The CPC has Evangelicals & LPC has Catholics

When I hear of a Liberal voting against same-sex marriage, abortion or contraception the only thing I see voting is a Catholic. And sure enough: Dan McTeague, Paul Szabo, and John Mckay are all active members of the Catholic Church.

McTeague is a self professed "devout" member of the faith; Szabo has been called a "Catholic champion" by Catholic Insight; and McKay has been branded by The Catholic Register as the poster-boy for Catholic Liberals.

And should we be surprised? This was the party that had 32 of it's own members vote against Prime Minister Paul Martin's bill C-38 on same-sex marriage. After all, Martin is himself a Catholic whose actions in parliament drew condemnation from the Pope.

I don't think that there's anything wrong with voting by your conscience if your conscience is known ahead of time. That said, I feel that MPs should serve their constituents and unless there is clear consensus from their constituents that is in-line with their conscience - they should abstain where differences emerge.

Take Jim Prentice for example. The CPC MP from Calgary voted in favour of Martin's bill C-38 after reaching out to his constituents on the issue. Many of his constituents live in "old" Calgary (a semi-inner-city area close to downtown) and vote for the Alberta Liberals in provincial elections. Prentice weighed his beliefs on the issue and went to his constituents. His personal beliefs favoured the legislation tabled but he made a conscience effort to hear his constituents out before voting.

And hey, perhaps McTeague, Szabo and McKay were all given that very same signal from their constituents. And if they did - good. They should have voted that way. However, some other notable Liberal MPs who represent EDAs with a (what one may describe crassly as) known religious homogeneity such as Stephan Dion and Anita Neville; who may have been off the Hill at a most convenient time lest they face the music.

I don't like to brand people who go to a particular church as voting in a particular way, but, when it comes to track records a number of "coincidences" turn into patterns. If I were to guess which Christian denomination a CPC MP belonged to if they so chose to profess holding membership in a Church - I'd guess it would be something protestant if not evangelical. If they were Liberal, it would be Catholic. NDP or Green, it might be harder to pin down - but I'd start with the radical and peace Churches before moving onto the more stereotypical.

While I personally disagree with the positions guys like McTeague, Szabo, McKay, Harper, Van Loan and Day have when it comes to moral issues such as the use of contraceptives (which shouldn't be a moral issue when you evaluate the rationale behind the "ban" and the time in which it was institutionalized), abortion and same-sex marriage; I cannot condemn them for the way they vote. I can condemn them for being bad parliamentarians, weak theologians or passive Christians - but not bad people.

The lesson learned here today: The Conservative Party has the majority of right-wing evangelicals; and the Liberal Party as a whole host of right-wing Catholics. Why they're not all in the Christian Heritage Party, we'll never know - but we shouldn't be surprised when they compromise the good of the nation for the religious voting block on the eve of an election.