Laying it on the Line

Speaker of the House and Church historian Nancy Pelosi declared a couple of weeks ago that despite 2000 years of Church teaching against it, there was still wiggle room in the Catholic Church with regard to abortion. This morning on Meet the Press, Senator Joe Biden, another "devout Catholic" in favor of abortion, joined the fray and, if anything, outperformed Ms. Pelosi.

MR. BROKAW: If Senator Obama comes to you and says, "When does life begin? Help me out here, Joe," as a Roman Catholic, what would you say to him?

SEN. BIDEN: I'd say, "Look, I know when it begins for me." It's a personal and private issue. For me, as a Roman Catholic, I'm prepared to accept the teachings of my church. But let me tell you. There are an awful lot of people of great confessional faiths--Protestants, Jews, Muslims and others--who have a different view. They believe in God as strongly as I do. They're intensely as religious as I am religious. They believe in their faith and they believe in human life, and they have differing views as to when life--I'm prepared as a matter of faith to accept that life begins at the moment of conception. But that is my judgment. For me to impose that judgment on everyone else who is equally and maybe even more devout than I am seems to me is inappropriate in a pluralistic society. And I know you get the push back, "Well, what about fascism?" Everybody, you know, you going to say fascism's all right? Fascism isn't a matter of faith. No decent religious person thinks fascism is a good idea.

So when asked, "When does life begin?" Senator Biden, after reviewing the teachings of the Catholic Church and other faiths, concludes that Fascism is a bad thing and is confident no one will disagree with him. Casey Stengel was unavailable for comment.

(Thanks to Aufer a Nobis.)