A Bucks County Heretic Confesses

This charming correspondence appeared this morning in (where else?) The Bucks County Courier Times.

A genuine Catholic would never pledge his loyalty to the abortion industry.

The Courier Times announced the alignment of congressional candidate Patrick Murphy, a Catholic, with Planned Parenthood, America’s abortion giant (sic). Murphy says abortion should be “rare” but in reality that is not the case.

Last year in Pennsylvania, Planned Parenthood alone reported 10,386 surgical abortions executed in their chambers. This number does not include chemical abortions or abortions performed by other abortionists.

Abortion is reprehensible regardless of one’s religious beliefs. The Catholic Church firmly teaches that the inalienable right to life of every innocent human individual is a basic element of a civil society and its legislation. We should be suspicious of a man who betrays a core belief of his faith as he seeks to be elected.

Wishy-washy Catholics misrepresent Catholicism. It is disgraceful for a Catholic politician to disregard human life. However, practicing Catholics are encouraged by Jesus’ promise that the church he founded would not be overcome by the power of death (Matthew 16:18).

Rosemary Overberger
Lower Makefield

I’m wondering if this woman works for the Fitzpatrick campaign or not. I’m unsure because she didn’t refer to the Democratic nominee as “Pat” Murphy; referring to him by his nickname seems to be standard procedure for Mikey and his acolytes for some reason.

I’m not going to try and address or validate her numbers because I don’t care. I’m offended by her insult that, because both Patrick and I support a woman’s right to choose, that doesn’t make me a “genuine” Catholic in Overberger’s blinkered vision of what the Catholic faith represents.

Of course, the true goal of this hateful screed is to cast aspersions on Patrick, saying that “we should be suspicious” of him. Well, then, shouldn’t you also be “suspicious” of Mike Fitzpatrick because, though he represents himself as an environmentally friendly candidate, he did not oppose Bushco’s attempts to raise the acceptable levels of mercury in our drinking water, which hurts children and their developing nervous systems more than anyone else? Shouldn’t you be “suspicious” of Fitzpatrick for voting for a budget bill that shreds the safety net for our most vulnerable citizens who Fitzpatrick purports to represent? Shouldn’t you be “suspicious” of Fitzpatrick, a Catholic, for voting for an immigration bill that would send priests and ministers performing aid work to jail?

I don’t suppose it would do any good to point out yet again that Planned Parenthood performs a WIDE ARRAY of services for women and families aside from abortion. This is because Overberger’s tiny mind is no doubt made up on this issue; Planned Parenthood and any teacher’s union in Bucks County are favorite attack targets for the newspaper and its predominantly freeper readership.

I will also take this opportunity to point out once more that, while the New Testament has a great deal to say about bettering yourself as a person by reaching out to others and “speaking truth to power,” it has nothing whatsoever to say on the subject of abortion. Maybe Overberger should consider that along with the fact that individuals in the public eye such as Rick Santorum, John Roberts and Antonin Scalia profess to speak for my faith, when they in fact inspire at least the same ire in me for their words and actions as anything Overberger could feel based on what Patrick Murphy could ever say or do.

I would write to the paper and say this myself, but I have something else “in the can” which praises Patrick and criticizes Mikey, so assuming it even sees the light of day at all, I don’t expect that that will happen for some time.

Update: Somehow, I thought Barack Obama was better than this.

Oh, and silly me...I forgot to remind everyone that the Bucks County chapter of the Godless Hedonist Secularist Democrats Society will be meeting tomorrow evening inside the men’s room of the Yardley train station at Main Street and Reading Avenue at midnight. Our agenda includes a free-form commentary based on the theme “Prosecuting the Afghanistan Invasion and Taliban Overthrow In Response to the 9/11 Attacks: Any Regrets?,” a Ward Churchill retrospective, and donations to the Saddam Hussein legal fund. Don’t be late!