Bishops’ Letters

Ken DeGraaf

1. Life – Should the Reproductive Health Equity Act (RHEA), which allows for elective abortion during all 40-weeks of pregnancy, be overturned? Should Colorado law provide incentives for abortion providers to move to Colorado to meet abortion demand from out-of-state pregnant women?
   • Abortion is a natural occurrence at the end of a non-viable pregnancy, while Feticide is the intentional ending of the life of a pre-born human. RHEA promotes and protects Feticide.  The purpose of government is to secure our Creator endowed Rights, among which are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. The Right to Life is premised on being created, not on a heartbeat or some conception of personhood, and can only be conferred from a higher power. Thus to claim Rights for myself, I can only accept them as conferred from God and must extend that status to others. I can only deny those Rights to others by denying their status as Creator endowed, which precariously denies them to myself as well.  The codification of RHEA effectively ends any Right to Life. Modern medicine was built on the Hippocratic oath, which has the first principle of “do no harm” directly links the dangers of both feticide and euthanasia–“Nor shall any man’s entreaty prevail upon me to administer poison to anyone; neither will I counsel any man to do so. Moreover, I will give no sort of medicine to any pregnant woman, with a view to destroy the child.” In conjunction with securing the Right to Life of the pre(& post)-born human, the government has an obligation to the mother in ensuring appropriate obligations are held against the father, and severe deterrent punishments against those committing rape or incest. No. Feticide is a violation of Human Rights, not something to pursue as a growth industry. 
2. Family – Should the Colorado legislature codify same-sex marriage in law?
3. Religious Liberty – Should the Colorado legislature restrict the freedom of individuals and institutions to think, speak, work, and act according to their well-founded beliefs?
   • No, nor should they restrict the same for ill-founded, or lightly-founded beliefs to the extent they do not infringe on the Rights of others’ “Life, Liberty or Pursuit of Happiness” for which the government is purposed with making secure. Ultimately speech is the foundation of thought, and free speech is the basis for addressing and solving problems, which by their very nature involve an offense of some sort. Civil discourse should be encouraged so that differences can be resolved in the marketplace of ideas, not through the coercion of State.
4. Economic Justice – Should welfare policy provide a safety-net to improve the immediate well-being of the poor and encourage work?
   • No. Unfortunately it has proven beyond the capacity for government to effectively and compassionately care for those needing a helping hand since Government programs are incentivized to create government dependence. Charity cannot be coerced, but that is the only means by which the government can obtain money to perpetuate a poor imitation of the Christian charity it intends to supplant. Per the Colorado Constitution Article V, section 34, “no appropriation shall be made for charitable, industrial, educational or benevolent purposes to any person, corporation or community not under the ABSOLUTE CONTROL OF THE STATE”. Thus, before asking the State for money, we should ask over what or whom we would like the State to have absolute control. This is a better role for charity, with taxes reduced accordingly, which will foster economic growth and create jobs.  
5. Health Care – Should health-care legislation be patient-centered and protect the conscience rights of medical providers?
   • Yes. Forcing providers to act outside of their conscience will result in fewer medical providers, and those remaining providers being those willing to act without conscience. What is actually needed is to prevent legislation requiring the violation of conscience, instead of a specific governmental permission to adhere to it.
6. Immigration – Should Colorado law ensure all immigrants have basic human needs, enable work, and encourage pathways to citizenship?
   • Our Declaration of Independence recognizes that all of humanity is endowed with the Rights of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, but does not ensure anyone “has” or is provided anything, regardless of immigration status. Immigrants must be here legally, otherwise they are subject to trafficking and exploitation in the underground economies. Government can only ensure provision for “basic human needs” if those resources are first coerced from another, which is theft regardless of intentions. Medical care could be more effectively obtained if self-pay was allowed at Medicare rates which are typically 20-25% of billed amounts. Minimum wage laws serve to keep low-skilled workers out of the economy and drive up inflation.
7. Education – Should Colorado law allow families to utilize their own 529 savings account funds for their children’s K-12 education (this has been permitted by the IRS since 2018 but states must opt-in)?
   • Yes. Educational expenses should also be counted as tax credits through 85% of the per-pupil State expenditure. This would encourage the formation of alternate educational enterprises which could encourage revitalization of housing areas currently avoided due to inadequate schools, and reduce commuting distances to work.
8. Restorative Justice – Should Colorado’s criminal justice reform focus on both preventing crime and offering those who commit the crime an opportunity to rehabilitate and effectively return to society?
   • Yes. The first way to reduce crime is to allow the growth of actual opportunities to succeed outside of criminal activity by reducing the government’s taxation chokehold on the economy to pay for frivolous and unconstitutional laws and spending. Opportunities for legal & productive work can only occur in areas where law is followed and crime is prevented. “Repaying a debt to society” cannot be just a matter of having been sequestered with other criminals if a functional return to society is expected. This is another area where minimum wage laws prevent those trying to return with the ability to access the first rung of the ladder to success. 
9. Energy & Environment – Should the Colorado’s energy policy encourage private investment and competition in our energy sector through incentives that are focused on environmentally friendly solutions to our energy crisis?
   • no, government incentives are simply political favors paid by taxpayers. “Environmentally friendly” must be extracted from “ideologically constrained.” The best way to lower the cost of energy is to stop preventing the extraction of natural gas and declassify CO2 as a pollutant, since it is literally the building block of plant growth. CO2 produced by human activity is only about 1% of that produced naturally, and the US contribution merely about 15% of that 1%.  While CO2 does respond to low-energy longwave infrared radiation, its effect on climate is minor to inconsequential compared to that of water (https://youtu.be/XIBsjBvRTew).  The foundational models for CO2 require an adjustment exceeding 15%, rendering them useless for predicting the variations of less than 1% that will supposedly send the climate careening into catastrophe. There are numerous cycles that reinforce and cancel to create variations in climate, chief among them is the sun which has increased in output since pre-industrial revolution by what equates to over seven times the global energy output, or the equivalent of 21,000 barrels of oil per second. Minor variations in cloud cover dwarf any effect of CO2. “Green energy” is not “green,” except in funneling cash primarily to China which, in accordance to the Paris Accords, burns as much dirty coal as it wants to produce our solar panels and windmills, which will likely never offset the power used in their production. In the meantime, these costly programs increase joblessness and homelessness. 
10. Technology – Should the Colorado legislature pass policy that restricts pornography access?
    • Yes. pornography is exploitive, damaging and addictive (enslaving); it is also associated with abuse, extortion and human trafficking, undermining the Rights of all participants. 

Why should Colorado Catholics vote for you to represent them in the state legislature?

I hold it to be self-evident that mankind is created in the image of God, and that my role in government will be to secure their Creator-endowed Rights with only those just powers derived from the consent of the governed who remain sovereign to the government itself.   I recognize that history has shown that governments who exceed the role of securing our Rights in the pursuit of some humanist utopia have always descended into tyranny.   I know that the best place for tax dollars is for them to remain in the hands of citizens, and that there is no problem the government cannot make worse with a solution.   We’ve created an insatiable beast in government, and the sooner we address that reality the better.