Political Stomachache

I've read several little articles this morning that are getting me frustrated. Erik has a good post that talks through Joe Biden's issue on abortion.

Biden: For me, as a Roman Catholic, I’m prepared to accept the teachings of my church….I’m prepared as a matter of faith to accept that life begins at the moment of conception. But that is my judgment. For me to impose that judgment on everyone else who is equally and maybe even more devout than I am seems to me is inappropriate in a pluralistic society.

Brokaw: But if you, you believe that life begins at conception, and you’ve also voted for abortion rights…

Biden: No, what a voted against curtailing the right, criminalizing abortion. I voted against telling everyone else in the country that they have to accept my religiously based view that it’s a moment of conception.

So whatever you believe you can't take into the public realm? That does not make sense.

Also, I saw these next two articles discussing Sarah Palin over at Justin Taylor's blog.

Here's a snippet from this post:

"So while I respect Palin's decision to raise Trig, that's all the respect she will get from me. I don't see eye-to-eye with her on anything else: energy, guns, sex education and of course a woman's right to choose. Her supporters say that Trig signals that she practices what she preaches. Her decision to make her own choice but not grant it to others is a sign of her hypocrisy."

WHAT???

Finally, here's a string a quotes from this post:

"Belief in god, like getting pregnant, is a private matter between consenting adults (or one consenting adult and one or more deities) and is no one else's business. I am on record in this blog (and have not budged an inch) as not objecting to any candidate's religious views.

But I object strongly when anyone (and especially anyone with political power) tries to take their theology out in public, to inflict those private religious (or sexual) views on other people. In both sex and religion (which combine in the debates about abortion), Sarah Palin's views make me fear that the Republican party has finally lost its mind.

Her greatest hypocrisy is in her pretense that she is a woman...She does not speak for women; she has no sympathy for the problems of other women, particularly working class women.

Joe Biden's views are most relevant to the question at hand, since, as a Catholic, he shares much of Palin's embryological theology: he believes life begins at conception. But he has gone out of his way to insist that he would not impose his personal views on others, and has indeed voted against curtailing abortion rights and against criminalizing abortion. That is the right answer. It's in the Constitution. It's not in the Bible, or the Qu'ran, or the Bhagavad Gita. It's in the mother-lovin' Constitution."

(Sigh) It boggles my mind that people are still so one-sided in their pluralisic beliefs. They gladly state that no one can impose their certain views on them while at the same time condemning others becuase of their view.

I need a Pepto Bismol