehood Committee which won statehood for Alaska. He is also a trustee of the Lincoln Heritage Institute and a member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers. He can be reached at phil@newsmax.com

This was sent to me via email today...It was too good not to pass along...All emphasis above was added by me.

Thanks to Marc for passing this on the me!