The Paul Ryan/Soup Kitchen Issue

[dreadfulpenny81]

Last weekend, Paul Ryan, his family, and staffers made an unscheduled visit to an Ohio soup kitchen run by the Mahoning County St. Vincent De Paul Society.

Comments

[modernelegance]

Tag has been added!

I'm not a big fan of politicians using charities as a platform to get voters...on one hand they are raising recognition/awareness of the organization, but after they leave will the non-profit be better or worse? This doesn't change my mind, but it does make me cringe inside.

[lilliew]

This whole things smacks of manufactured controversy and desperation by the liberal media to woo votes in the Mahoning Valley (a very blue and blue collar area

[chibimarchy]

You're from Ohio? Hey, me too, although I'm from a rural and mostly conservative area (Seneca County, more towards the western side of the state).

The closest I ever was to that kind of, erm, urban decay, as it were, was Toledo, which is bad enough. All I knew about Youngstown was never to go there.

[lilliew]

You get away from the places like Youngstown, yes, Ohio is wonderful. Even 15 miles out of Youngstown is quite nice, which is where I'm from, same idea, very rural, good communities, etc. Even Mahoning County isn't so bad and is home of the largest country fair in Ohio.

So hello from a fellow Ohioian (former, I live in Georgia now)

[neemarita]

A Catholic uber-liberal I know says Paul Ryan isn't welcome in the Catholic Church and how un Christian he is for doing this and blahblahblah. Um. Okay. Granted, she is very pro abortion and gay marriage, so she isn't really a Catholic.. like most so-called Catholics in America.

Are they this pathetic and desperate?

[kelincihutan]

I admit that, as a Protestant, my understanding of the Catholic hierarchy goes a wee bit fuzzy on the edges, but isn't Ryan's bishop they guy that gets to make the call on his welcomeness or lack-of-same in the Catholic Church? I mean, like you said, someone calling themselves Catholic but backing abortion isn't going to be my first choice for info on how the RCC functions, but I thought the "priests call the shots" thing was pretty common knowledge by now.

[neemarita]

Being a pro-life conservative to these liberal Catholics is tantamount to excommunication, apparently.

The Pope would say differently, I'm sure. ;)

[brendala]

My paternal family is full of those "Cafeteria Catholics". They embrace the parts of scripture that back up their social justice views (ie "help the poor") and twist it to say that the government MUST care for citizens from cradle to grave. And that anyone who doesn't agree doesn't understand the faith.

My grandmother worked for Catholic Charities for over 30 years. And their understanding of the scripture was that it was talking about PERSONAL charity. Not commanding Catholics to reshape their government to force grumpy rich people to give up their money.

[brendala]

If Ryan really did arrive unannounced, then he (or, most likely, his campaign's PR guy) made a REALLY bad choice. I'm sure there are a lot of church soup kitchens out there who would have loved to have him. But he had the bad fortune to randomly pick one that didn't want him there and it's blown up in his face.

I don't blame the soup kitchen people for being pissed. They're a tiny charity that has tried to remain publicly apolitical and this stunt just f**ked them over from both sides (the left is mad because they blindly hate Republicans; and the right is mad because of the charity's response to Ryan's visit). Hate to say it, but Ryan's campaign really screwed the pooch on this one.

[kharmii]

Wait..wut..they lost donors because Ryan showed up? That's really petty because a soup kitchen is one of those charities that I assume puts every penny into helping the people it's supposed to help every day. Why take it out on the homeless people?