There has been a lot of talk about John Kerry’s conflict with the Church over his position on abortion. Interestingly, one thing to note about the Catholic Church in the United States is that its positions (as communicated through the bishops) are often the diametric opposite of libertarians, that is, socially conservative and fiscally liberal. I will grant this is automatically an oversimplification, but the seamless garment philosophy espoused by many within the Catholic Church does not often map well into the public arena, just like principled libertarian tends not be well represented. After all, how many politicians do you know who oppose both abortion and the death penalty?

Nevertheless, in light of my skepticism of intuiting social policy from religious texts, I found in interesting that in the book Why Sex Matters, page 175, the author shows a table that indicates a strong bias for seminarians to come from large families and a mild bias toward lower socioeconomic status. Regardless of what the text says, it seems plausible that the reality that most clerics come from less affluent and economically more marginal circumstances than their congregants seems like it would be a relevant detail in coloring their idea of what good policy would be if they ascended up the clessiastical ladder.

Posted by razib at 12:24 PM