Ben Halverson is a Senior at Gonzaga (A Jesuit Sponsored University, surprise). I would give Ben an F in Moral Theology and an A+ in Moral Equivalence 101 for this nonsense from the Gonzaga Bulletin:

Too often it is the case that the average American Catholic finds himself conflicted between his civic duty to participate in his democracy and his religious duty to abide by the rules of the Church. Catholic teaching does not align as well as we would like at the ballot box. The Democratic Party, officially advocating a pullout from a war that our own pope has decried, also supports a woman’s right to choose and abortion. The Republican Party, while officially advocating an extended stay in Iraq, supports a universal ban on a woman’s right to choose.

Further issues still conflict the Catholic. Human equality issues, especially when it relates to the LGBTQ community and the death penalty in this nation, do not uniformly align in either party. For the Catholic, neither of the two parties has a monopoly on morality.

Monopoly, certainly not. However I think that one can make a good case that one party has a great deal more market share. Ben goes on:

On Election Day, the Catholic finds himself compromising between different stages of life. What is more important to the Catholic? Is it an unborn infant life, or is it an innocent Iraqi besieged by an immoral American occupation?

C’mon Benny. Reasonable people can disagree as to what the best Iraq policy is right now. One can make a very good case that immediate pullout might very result in more carnage than if we continue to stay. I don’t pretend to have the answers, but I do know the people of good will and Catholics in good standing can reasonably disagree on this issue. However no good Catholic can come down on the side of abortion on demand, the only sacrament the democrat party of today respects. To try to equate the two in terms of official Catholic teaching is utter nonsense.

It always amazes me to see the mental and moral back flips people will do to justify what they know to be wrong. Young Ben just attempted and half-gainer and landed right on his face. That has gotta hurt.