Peanut Gallery – In America, churches can’t force anyone to do anything. Freedom of Religion includes freedom from government interference, freedom of religious choice… and freedom of concsience.

That said – pastors and churches have every right to proclaim the Gospel Truth as they see it. They might be right, they might be wrong – but they are free to say what they want to from the pulpit as long as it conforms to the standards of the particular church or association of churches to which they belong.

Parishoners can agree or disagree and are free to vote with their money and/or their feet. We live in America folks – not Saudi Arabia.

So… here are a selection of voter guides for you to ponder. They are all pro-life, so don’t bother looking for a counter argument here. But they come from different sources and therefore have differing degrees of authority depending on your point of view. This list is not exhaustive and I welcome your pro-life additions that others might be able to use. But it’s a start… and November 6th is only a few weeks away.

From the US Conference of Catholic Bishops –

In this coming election and beyond, we urge leaders and all Catholics to share the message of faithful citizenship and to use this document in forming their own faithful citizenship consciences, so we can act together to promote and protect human life and dignity, marriage and family, justice and peace in service to the common good. This kind of political responsibility is a requirement of our faith and our duty as citizens.

The full document – Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship – may be found here (click on link.)

From the Catholic Spanish Leadership Alliance –

Our lives are filled with grace and blessings too numerous to count. But we are also filled with struggles of every kind. No small part of those struggles is how we feel about certain things and what our individual opinions are about other things. Often we have strong opinions and old habits to which we cling. It seems that in this presidential election year, more than most, we are challenged to reconcile our strong feelings, opinions or old habits with what our Catholic teaching tells us is right and wrong as we come face-to-face with our expressed commitment to our faith versus our public choices in the voting booth.

For the full text of – Catholic Voters Education Guide – please click here.

From the Family Research Council –

FRC Action seeks to fortify the traditional foundations of civil society through efforts to educate, inform and influence elected officials in support of the country’s historic ideals of equality under the law, and the unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness on which the nation was founded.

For the full text of –2012 Values Voter Presidential Voter Guide – please click here.

Peanut Gallery: The Faith and Freedom Coalition also has a voter guide that it is sending out to swing state voters, but I haven’t been able to find a free online copy yet. If you know of other pro-life voter guides for 2012, please let me know.