http://themoderatevoice.com/193174/a-war-of-words-doesnt-have-to-involve-fighting/
A Global Crossing of Wildly
Popular World Leaders.
The Rock Star Pope Greets The
Superman President.
The View From The Virgin Islands
By John McCarthy
Moderate Voice Columnist
President Obama met with Pope Francis last
week in Rome.
That’s when I
learned that the phrase “conscientious objection” no longer means what we
thought it means.
The President
sought to characterize the meeting as one between common allies, but the
Vatican stressed the little differences, including what it called every
person’s right to “religious freedom, life and conscientious objection.”
To be fair,
there was innuendo on each side because Mr. Obama said there was no talk of
“social schisms” in the 52-minute meeting in Vatican City – schism being a word
that has been used historically to describe breakaway sects of all Protestant
denominations from the Roman Catholic Church.
So there was the
subtlety of diplomatic word play at work, and even the New York Times was left
asking whether the Pope’s scribes meant for “conscientious objection” to refer
to “an allusion to the contraception
provision” of the Affordable Care Act?
And although I don’t have a direct line
to Italy as a non-excommunicated Catholic, indeed they did mean it to mean that
– trust me. I thought it was a very clever use of the phrase “conscientious
objection” which is a term that has been in use since World War I to describe
people who wish to opt out of combat service on moral grounds.
The United
Nations Commission on Human Rights says “conscientious objectors” are “persons performing military service
[who have] the right to have conscientious objections to military
service."
Muhammad Ali is one of the most famous
American conscientious objectors from the Vietnam War era. I remember driving
in a car to St. Michael’s Catholic School on Monday, March 8, 1971 and my
cousin Delmar asking me who I thought would win “The Fight of The Century.” I
said: “Muhammad Ali.” He said: “But he was a draft dodger.”
So even in a discussion about boxing,
questions and answers can quickly turn political – leaving us all to wonder if
legitimate discourse is dead – we certainly hope not.
For to equate “conscientious objection” –
a phrase that has been used internationally for nearly 100 years to refer to
people who choose not to fight in wars – with people who seek to impose their
religious dogma on all of us – strikes me as richly disingenuous.
It is a fair question to ask whether or
not those who do not believe in allowing people to have access to contraception
– have the right to impose that will on others – and also whether it is ethical
to couch that issue as one of simply “opting out.”
I say it is not merely an issue of a
hospital being able to “opt out” of supplying contraception to patients,
because if administrations were able pick and choose what they will offer – it
would set up a two-tier system of “believers” and “non-believers” in parochial
medical facilities nationwide. Who do you think would get the best service
under such a system? What tier would you want to be in?
What I thought was lacking from the rock
star Pope – whom I like and admire as much as everyone from Rolling Stone to
the Jerusalem Post seems to for his outreach to the poor – was a sense of the
Holy Father wanting to bring everyone on board. I couldn’t help but wonder how
someone who is infallible on church matters could make such an obvious team
spirit faux pas? I read that he was a bouncer; maybe he never played team
sports?
Although President Obama said kind things
about Ronald Reagan in his stump speeches in 2008 and 2012, it is obvious from
his political agenda that he understands that “trickle-down theory” and “voodoo
economics” are the same thing – and it doesn’t work no matter what you call it
or how many failed Republican presidential candidates say that it will work.
But when the Pope said the same thing he was branded a “Marxist” by Rush
Limbaugh.
To me, Barack Hussein Obama and Jorge
Mario Bergoglio are world-beloved spiritual soul mates and I wish that the Pope
had tried to cozy up a little more with the Leader of the Free World in their
desk-side chat. A full-on, like-minded bromance would have been nice – since
each is already spoken for when it comes to the possibility of a same sex
wedding. I’m left cold with the belief that the church must no longer be
crusading for new membership.
Maybe there’s still time for their
courtship to blossom – or have the bean counters at the Vatican steriley
calculated that Mr. Obama will see eye to eye with them when a camel passes
through eye of a needle? I still say that it never hurts to have one more
enthusiastic supporter in your group.
Since that is not an issue of church
doctrine, Pope Francis can be wrong.
And I can be right.
© 2014 John Francis
McCarthy/Secret Goldfish Publishing House, LLC
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