Church and State

Topic warning - politics style.

Two successive posts from First Things examine the selective vision of some Catholic leaders.

Michael Novak sheds some light upon progressive (even imperialist?) domination of Catholic social and political action where conservative thought is excluded from the arena of ideas. The Cliff's Notes version:

In short, there is more than one way of grasping the principles, working out the middle axioms, and examining with accuracy and through open, respectful debate the concrete realities addressed by Catholic social thought [SNIP] Catholic social thought has more than one wing. It needs at least two to fly.
Alas, the imperialist Catholics try to foist off their monolithic, myopic vision of Catholic social thought as though it were the whole of that beautiful, long-lived, and many-colored intellectual tradition. Theirs is only a splinter, not the whole beam.
If Mr. Brennan were content to present his own views, and those of his allies, as one option among many, I would have no quarrel with them. We could then have many useful arguments about the concrete realities, as well as about the policy options most likely ofsuccess.

James Kerian notes how selectively the USCCB chooses to apply church teaching in this article. He concludes:
It seems far more likely that after over three decades of succumbing to cultural pressure, our clergy are simply eager to show their courage in the face of the law on the first safe issue that has presented itself. [SNIP] If one is going to stand up to the law, it may as well be a law that many people already ignore.