Which Candidate 'Failed' on the Religious Freedom Scorecard?

The Catholic Association (TCA), an organization that encourages the faithful "to apply Catholic teaching, wisdom, and principles to the issues of the day," has released a new religious liberty voter guide. The document, which highlights seven key issues that are important to people of faith, also gives an overall grade to both President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney.

On TCA's web site, Maureen Fergudon, senior policy advisor to TCA, describes a scenario in America in which the current administration has created purportedly divisive policies and regulations "that ignore our First Amendment protections and erode the religious freedom of Catholics and people of faith." As a result, the TCA's document, entitled, "Religious Freedom Scorecard," attempts to frame both candidates' views on a variety of issues.

The issues presented within the document are: conscience rights, abortion and conscience rights, religious liberty awards, houses of worship, international religious freedom and religious freedom rhetoric. Considering the Catholic Church's theology on birth control, abortion and other related issues, the marks for each candidate on these sentiments aren't necessarily surprising.

Both Obama and Romney were given a thumbs up or a thumbs down for each of the seven indicators. The Republican candidate's stances earned him seven thumbs ups, while Obama's brought him seven thumbs down. Without too much difficulty, one can surmise the final grade for each candidate: Romney received an A+ for religious freedom, while Obama earned an F.

Here's the scorecard in its entirety (you can download it here):

The one-pager will be distributed to more than one million individuals across America and the document will be presented in English and Spanish. In addition to physical copies, TCA is hoping to spread the document via social media. Read more about the initiative here.