Prop 8 revisited...

Recently I posted why I did not support Prop 8 here in California. To recap, my reasons hinged on my own moral conscience.  Secular marriage is too far removed from the Sacrament of marriage for me to legitimately feel threatened by gay marriage.  On the other hand, negative impact on the civil rights of same sex partners does feel emotionally tangible.  

At the risk of repeating myself, I would not expect anyone to argue that John McCain should be denied visitation rights to some of his children in the hospital just because of the Church's position on divorce, infidelity, and remarriage. Similarly, I would feel guilty subjecting other children of illegitimate (Catholic-wise) unions to such (seemingly) unnecessary suffering.

I did not defy the Church lightly, but considered #1790 from the Universal Catechism:

"A human being must always obey the certain judgment of his conscience. If he were deliberately to act against it, he would condemn himself. Yet it can happen that moral conscience remains in ignorance and makes erroneous judgments about acts to be performed or already committed."

I cannot ignore my own pangs of conscience, but I must remain aware of my own fallibility and the legitimate moral authority of the Pope.

However, there is another aspect of the Prop 8 campaign that I found troubling.  Namely, our obligation to the Eighth Commandment:

"The eighth commandment forbids misrepresenting the truth in our relations with others. This moral prescription flows from the vocation of the holy people to bear witness to their God who is the truth and wills the truth. Offenses against the truth express by word or deed a refusal to commit oneself to moral uprightness: they are fundamental infidelities to God and, in this sense, they undermine the foundations of the covenant." - CCC 2467

I wish that tactics like this had been limited solely to our non-Catholic brothers and sisters:

http://mediamatters.org/items/200811100003

But, unfortunately, I heard a number of similar claims from members of my own parish.  The most favorable view I can take on this is to assume that they were merely repeating what they, themselves, had heard.  But it seems to me that, in Catholicism, the ends do not always justify the means...