One of the more distressing sights in recent years has been to pull into a Catholic Church parking lot on a Sunday morning and see a bumper sticker for Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton or some local politician who also supports abortion or its euphemistic twin, "choice."

As John Gerard Lewis makes clear in his compelling new book, Catholic Voting and Mortal Sin: How You Vote Can Endanger Your Salvation, the priest who shepherds that parish has betrayed his flock.  Had he done his job, parishioners would not have supported a "pro-choice" politician.  And even if they did, they would dare not sport such stickers in the parking lot for fear of having their cars keyed.  Although we are all sinners, this is rare sin about which many Catholics seem downright boastful.

Lewis makes the inarguable case that not only is it intrinsically evil to participate in an abortion, but it is also evil to support political candidates who enable the abortion industry.  Lewis identifies five other current non-negotiable political issues in play today — euthanasia, embryonic stem-cell research, human cloning, homosexual "marriage," and religious freedom — but he argues persuasively that abortion is the most lethal and evil of them all.

Catholic Voting and Mortal Sin is a livelier read than the title suggests.  Lewis serves up an engaging and illuminating study of the history, politics, and philosophy that have led to the slaughter of sixty million innocents in the United States alone since the passage of Roe v. Wade nearly 50 years ago.

This book is essential for all Catholics, especially pro-life activists, and an absolute must-read for priests, teachers, and other Church leaders.  Those who read Catholic Voting and Mortal Sin and absorb its content will never hesitate to argue the cause of life again.  Better still, they will win every argument.

Jack Cashill's latest book is Unmasking Obama: The Fight to Tell the True Story of a Failed Presidency (Post Hill Press, $28).

Image: JG Lewis.