Religion
In reply to the discussion: Juan Cole: Dear Rightwing Catholic Islamophobes [View all]Fortinbras Armstrong
(4,473 posts)The right are at least as much "Cafeteria Catholics" as are the left. Look at the way that, say, Peter Grace or William F. Buckley accepted the encyclical Laborem Exercens. In his encyclical Evangelium Vitae, Pope John Paul II says that capital punishment is not inherently immoral, but there are essentially no circumstances in which it is morally licit. Antonin Scalia has said that any judge who is believes that the death penalty is immoral should resign.
Both Popes and the Second Vatican Council have said that torture is malum in se -- evil in and of itself -- yet there are conservative Catholics who damn opponents of waterboarding as supporters of terrorism.
BTW, there is a nice little essay defending Cafeteria Catholicism at http://www.renewedpriesthood.org/ca/page.cfm?Web_ID=1131