They called it a discussion rather than a debate, and no one cursed, raised his voice or turned purple with fury. Yet it was still the Catholic Thrilla in Manila – the much-anticipated face-off between two preeminent pro-life thinkers, only one of whom thinks it's OK to support Barack Obama anyway. To be honest, my side did not win.
Throughout the '08 presidential campaign, the Catholic argument was not, for a change, between pro-life and pro-choice believers. Instead, it was between pro-lifers -- some of whom, like me, saw in Obama overriding reasons to say "yes, we can.' And though this may be just the sort of chasm Freud called "the narcissism of small differences,'' for those of us caught up in the conversation, it is no trivial matter.
In one corner, as it were, was Princeton's Robert George, who argued not only forcefully but graphically that no one who sees abortion as an intrinsic evil should support this president. In the other was Pepperdine's Doug Kmiec, the pro-life, pro-Obama author of Can a Catholic Support Him? Asking the Big Question about Barack Obama.
Read the full article here. Or better yet listen/watch it on C Span here and make up your own mind.
Throughout the '08 presidential campaign, the Catholic argument was not, for a change, between pro-life and pro-choice believers. Instead, it was between pro-lifers -- some of whom, like me, saw in Obama overriding reasons to say "yes, we can.' And though this may be just the sort of chasm Freud called "the narcissism of small differences,'' for those of us caught up in the conversation, it is no trivial matter.
In one corner, as it were, was Princeton's Robert George, who argued not only forcefully but graphically that no one who sees abortion as an intrinsic evil should support this president. In the other was Pepperdine's Doug Kmiec, the pro-life, pro-Obama author of Can a Catholic Support Him? Asking the Big Question about Barack Obama.
Read the full article here. Or better yet listen/watch it on C Span here and make up your own mind.
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