Can a Catholic Be a Democrat?

By David R. Carlin

Book Overview

When I told my friend that our new book is called Can a Catholic Be a Democrat?, he shot back, "Can a Catholic be a Republican?"

That's a good question, since these days both parties endorse policies or engage in activities that contradict some or many Catholic teachings about abortion, poverty, immigration, war and peace, or other issues of life and justice.

But that's not always been the case.

Indeed, when author David Carlin was a young man, it was scandalous for a good Catholic to be anything but a good Democrat. In the pews, pubs, and union halls of America's cities, millions of poor European immigrants and their children pledged allegiance to the Church of Rome and the party of FDR.

All that changed in the 1960s, with the rise of a new kind of Democrat: wealthy, secular, ideological. Even as Carlin served the party he loved -- twelve years as a Rhode Island state senator and once a candidate for Congress -- he could only watch in dismay as its national leaders abandoned their blue-collar, pro-life, and religious constituencies and took up with NOW, Hollywood, and the abortion lobby.

So complete has been this transformation that we no longer speak of a natural alliance between Catholics and the Democratic Party.

Indeed, ever increasing numbers of Democrats are joining the ranks of us voters for whom "voting Catholic" means holding our nose and choosing the candidates in either party whose views are least hostile to our faith.

In recent years, the conflict between his faith and the policies of his party has grown so marked that author Carlin, a cradle Catholic, lifetime Democrat, and longtime Democratic legislator, now feels compelled to consider in his new book whether, in good conscience, it's even possible to be both a faithful Catholic and a Democratic true believer.

But Can a Catholic Be a Democrat? isn't partisan.

It's Catholic.

By considering the changes that have taken place in his own party these past fifty years (and that some would now bring about in the Republican Party, too), Carlin identifies the fundamental policies that we as Catholics must support, and the ones that we Catholics must never abide -- so that, regardless of our party affiliation, we can prudently work for (and will have the opportunity to vote for) policies consistent with our faith.

***

What about the Democrats?

Carlin, a veteran sociologist, philosophy professor, and author of The Decline and Fall of the Catholic Church in America, shows that his party and his religion have now taken opposite sides in the Culture War.

He argues that on issues of human life, sex, faith, morality, suffering -- and the public policies that stem from them -- the modern, secularist Democratic Party has become the enemy of Catholicism; indeed, of all traditional religions.

Carlin shatters the excuses that Catholic Democratic politicians employ in a vain attempt to reconcile their faith and their votes, and then, with what he calls the "political equivalent of a broken heart," he examines his own political conscience. As a faithful Catholic and a Democrat approaching his seventieth year, must he now leave the party he's called home since birth?

David Carlin's arguments challenge all religious voters to ask themselves the same question.

***

Carlin's clear and gracious arguments may not lead you to a more Catholic party, but they'll help you explain Catholic positions to your friends, relatives, and fellow party members; and they'll help you make your own party less hostile to the beliefs of Catholics.

That's important, because these days Catholic voters are the swing voters who determine the winners in close elections. The people who hear Carlin's voice today will win elections tomorrow.

You can help.

Order Carlin's book today, and buy extras to give to your undecided relatives and friends.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1933184191
• ISBN13: 9781933184197
• Release Date: September 2006
• Publisher: Sophia Institute Press
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.78 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Can a Christian be a Democrat?

This book should be re-titled to "Can a Christian be a Democrat". The author has done an excellent job of describing the conflict between Christians and Secularists. It is also, a good book on Democrat party history. He describes how Secularists came to control the Democrat party. It is not a pro-Republican or any other party book. I would recommend all Christians both liberal and fundamentalist read this book even if you are not a Democrat.

highly recommended

The book is well worth the purchase price for the first three chapters alone. These provide the most insightful, accessible and succinct (75 pages) exposition you'll ever read of the mutation of the Democratic party in the 60's and 70's from representing a constituency of responsible, religiously observant working families to representing a constituency of libertines. The remainder of the text includes a clever discussion of how the "ecumenical" influence of lefty Protestant denominations contributed to the late 20th Century moral decay in Catholic institutions in the United States. I believe it was Michael Novak who, in describing the elderly Catholic supporters of John Kerry, said: "These old ladies think they're voting for Franklin Roosevelt." This book is a must read for those kind of Catholic "old ladies" of any age.

