Expanding the Kingdom by Protest Votes?

I haven't chimed in on yet on Denver's Catholic bishop, Michael Sheridan, and his hardball stance on the politics of life

-"Any Catholic politicians who advocate for abortion, for illicit stem cell research or for any form of euthanasia ipso facto place themselves outside full communion with the church and so jeopardize their salvation," the bishop wrote in a letter published this week in the diocesan monthly newspaper, the Herald.

"Any Catholics who vote for candidates who stand for abortion, illicit stem cell research or euthanasia suffer the same fateful consequences," he added.

That would make sence if you have a race between a pro-lifer and a liberal. While Catholic thought is critical of conservative stands on economics and foreign policy, life issues seem to trump those. If I'm reading the intersection of Catholic thought and public policy correctly, you can disagree on economics and Iraq and be a good Catholic, but to take a liberal stand on those issues puts you out of bounds, since the church has laid those out on a black-and-white basis.

In an American parlance, that is essentally alligning the Catholic church with the Republican party, with the exception of a few pro-life Democrats. However, this is only one bishop and has yet to be applied nationwide.

Two quick thoughts; who would the Bishop have his parishoners vote for if Ben Nighthorse Campbell had run for reelection. He isn't a reliable pro-life vote, being a centrist on the issue, voting with the abortion lobby as often as against it. If Campbell was anathama (and assuming the Democrat was, too), the voter would have either had to find a pro-life third party like the Constitution Party or not vote at all.

In areas where the Republcans don't nominate pro-lifers, the effect would be to disinfranchise the Catholic voter, forcing them to vote for protest candidates. That will skew politics further to the left, since conservative voices aren't in the mix.

I'd rather vote for someone who'd be for you some of the time than cast a protest vote, unless the differences between the two candidates were so slight that my message was worth more than my vote. That's not often.