Baier said that you if you go to Mass regularly, you begin to understand how deadly serious the church's leaders are about this issue. I see it every day that I attend Mass: the general intercessions always include a prayer for our political leaders.
Archbishop Timothy Dolan was interviewed the other day. He acknowledged that the opponent is clever, having selected an issue like contraception with which most Americans are comfortable, but which the church teaches against, except for medical reasons.
The belief is that the Obama administration is really after taxpayer-funded abortion, but they dare not say it now, because abortion is not a slam-dunk in the eyes of many.
It's a little like O's message to Russian leader Medvedev and his boss Putin the other day: wait until after O is re-elected in November, and he will have more flexibility to negotiate away our superior nuclear missile defenses. These defenses are to me a responsible way to cool it on destructive offensive nuclear weapons, and to be able to adequately protect ourselves.
I saw on the news last night that, when we have tested these missiles, we have been successful 48 out of 48 tries. Isn't this a great country?
But give away our defensive superiority in nuclear missiles? Impose the boot heel of Leviathan on the faithful? What is the man after, honestly? Is it to remake us in an image that can only be imagined?
In weekday Masses, the congregants are invited to offer their own prayers. Our priest begins, and he always says a prayer for our political leaders.
After the priest is done, about a half-dozen in the congregation speak up, and pray against illness, to the Blessed Mother, a variety of things. And then, in a sort of third act for our collective prayers, the lector steps to the podium and reads a prayer or two from a prepared sheet of paper.
And, a few days ago, the first prayer that the lector spoke was to pray that our next President is a Godly man. That caught me up short, and I had to think about it for a moment. I did not know whether it was the lector's own personal prayer, or whether it was prepared. I'm guessing the former.
As I heard the prayer, I glanced at the priest to check his facial reaction - nothing obvious. I thought - wow, this is really something, depending on how you interpret what was said. And, with the others, I responded, "Let us pray to the Lord; Lord, hear our prayer." Right on.
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