I greatly enjoyed the debate last night, not least because I follow James Croft and Elyse Anders on the Twitter machine and they were just lighting it up. Also, I may have been drinking. Between Twitter, and Bacardi, and trying to follow a couple of liveblogs of the event, I may have tuned out a few bits of the actual debate. In case you did the same, I’ve excerpted part that no one should miss. The moderator asked both men “what role your religion has played in your own personal views on abortion” and the sitting VP answered as follows:
My religion defines who I am, and I’ve been a practicing Catholic my whole life. And has particularly informed my social doctrine. The Catholic social doctrine talks about taking care of those who — who can’t take care of themselves, people who need help. With regard to — with regard to abortion, I accept my church’s position on abortion as a — what we call a (inaudible) doctrine. Life begins at conception in the church’s judgment. I accept it in my personal life.
But I refuse to impose it on equally devout Christians and Muslims and Jews, and I just refuse to impose that on others, unlike my friend here, the — the congressman. I — I do not believe that we have a right to tell other people that — women they can’t control their body. It’s a decision between them and their doctor. In my view and the Supreme Court, I’m not going to interfere with that.
This is a textbook statement of how freedom of conscience should work. On the one hand, Biden holds true to his Catholic dogma. On the other hand, he refuses to impose Catholic dogma on Protestants, Muslims, Jews, and infidels. Way to go, Joe!
