Bush official warns Catholic journalists of 'culture war'

Published: 2004-06-01

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- While the war in Iraq gets daily headlines, America is in the middle of "another war that's underreported ... a culture war," a Bush administration official told Catholic journalists May 28. Jim Towey, deputy assistant to the president and director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, was the featured speaker at an awards luncheon during the Catholic Press Association's 94th annual convention, held in Washington May 26-28. The culture war is a struggle over "what comes first, what values of ours are going to predominate in the public square" of American society, Towey said. "It is a war that pits the strong against the weak." He cited abortion, euthanasia and drug addiction among the battlegrounds of competing cultures. "Jesus said, 'Apart from me you can do nothing,'" Towey added. "But we see in this culture war a different attitude that says to God, 'Apart from you I can do anything I want.' So we see cloning, human cloning."

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