Let’s do a thought experiment.

Imagine that one political party today wanted to reintroduce black slavery in America. Don’t laugh. Thanks to the Obama/Biden administration’s meddling in Libya, the evil practice has reemerged in that country. Let’s say that one presidential candidate looked at the slave markets in Libya. And he asked himself, “Why not here?”

The Price of Anti-Racism: Too High?

Perhaps his party’s leaders took seriously the claim of the 1619 Project. You know, that the U.S. was settled and founded explicitly as a haven for black slavery. Or the assertions of Woke church leaders and academics. They say that all of Western civilization, modern science, capitalism, and American culture — right down to the work ethic, punctuality, and workplace professionalism, according to the Smithsonian Institution — was predicated on racism.

How about the claim of Antiracism activists like Ibram X. Kendi? You know, that the only alternative to pro-white discrimination is anti-white discrimination. Or the assertions by Black Lives Matter that the “nuclear family,” free market economy, and criminal justice system must all be dismantled, if we want to conquer white racism aimed at blacks.

Make White Racism Great Again?

Putting all of that together, one party decided, “Nope, sorry. Not worth it. In fact, we never realized how crucial, productive, and fundamentally American white racism is. We’d better get on the job and make white racism great again! We can do that by repealing the 13^th Amendment. Or better yet, stacking the Supreme Court with five people willing to pretend it doesn’t mean what it says.”

Still with us? So one of the parties is pro-slavery, while the other remains opposed. And we’re weeks away from a presidential election pitting the pro- and the anti-slavery candidates.

Now imagine that the leaders of your church, facing this choice, issued a voter’s guide that featured 46 other issues in addition to bringing back slavery, to guide voters of faith in making their choice.

Now you know what it’s like to be a Catholic in America.

Killing 1,000,000 Babies for Sexual Convenience and … Immigration Quibbles

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a guide exactly like that. Except instead of black slavery, it tucks away as one of 47 issues the killing of almost a million unborn babies per year for sexual convenience. Abortion sits alongside issues like the climate, labor unions, immigration policy, and education, like a rat’s head popping up in your slice of tart. Some bishops and their staffers clearly think something like, “It’s not all rat. Just eat around it.”
 

 

A Voter’s Guide for Guilt-Ridden Catholic Democrats

It gets worse. There’s now an official-looking website called Catholic Voter Guide. It cites the bishops’ 47-issue wishlist, and scores Donald Trump and Joe Biden in each category. At first sight, and second, it seems to be an official publication of the bishops. You need to click around a bit to realize … no. It’s the product of a half-dozen people at third-tier institutions who fancy themselves experts on “Catholic social teaching.” As if that were some clearly defined, official ideology akin to Marxism or Sharia, instead of broad, general guidelines that emerged over the centuries.

But what if you’re a liberal Democrat, or a socialist, or someone tempted by the new post-Christian religion of Wokeness, but you still fancy yourself a Catholic? Especially if you want to claim to be “pro-life.”

A Handy Series of Pretexts

This site can be quite tempting. It offers a handy series of pretexts for voting for the pro-slavery candidate, based on all those other issues. Which are, of course, of completely equal weight to slavery. And on which, wouldn’t you know — what a surprise! — the pro-slavery candidate just happens to score equal or better than the pro-freedom candidate. Almost as if the writers of the guide were skewing the comparison. You know, to make excuses for voters to back the pro-slavery guy. (Sorry for the typos in preceding sentences — we’re writing on a short deadline. For “slavery” please plug in “abortion.” Thank you!)

We’re not bishops. We don’t work for any third-tier Catholic institutions. But we did write a detailed, principled book on what it means to be consistently pro-life. It’s called The Race to Save Our Century.  

The Evils of the Past Century

We looked at all the worst attacks on human dignity that arose between 1914 and 2014. Studying those evils, we looked for the moral norms which could and should have protected the human race from war, oppression, and poverty. And looking back at those 100 bloody years, when more than 170 million innocent civilians were murdered by their governments, not counting war casualties, we found answers.

We discovered five basic guidelines, which we called “Whole Life Principles.” And wouldn’t you know it, when we were done, we realized something humbling. Nothing we said was original. Every one of those principles emerged from the Natural Law written on the human heart, and the Christian view of the person.

How Do the Candidates Really Score?

In light of our historical study, and our knowledge of American politics today, we’re as well-equipped as the creators of Catholic Voter Guide to weigh how Joe Biden and Donald Trump score on each of those 47 issues. Not that all of them are remotely of equal weight of course. But we’ll play the game by the bishops’ rules, and evaluate the records and stances of both candidates on each.

We’re breaking up those 47 issues and the candidates’ stances on each into five columns, which will run over the course of the next week or so. We hope you find it useful.

This column is Part One of six. See Part Two here, and Part Three here.

Jason Jones is a senior contributor to The Stream. He is a film producer, author, activist and human rights worker. You can follow him at @JasonJonesShow.

John Zmirak is a senior editor at The Stream, and author or co-author of ten books, including The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Catholicism.

Together, Jones and Zmirak wrote The Race to Save Our Century.