Utterly Incoherent

 

Vice President Joe Biden was recently interviewed by Rev. Matt Malone, S.J. for America Media, in anticipation of Pope Francis’s visit to the United States, which began earlier today.   

To his credit, Father Malone asked Mr. Biden about the Church’s teaching on abortion and the Vice President’s pro-choice stance.  After Mr. Biden assures Father Malone that he finds his work in politics to be “totally, thoroughly consistent” with his Catholic faith, Malone introduces the topic of abortion by noting that “And yet there have been times -- when talking about specific public policies -- where you’ve had [sic] to take positions that were at odds with the bishops of this country, contentious questions like abortion.  Has that been hard for you?”  

Mr. Biden responded that “It has been.  It has been hard in one sense.  I’m prepared to accept de fide doctrine on a whole range of issues as a Catholic. . . .  I’m prepared to accept as a matter of faith . . . [the Church’s teaching on] the issue of abortion.  What I’m not prepared to do is impose . . . a precise view that is born out of my faith on other people who are equally God-fearing, equally as committed to life, equally as committed to the sanctity of life.”

It is, of course, obviously the case that if the entity developing in the womb is in fact a human being, then those who support abortion are not “equally as committed to life, equally as committed to the sanctity of life” as those who oppose abortion.  To avoid speaking nonsense Mr. Biden must believe that the conclusion that the entity developing in the womb is human being cannot be a fact.  It cannot only be a conclusion derived from faith.  Yet this is contrary to what modern medical science tells us (see, e.g., here and here).  It also does not fit with what Mr. Biden says elsewhere in the interview.

The Vice President goes on to say “I’m prepared to accept that at the moment of conception there is human life in being, but I’m not prepared to say that to other God-fearing [and] non-God-fearing people who have a different view. . . . For me at a point where the Church makes a judgment, what we Catholics call de fide doctrine, and say this is what our doctrine is, all the principles of my faith I make no excuse for attempting to live up to (I don’t all the time), but I’m not prepared to impose doctrine that I’m prepared to accept on the rest of them.”

Following this defense of his record on abortion Father Malone asked “Is there a place in the Democratic Party for people who are pro-life?” Biden’s response is emphatic: “Absolutely.  Absolutely. Positively.  And that’s been my position for as long as I’ve been engaged [in politics].”

But isn’t this an invitation for religious people to join the Democratic Party and make use of the party apparatus to enact laws that impose religious doctrine on others?  Isn’t the position of the pro-life people whom Biden is happy to welcome into the Democratic Party unavoidably religious?  Isn’t it also an attempt to impose a “strict view” that there is “human life in being from the moment of conception” on members of the public who do not subscribe to this view?

If not, then do the pro-life views of these pro-life Democrats have a secular basis?  If this is the case, then why doesn’t Mr. Biden embrace the pro-life position and seek to advance it on the basis of this secular rationale?