There are no single issues
Carlin, David R. Jr.
OF SEVERAL MINDS David R. Carlin, Jr. THERE ARE NO SINGLE ISSUES SOME OF MY BEST FRIENDS ARE PROLIFE About ten years ago there was a lot of talk in lib- eral Catholic circles about the dangers of...
...nor racism and sexism...
...Hardcore Catholic prolifers have not remained in the Democratic party...
...One reason is that liberal Catholics are generally sympathetic to Democrats and political liberals, whom they see as the good guys on most issues other than abortion...
...For the most part these hard-core prolifers are the most committed, the most intense of American Catholics...
...antiwoman series, the antisex series...
...Abortion is a great evil, yes, especially when the law of the land permits it on a virtually unrestricted basis...
...I used to share this concern...
...Other reasons are similar to this...
...They have not abstained from integrating anti-abortionism in a series of conservative causes...
...A minority, yes...
...It may be said by the Catholic liberal, "Don't worry, these hard-core prolifers are only a minority of all Catholics...
...Better dampen then-enthusiasm by low-keying the abortion issue...
...overwhelmingly they have turned Republican...
...Then again, there is a widespread misunderstanding of the seamless garment theory...
...the prolife divisions should not thrust a hundred miles in advance of the general front...
...e lose the prolifers...
...For John Ludd, it is just one more instance of his negative reaction to anything new...
...It is not too early for Catholic liberals to ask, "How did we lose the prolifers...
...better cool them down...
...The probability that the future will be theirs was significantly increased last month when Pope John Paul II issued his Gospel of Life encyclical, which goes a long way toward making the prolife position the defining mark of contemporary Catholicism...
...nor will it permit indifference to the plight of those tempted to abortion...
...That's why we find every day that a person's position on the abortion issue is a reliable predictor of where he or she stands on a dozen other issues...
...Liberal Catholics generally belong to the better-educated and more-privileged sections of society, and it is hard for them not to share the prejudices of their class...
...Abortion is usually their number-one issue, true...
...The image is that of an army advancing along a broad front...
...but a big minority...
...We patricians are intelligent enough not to become single-issue anti-abortionists, but can we trust the plebeians to do the same...
...rather they have done precisely that...
...nor capital punishment...
...They fear that if abortion becomes a high-profile issue for Catholic voters, Democrats and liberalism will suffer while Republicans and conservatism gain...
...instead they see them as the bad guys on everything including abortion...
...There is a fear that prolife Catholics will situate their anti-abortionism in the wrong series, for example, the antiprogress series, the "Oh, give it a rest, will you...
...So, since they may do the wrong thing if you stir up their anti-abortion sentiments, better not stir them up...
...There is also a social class bias at work here...
...For Mary Prude, it is part of her disapproval of anything that smacks of sexual freedom...
...to choose randomly from the list, we also have poverty, racism, and the national deficit...
...I still object to the one-issue mind, but in the last few years I've come to have a broader acquaintance with prolife activists and voters, and among the ones I've met almost none has anything like a single-issue mentality...
...Many Catholics, including many members of the clergy, have understood the theory to call for reining in the prolife movement, so that the anti-abortion drive makes progress at the same rate as the drives to implement other elements of the consistent ethic agenda-but no faster...
...For Susan Limbaugh, it is nothing more than an element in her generalized dislike of liberals and Democrats...
...An anti-abortion position, then, is part of a series of positions...
...Regardless of whether you're prolife or prochoice, your position on abortion is logically (or at least psychologically) connected with a wide range of other questions-religion, marriage, family, childrearing, education, sexual conduct, personal autonomy, tolerance, community responsibility, etc...
...And while one should never underestimate the infinite resources of human stupidity, a prolife or prochoice person would have to be very stupid indeed not to see these connections...
...In the early 1950s, some people used to ask, "How did we lose China...
...But it is far from' being the only evil...
...nor war itself except as a very last resort...
...nor nuclear warfare...
...but it is always part of a complex of interconnected issues...
...THERE ARE NO SINGLE ISSUES SOME OF MY BEST FRIENDS ARE PROLIFE About ten years ago there was a lot of talk in lib- eral Catholic circles about the dangers of a "single issue" mentality on abortion...
...and a bigger minority still when we consider them as a fraction of the people who really count in the church, namely the regular churchgoing and contributing Catholics...
...As they expand toward becoming a critical mass, others are drawn their way...
...For Tom Chauvin, it is another step in his continuing battle to keep women in their place...
...They do not see liberals as the good guys on everything but abortion...
...Among these is the notion that the typical prolife activist is more than a bit simple-minded...
...But here a difficulty arises, since it may be part of any number of different series...
...For the most part, they have not embraced the "consistent ethic of life" approach...
...Thus it will be no surprise if the future of American Catholicism lies with them...
...When you think about it for a moment, you realize it is virtually impossible for an anti-abortion person to have a single-issue mind...
...Well, I've changed my mind (sort of...
...But if there is no such thing as a single-issue anti-abortion mentality, why over the years have there been so many warnings about this mentality, especially in liberal Catholic circles...
...Ironically, the long-term effects of these warnings against a single-issue mentality have been just the opposite of those intended...
...nor indifference to poverty, illness, suffering, oppression...
...instead, many have come to see that phrase as a code term for inaction, and they are more likely to look on Pat Robertson than on Cardinal Bernardin as their religious hero...
...For Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago, who formulated the theory of the "seamless garment" or "consistent ethic of life," love of God and neighbor will not permit abortion...
...I may not always be pleased with their other issues, but they certainly do have them...
Vol. 122 • May 1995 • No. 10