Learn Something

This book helps explain why so many of my fellow Pennsylvanians (especially Catholics) continue to support and vote for Democrats. I always wondered why a person with a high moral code and strong family values would support some of the low lifes the Democrats put up as candidates of their party. Too many Catholics do not question the bad behavior of their religious and laity. Too many Catholics belong to unions and are used to being led around by the nose, told when to work, how much to work for, how much to produce, and who to vote for. These same followers, who will pay exhorbitant union dues, would do well to buy this book, read it, and then review their positions on some really important issues that affect them and their families. I would bet they will follow the path many of us have from Democrat to Republican, to "no party" while remaining active voters.

a must-read for Democrats

This book, written by a 68-year-old Rhode Island politician who has been a lifelong Democrat, should be a wake-up call to the leadership of the national Democratic Party. Unfortunately for the party, those leaders who most need to read the book are the people least likely to do so. Their minds are closed. The book explains, in a brief and easy-to-read manner, what should be obvious -- but apparently isn't -- to leaders of the party. The Democratic Party is losing the support of church-going traditional Catholics, just as it earlier lost the support of church-going traditional Protestants. Why? Because it has taken money, lots of it (it's needed for TV advertising), from what the author calls "affluent secularists," i.e., well-to-do cultural liberals who are strongly hostile to traditional Christianity and its moral code, especially its code of sexual morality. As everyone knows, he who pays the piper calls the tune. This political alliance with America's anti-Christian forces might be a smart idea if the US were an anti-Christian nation. But since it isn't that kind of nation, it is an alliance that has produced a string of electoral defeats for the Democrats. Oh, we Dems may get lucky and win control, or at least partial control, of Congress in November of 2006, but this will do little to alter the party's long-term downhill slide. Strongly recommended.

Insightful Analysis; Excellent Read; Highly Recommended

Today many people realize that primary political advocacy for abortion, the homosexual agenda, and the secular side of the Culture War is found in the ranks of the Democratic Party. David Carlin's excellent book explores and documents the historical, sociological, and philosophical developments which transformed the party of Andrew Johnson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt into its present day anti-Christian incarnation. Professor Carlin is uniquely positioned by birth, education, and life experience to write this significant analysis of political history. Born into an Irish Catholic working class Democratic family, he rose to high political office as majority leader of the Rhode Island State Senate. Presently, he is a professional sociologist and philosopher who has taught at the college level for the last two decades. Unlike those critics outside the Democratic Party who so often attack its anti-Christian stances today, Senator (who is also Professor) Carlin approaches criticism of his beloved party much as a wounded lover who is betrayed by his beloved. Living through this transformation to secular values as a faithful member of the party himself, Carlin witnessed over several decades the ascendancy of moral liberalism as the Democratic Party's dominant force. With the keen analytic eye of a professional sociologist and philosopher, he discerns each step in this metamorphosis to secular values, lucidly explaining this historical evolution in terms of its sociological dimensions and the unfolding inner logic which inexorably dictated subsequent developments. In the main body of the text, Carlin documents what the Democratic Party has become and why it is now utterly irreconcilable with the traditional Christianity. This alone makes this work an important contribution to present political dialogue as well as to the historical record. Still, five appendices which constitute the latter third of the book are of nearly equal importance. In these, the author deftly illumines relevant topics such as the nature and history of American secularism, the development of liberal Christianity and its connection to secularism, and a devastating analysis and refutation of Mario Cuomo's scandalous, self-serving defense of pro-abortion Catholic politicians. In a final personal note, Senator Carlin offers a somewhat surprising, yet cogent, explanation of his own present and future attitude toward his once beloved Democratic Party. This book is a good read, and an incisive expose of how today's Democratic Party has come to embrace a social and political activism alien to its own traditions and to Christianity. I strongly recommend this carefully reasoned work to all who wish to understand the origins of the ideology which pervades today's Democratic Party, as well as its probable future role in American politics. I might add that "Can a Catholic Be a Democrat?" well merits selection for sociology or political science holdings in all college and university librari