This story is actually about two weeks old, but it hit home for me today when my wife and I picked up her parents from the local Catholic church they attend. While waiting in the foyer my wife noticed a brochure published by Randall Terry. It likely was placed there by a parishioner as officially the Catholic church does not endorse Terry's positions. As we drove home with her parents my wife read the brochure and got pretty angry. A few choice excerpts after the fold:
At the very least, Obama is an aggressive accomplice of child-killers.
The fact that Obama doesn't suck the bodies and blood of innocent human beings out of their mother's wombs, or carve out their mutilated corpses with his own hands is irrelevant.
And if we vote for Obama knowing his intent to help murder millions of children, we too are accomplices in the sin of child-killing.
And finally:
If you vote for Obama, you will betray innocent blood. And future generations who escaped Obama and his accomplices to murder will curse your memory for your part in slaying their sisters, brothers, cousins, classmates, neighbors, friends, spouses, bishops, pastors, teachers, doctors, priests, babysitters, policemen, firemen, engineers, and more. Do you really want their blood on your hands?
Now it would be easy to absolve the church of any responsibility for the placement of this brochure in the foyer. Based on the public statements of the Catholic church and the arrest of Terry at Thomas More Cathedral it appears they are at least publicly protesting his tactics.
However, coincidentally this week's parish bulletin included "A Word From The Pastor" expressing his views about voting in the upcoming election. Once again a few choice quotes:
Catholic voters should use Catholic teaching to examine a candidate's position on all the issues, most especially life issues (emphasis mine).
...that by the grace of God, we Americans will vote according to our catholic and well informed conscience, a conscience that is formed by the Word of God Himself, and that we elect the best moral principled person to lead our country for the next four years. Let us give America what it needs, not what it wants.
My wife and I no longer attend church (brought up Catholic, raised our kids Episcopalian, recently became Atheist/Agnostic) so our only connection to the church is via my wife's parents who are living with us. We're both outraged by the distribution of Terry's brochure in the church, but we probably don't have much justification in complaining to the parish. I'm sure their response will be to claim they were unaware of the brochures being placed in their foyer. And will they really care what some ex-parishioners think?
So what would you do?