Saturday, September 20, 2008

Race and the Campaign


It is no surprise that the intrinsic evil of racism is raising its ugly head in the presidential campaign. It might be thought that it is a sign of comparative virtue that much of it has been kept out of public view until now. As Catholics, we are obligated to stand against racism and affirm the sinful nature of racist acts.

Stanford University recently completed a survey that showed as many as 40% of white voters hold negative views based on race. On this blog, various comments have been left by some McCain supporters that are clearly racist and the "waffle" scandal at the right wing "Christian" values vote summit gives more evidence. I was shocked at racial comments left at the right wing Catholic blog "American Papist" by McCain supporters. In the New York Times this week, while interviewing Catholics voters in a Scranton, PA rectory, one McCain supporters made clearly racial comments while giving his intention to vote for McCain. We do know that just as our faith says it is wrong to vote for a candidate because of support for abortion, so it is wrong to vote for a candidate because of racism.

Some speculate that racist voters would be voting Republican anyway and it therefore will not change the outcome of the election. Maybe.

Let us hope that those motivated by the sin of racism will have a change of heart.

13 comments:

archangel said...

Thank you moderators for this site. I have been visiting for some time now and have enjoyed the postings. I love my faith and have a ‘neither; either or.... but rather both and’ approach. This is the approach of our Catholic faith. It is neither BLACK or WHITE but both and!

Without a doubt fear is the most common mentioned word in the Bible. It is fear that can undermine the bedrock of our lives. So what better way to motivate people than to ignite fear by using CODE words such as ‘uppity’, and ads that insinuate that everyone should fear a black man. It is interesting that McCain said he was not going to head down the DIRTY road yet as soon as Karl Rove hired on that’s where things ended up. I wonder when McCain will hire David Duke? Oh..... perhaps he is already there!

‘God is Love’

Anonymous said...

Photos from the 1950's?? Isn't that stretching it a bit??

Katherine said...

Photos from the 1950's?? Isn't that stretching it a bit??

No. The publicly emerging racism reminds me exactly of the struggles we liberals undertook in the 1950s and strident opposition of the conservatives.

Rustler45 said...

Racism? Oh BALONEY!

If you're against Obama, you're a racist. Yeah, I know the drill.

Fear, fear, fear, wah, wah, wah!

Is disgust found in the Bible?

Anonymous said...

"It'd be disgusting to get a man named Barack Obama as president of the United States."

-- An example of a comment by a McCain supporter.

Anonymous said...

Oh, please, Betty. I am sure everyone on the other side could come up with some quotes from the Obama people that are disgusting. You always sound so self-righteous!
Get over yourself!

Anonymous said...

So Kate, this country has made no progress since the 1950"s?? Please!

Anonymous said...

And Kate don't forget the strident opposition of the Demo...oh, excuse me, Dixiecrats.

CatholicsForDemocracy said...

"And Kate don't forget the strident opposition of the Demo...oh, excuse me, Dixiecrats."

Amazing how quickly they became the Dixicans, though.

Anonymous said...

I was at a family gathering this weekend. I was aghast at the number of people (mostly in-laws; thank God for small favors!) who made racist comments about Barack.

Anonymous said...

Oh, Martin, and I work everyday in a mostly black school and, believe it or not, hear REGULAR remarks about whites, Hispanics and Jews. Give it a rest!!

Rustler45 said...

BETTY KATHERINE SAID:
"It'd be disgusting to get a man named Barack Obama as president of the United States."

"-- An example of a comment by a McCain supporter."

And a very astute McCain supporter. I couldn't have said it better myself. We don't need a Muslim president.

Anonymous said...

what about Black racism against whites, Katie?