Rep. Ryan: Actions Speak Louder than Words on Pro-Life Values
As the debate about Speaker Boehner’s budget priorities and the values of his Catholic faith heats up, Rep. Paul Ryan, the chief architect of the GOP budget, is also facing pressure from Catholic and evangelical leaders to justify his proposal to end Medicare as we know it and gut Medicaid, leaving pregnant women and children, seniors and struggling families without healthcare. Father Thomas Kelly, a Catholic priest and constituent of Rep. Ryan’s, appears in a new radio ad calling out his budget for abandoning pro-life values, which will air across Ryan’s district this weekend. Fr. Kelly states, “I’m pro-life because God calls us to protect life at all stages. Congressman Paul Ryan says he’s pro-life too, but his federal budget plan abandons pro-life values.”
You can listen to the ad, which is cosponsored by NETWORK and the New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good, here:
In releasing the ad, Sr. Simone Campbell, executive director of NETWORK, said:
“Representative Ryan’s plan to decimate pro-life programs that help parents provide food and other necessities for their children is an outrage. He says the budget is a moral issue, but it’s immoral to make vulnerable people suffer in order to guarantee tax breaks for wealthy corporations and individuals. Representative Ryan’s budget proposal is the antithesis of the Gospel call for compassion and fairness.”
Richard Cizik, President of the New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good, added:
“We need a responsible, fair approach to cutting the deficit that reflects consistent pro-life values. Rep. Ryan’s Republican budget, which makes devastating cuts that directly harm the most vulnerable among us, falls far short. Being consistently pro-life requires more than caring for the unborn, it requires following the Biblical call to care for the poor and the downtrodden. People of faith are embracing this full definition of what it means to be pro-life. If our leaders ignore the needs of the poor or favor the rich at their expense, they reject pro-life values. It’s that simple.”
As Father Kelly succinctly puts it, “Saying you’re pro-life isn’t enough. Congressman Ryan, actions speak louder than words.”
I can’t believe as a “religious†organization we are allowing politicians to say the republicans are not Pro-Life. This is a distortion of the truth and blurs the line with Pro-Life abortion beliefs and the “social justice†and redistribution of money beliefs of the political left. It allows those in government that are in favor of abortion to use religion to their advantage by saying they are the true Pro-Life party because they help those in life (that mostly could help themselves) even though they abandon those unprotected in the womb. There is nothing moral about forcefully taking money from someone to pay for a program someone else’s opinion seems worthy. There is nothing moral about running the country’s debt to $14 trillion dollars and driving the finances of the nation on the path to bankruptcy. Once the country is bankrupt it will not be able to take care of anyone let alone those who truly need it. It is shameful this website and others validate liberal government policies by allowing them to use religion to advance their cause. When in fact the heart of their policies are antithetical to religious doctrine.