Ohio Democratic Catholic Caucus Endorsements

As a Catholic I support the four of their general principles, I can't support number 4 as I explain below:

1. Promote Catholic Social Teaching and values as they relate to public policy.

2. To foster and encourage Faithful Citizenship within the Catholic community and loyalty to the Constitution of the United States.

3. To encourage Catholic participation in public life and promote the common good for the interest and welfare of the community.

4. To provide a mechanism by which aspirants for political offices may be heard; evaluated, endorsed or not for political office at all levels of government.

5. To promote a consistent ethic of life, where all life is considered of value and equal.

Yet, groups like this make me pause because I don't believe religion should enter the realm of politics. A candidate is supposed to be able to do what is best for all of the residents of his or her district, not just what the Catholics of his or her district would support. Sometimes what Catholics support is not necessarily going to be the majority. I would hesitate to vote for someone who would hold their religion (even if it is the same religion as mine) over the needs of the rest of the community they were elected to serve. Should endorsements even be made? I wonder, as it is getting to the point where every group seems to feel it needs to issue endorsements.

Do we need further division with in the Ohio Democratic Party? The Ohio Democratic Catholic Caucus is a part of the Ohio Democratic Party, yet not all of these groups follow the same endorsement policy. As an example, the Ohio Democratic Party endorsed Marc Dann for Attorney General. The Stonewall Democrats have endorsed Chandra. There are even two women's groups listed on the Ohio Democratic Party website. One proclaims to be "TRUE BLUE DEMOCRATS", what does that mean the other womens Democratic Caucus is?

So I wonder, in a group that proclaims to want to include everyone, why the necessity to have division? Isn't the better option to have everyone have a seat at the table, a voice to be heard? By splintering the support groups into sub groups how does that help make more unity? Or should I just shut up and form my own "Ohio Democratic Bloggers Caucus"...

:-)

This was written for the Carnival of Ohio Politics brought to you by the amazing Paul Miller of Northwest Ohio Net.