At 04:48 AM 6/16/01 -0500 Ronn Blankenship wrote:
>IMO, "Catholic social thought" sounds like he is only trying to appeal to
>members of that particular denomination, whereas something like "Christian
>social thought" (or the standard phrase "Christian values") would have come
>across as more inclusive, especially as a majority of US believers in
>Christ are not members of a denomination that calls itself
>"Catholic" (Roman or otherwise) and may feel excluded by his remarks.
Well, yeah.
I admitted as much, that this Administration is very consciously courting
Catholic voters
> So
>I was wondering why he used that particular
>phrase, or if, just for example, "Catholic social thought" might perhaps be
>a "code phrase" meaning "anti-abortion."
Not at all. By "Catholic social thought" is a code-word for the Government
Safety-Net. More accurately, it is an appeal to the long history of
Catholic teaching on social justice. As an example, 8 out of 10 Catholics
when they hear "Catholic social teaching" immediately think "Doris Day."
>I guess there are worse examples he could have picked if he wanted a group
>of believers in Christ who are generally thought of as conservative:
Not only did he want a generally conservative group, however, he also
wanted a group that in large part feels abandoned by the Republican Party
because of their advocacy of government social spending.
In other words, he needed to appeal to two groups whom he feels have a home
in the conservative movement yet feel abandoned by the Republican Party -
i.e. the Libertarians and the Catholics.
JDG
__________________________________________________________
John D. Giorgis - [EMAIL PROTECTED] - ICQ #3527685
"Compassionate conservatism is the way to reconcile the two most vital
conservative intellectual traditions: libertarianism & Catholic social
thought."
-Michael Gerson, advisor to George W. Bush
