The Catholic Position and George W. Bush Jr.
I recently received a comment on my post "Dance with the Devil." I had to reject the comment because the person tried to bring up the subject of George W. Bush Jr. and how he wasn't really pro-life, abortion went up during his presidency, he approved torture, Pope John Paul II condemned the Iraqi war, etc., etc. It's all the stereotypical objections I hear from Obama's supporters. Even though my post had nothing to do with Bush, this person couldn't help but take the opportunity to condemn the Bush administration.
These are all the points about George W. Bush Jr. which the commentor had made and I hope I have answered each point objectively from the Catholic point of view. The commenter had purported to be objective himself. If he had done a bit more research on all his points, he might have reconsidered the points he was trying to made. But I doubt he will reconsider any of his statements or beliefs, even when the facts are contradictory. That's okay, because all people will ultimately have to face judgement with God. And if you're Catholic, He will judge you on your true faith and loyalty to His Church and the Church's teaching, NOT by your politics.
However, I would still like to post a reply to his comments because he listed sound bytes as if they were facts. It's easy to take sound bytes as facts if they're listed very quickly in succession. So I'd like to respond to each criticism objectively with the facts:
He approved torture
I take it this is a reference to waterboarding. Unfortunately, the definition has been expanded to include "extended interrogation techniques." True torture leaves permanent damage, mentally and physically, on the victim. Waterboarding does neither. It's an interrogation technique practiced by the military on themselves to interrogate prisoners for information. Islamic militant terrorists who cut off limbs of an American soldier is performing torture.
He started a war Pope John Paul II condemned
Pope John Paul II never directly condemned the war in Iraq. What Pope John Paul II DID say was that military action and terrorism never solves anything. The Catholic Church's just war doctrine states that war can be necessary in only certain criteria. The war in Iraq and Afghanistan may or may not meet the criteria depending on who you talk to. Even Pope Benedict XVI state this when he was Cardinal Ratzinger. For a list of commentary on this subject, see this website:
He did not speak out against genocide nor do anything for the environment which Pope Benedict XVI spoke out for
George W. Bush has made a statement about the Armenian Genocide. Here's a press release:
And when it comes to the environment, the Bush administration didn't see it as a priority. The war in Iraq and the economy were their main concerns. It wasn't until Gore and Obama made the environment a political issue that it became a major issue. The earth has been heating up since well before the industrial revolution. In fact, it's been heating up since the last ice age ended. It's very hard to prove without a doubt that the temperature of the earth is rising because of CO2 and it's a scientific fact that water vapor affects the earths weather much more dramatically. Any scientist who tries to model weather changes to prove the greenhouse affect can't recreate the affect of CO2 that apparently most scientist see. If you've studied chaos theory, then you can never be sure of any causal affect to a nonlinear system like weather. It's sad to see scientists, who should be skeptical of any theory, are backing such a problematic theory as global warming.
As for Pope Benedict XVI, his stance on genocide are obvious. When it comes to global warming, he too calls for true evidence and facts rather than the political ideology so many environmentalists are pushing. Please see this article:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-501316/The-Pope-condemns-climate-change-prophets-doom.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-501316/The-Pope-condemns-climate-change-prophets-doom.html
These are all the points about George W. Bush Jr. which the commentor had made and I hope I have answered each point objectively from the Catholic point of view. The commenter had purported to be objective himself. If he had done a bit more research on all his points, he might have reconsidered the points he was trying to made. But I doubt he will reconsider any of his statements or beliefs, even when the facts are contradictory. That's okay, because all people will ultimately have to face judgement with God. And if you're Catholic, He will judge you on your true faith and loyalty to His Church and the Church's teaching, NOT by your politics.
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