Posted on 05/19/2004 1:31:22 PM PDT by Pete
The lines between politics, religion, and personal freedom just got a little blurrier. In a recent pastoral letter to his parishioners, Colorado Bishop Michael Sheridan declared that Roman Catholics who vote for politicians who support women's abortion rights, stem-cell research, euthanasia, and gay rights should not take Holy Communion.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessweek.com ...
1. As much as the pro-Abortion lobby would like you to believe it, abortion is not a political issue. It is a moral issue. The redefining of abortion as a political issue was a calculated maneuver because they knew they could not win on the moral front.
2. Saying religion is a "private matter" is nothing more than the method by which the secularists among us attempt to silence Christian voices. The "private matter" argument carries no weight when held under the light of the first amendment.
3. This is not a case of the Church trying to influence politics. The Church, (or any church, for that matter) is free to define its doctrine and requirements for participation. What we actually have here is a politician (and others) who are trying to change the Church - not the other way around.
There are more. Ms. O'Connell can be reached via email at patricia_o'connell@businessweek.com
Unless those voices are raised in favor of leftist-approved causes like welfare or opposition to the death penalty.
"The lines between politics, religion, and personal freedom just got a little blurrier."
Actually, the Bishop's announcement made the line much clearer. The left continues to argue that abortion is just a political issue, refusing to acknowledge that there is any remote possibility that it an issue that invloves the preservation of life, which makes it a moral question, which makes it a religious issue.
If such a line exists at all, it does not run through a church. The Catholic Church, as is any church, is free to conduct its business as it sees fit, so long as the rights of others are respected. What part of "free exercise" does the author not understand?
My tag line says what kerry is in regards to church vs state.
"Where is the line that separates church and state?"
The separation of Church and State means that the government will not finance a Church or regulate a Church. I don't see the GOP granting financial favoritism to any religion or sect.
Will someone explain to me how school prayer, God in the national pledge, and a (we can hope, right?) ban on pre-natal infanticide are violations of that separation?
It may be that they have gotten so used to relying on the Ted Kennedy and John Kerry types to tow the liberal line and distort Catholic teachings that they just asssumed they had a right to authority over Catholic sacramental matters
as well. Talk about statist totalitarianism out of control! Where do they think they are, China? The Soviet Union? Albania?
And then it should be obvious. Using aborted embryonic cells for medical research is BIG BUSINESS. The pharmaceutical industry and the gnostic Biotech firms would love to be able to charge through the roof for "therapies" using cells from the corpses of aborted human babies. Disgusting!
Excellent analysis. That "political issue" thing comes right out of the weekly fax of Dem Talking Points.
ping.
In the same issue, the article on stem cells was just as tone-deaf morally and logically. This is one mag that won't get my dime.
Thanks for posting this. It's good to be aware that some liberals are trying to hijack the Catholic Church.
They would settle for the VOTF Board of Directors having majority control of the Cardinalate-electors.
BINGO!!! You win the prize.
Watch Tom Thompson, now Sec'y, HHS, bend and twist to get those stem-cell research dollars to UW-Madison, just as he did as Governor of Wisconsin.
Thompson, BTW, claims to be Catholic.
They've been working on it since 1950--or more properly, since the day after Pentecost.
We're used to it.
This is the BIG STINK in the phony Catholic bioethics circles now - providing ethical cover for the expected, huge profits from harvesting aborted stem cells. Follow the money. They want to be able to give pharmaceutical companies, biotech firms, and research hospitals the right to create embryonic humans to be "harvested" for research.
The "Catholic" medical mafiosi who are in on this have blood on their hands. Disgusting beyond belief!
"The notion that the liberal media or the Democrats can tell the leaders of the Catholic Church that they must give Holy Communion to pro-abortion maniacs and liberal wacko types like John Kerry (or their supporters) is so absurd it defies much comment. "
Yes, and in the same sanctimonious demand, claim that separation of church and state demands that the Church give Communion to them!!!
"It may be that they have gotten so used to relying on the Ted Kennedy and John Kerry types to tow the liberal line and distort Catholic teachings that they just asssumed they had a right to authority over Catholic sacramental matters "
This is excellent analysis -- they are so used to going to dissidents to comment "authoritatively" on Church/moral matters, that to them, dissident = Church.
They can't afford to NOT have Catholic dissidents speaking out! It actually gives them some "Catholic cover" for non-Catholic, fundamentally immoral positions. If these Kennedy-Kerry "Catholics" are all discredited and no longer able to be called Catholics, the scales will fall from some people's eyes . . . NO ONE, including the media, will be able to then PRETEND that you can be a Catholic and support abortion.
It was a great scam, while it lasted! Hopefully, its days are numbered . . . ;)
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