An emerging trend in the early stages of the conservative opposition to Barack Obama is an apparent proliferation of news-release-ready organizations ready to take on the administration in name of Catholic teaching.
Here's National Review's Maggie Gallagher alerting everyone to a new group called Moral Accountability (.com). It's spearheaded by Princeton professor Robert ("Robby") George, recipient of a Presidential Citizens Medal from George W. Bush. The apparent goal of the group is to create rhetorical and intellectual pressure around prominent Catholics (and other Christians) who aren't so keen on the rendering unto Caesar element of what Jesus taught about church-state relations i.e. Catholics who lack enthusiasm for legislating Catholic moral teachings.
And here's K-Lo alerting everyone to the "outrage" of a Catholic college inviting Bill Ayers to speak, courtesy of a press release from the "Cardinal Newman Society" whose apparent mission is to protect the Catholic character, as they see it, of Catholic educational institutions around the USA. One might have thought that the idea of a university, if you will, would be to be open to all forms of intellectual engagement, but of course Bill Ayers is not just any "outrageous" visitor, but one who can be linked to Barack Obama.
So anyway, do the two instances above herald a wave of Catholic-themed astroturf groups pursuing a thinly disguised political agenda? While it's too soon to tell, it's not too soon to note that despite these groups' focus on moral clarity, they have no opinion on Pope Benedict de-excommunicating the Holocaust-denying bishop. Speaking of which, what would Michael Rubin say if Mahmoud Ahmadinejad endorsed the bishop?
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