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Mashek of US News: Bishop Violates First Amendment by Denying Biden Communion
NewsBusters ^ | Mark Finkelstein

Posted on 09/24/2008 4:27:29 AM PDT by governsleastgovernsbest

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. -- First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America

Because John Mashek is apparently so utterly unfamiliar with it, I'm setting out the text of the First Amendment for his ease of reference. According to his column in U.S. News, the Roman Catholic bishop of Scranton, PA violates the First Amendment by denying Joe Biden communion because of his support for abortion rights.

Writes Mashek [emphasis added]:

Biden, like 14 other Democrats in the Senate, is both pro-choice and Catholic. So the bishop decreed that the party's vice presidential candidate was not welcome at the communion rail. These Senate Democrats and many other Catholics—including this writer—do not necessarily favor abortion, but we do not feel our religious views should be foisted on others in a nation where church and state are divided.

. . .

That division of church and state has application here. No priest, minister, or rabbi should be telling the flock how to vote or for whom. Some do, and they are wrong.

(Excerpt) Read more at newsbusters.org ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Politics/Elections; US: Pennsylvania
KEYWORDS: abortion; biden; bravosierra; catholic; catholicpoliticians; catholicvote; firstamendment; obamabiden; romancatholicism
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To: Scotswife; Tax-chick

Here’s what keeps me up late at night: Do you think a Unitarian pastor would be defrocked (they’d take away his Subaru) if he was anti-abortion?


61 posted on 09/24/2008 6:07:28 AM PDT by Mad Dawg (Oh Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.)
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To: Mad Dawg

LOL!!

Good question!
you must not get very much sleep?


62 posted on 09/24/2008 6:08:41 AM PDT by Scotswife
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To: yorkie01
If Biden goes to communion without having properly prepared himself through acts of contrition or confession, humbly asking forgiveness, his communion with Christ is meaningless.

It's worse than meaningless. It's a mortal sin. The boy is in serious compost.

63 posted on 09/24/2008 6:11:55 AM PDT by Mad Dawg (Oh Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.)
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To: LibertyRocks
anything is possible when dealing with liberals

We shouldn't be surprised at anything evil or idiotic perpetrated by liberals ... but sometimes I am, anyway. How do they keep breathing with so little brain function?

64 posted on 09/24/2008 6:12:55 AM PDT by Tax-chick ("Even for a thin-skinned solipsistic narcissist, Obama seems a frightful po-faced pill." ~Mark Steyn)
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To: Mad Dawg

If Biden can’t see that it is more important for him to get right with the Lord and his faith than to serve as VP under Obama, God help him.


65 posted on 09/24/2008 6:15:28 AM PDT by HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity
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To: Scotswife

It seems like it’s always one or the other or both, doesn’t it?


66 posted on 09/24/2008 6:17:03 AM PDT by Tax-chick ("Even for a thin-skinned solipsistic narcissist, Obama seems a frightful po-faced pill." ~Mark Steyn)
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To: Mad Dawg
Do you think a Unitarian pastor would be defrocked (they’d take away his Subaru) if he was anti-abortion?

Interesting question. Maybe his congregation would do a crystal-harmonics intervention for the poor fellow, get him back on the right path.

67 posted on 09/24/2008 6:19:51 AM PDT by Tax-chick ("Even for a thin-skinned solipsistic narcissist, Obama seems a frightful po-faced pill." ~Mark Steyn)
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To: governsleastgovernsbest

What a MORON!!!!


68 posted on 09/24/2008 6:20:00 AM PDT by pgkdan (Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions - G.K. Chesterton)
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To: governsleastgovernsbest
Biden, like 14 other Democrats in the Senate, is both pro-choice and Catholic.

impossible.

69 posted on 09/24/2008 6:20:41 AM PDT by pgkdan (Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions - G.K. Chesterton)
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To: Tax-chick
If Mashek was right, Biden could enlist the government's help to force the bishop to let him receive communion. If that were the case, the government force the Catholic Church (or any other religious body) to comply with any other directive the majority in Congress, or an activist judge, wanted to impose--like requiring the ordination of women. During Prohibition the government could have banned the use of wine at Mass.

Biden is part of the government. If the church has to cater to him, then the "free exercise of religion" is as meaningless in the US as in China or Cuba.

70 posted on 09/24/2008 6:26:52 AM PDT by Verginius Rufus
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To: Verginius Rufus

You’re exactly right.


71 posted on 09/24/2008 6:28:18 AM PDT by Tax-chick ("Even for a thin-skinned solipsistic narcissist, Obama seems a frightful po-faced pill." ~Mark Steyn)
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To: governsleastgovernsbest; conservatism_IS_compassion

Thanks for the pings.

Great article. F a s c i n a t i n g thread.


72 posted on 09/24/2008 6:46:49 AM PDT by PGalt
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MORON

73 posted on 09/24/2008 6:51:38 AM PDT by A.A. Cunningham
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To: governsleastgovernsbest

If it weren’t for dentist and doctor waiting rooms, airliners, and public libraries, I am certain that Time, Newsweek, and U.S. News would be out of business.


74 posted on 09/24/2008 6:57:59 AM PDT by RabidBartender
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To: Coleus; nickcarraway; narses; Mr. Silverback; Canticle_of_Deborah; TenthAmendmentChampion; ...
Pro-Life PING

Please FreepMail me if you want on or off my Pro-Life Ping List.

75 posted on 09/24/2008 6:59:34 AM PDT by cpforlife.org (A Catholic Respect Life Curriculum is available FREE at CpForLife.org)
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To: HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity
He cannot support abortion in any capacity

Correction: He cannot support direct abortion in any capacity

142. Ethical delegitimization applies to all forms of direct abortion, since it is an intrinsically blameworthy act. The use of substances or means which impede the implantation of the fertilized embryo or which cause its premature detachment is also an act of abortion. A doctor who would knowingly prescribe or apply such substances or means would cooperate in the abortion.

If the abortion follows as a foreseen but nor intended or willed but merely tolerated consequence of a therapeutic act essential for the mother's health, this is morally legitimate. The abortion in this case is the indirect result of an act which is not in itself abortive.273

76 posted on 09/24/2008 7:03:20 AM PDT by A.A. Cunningham
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To: Freedom_Fighter_2001

You’ll never get to be a liberal Supreme Court Justice with that kind of limited vision :)


77 posted on 09/24/2008 7:03:40 AM PDT by 3Lean
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To: governsleastgovernsbest
And by the way, Governs = Finkelstein.
I feel so "late to the show". {;^)
78 posted on 09/24/2008 7:06:54 AM PDT by philman_36
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To: Tax-chick

“It seems like it’s always one or the other or both, doesn’t it?”

Too true!!

And they get more worked up over living wage/Walmart/sweatshops/South America -than they do over dead babies.

I’m getting so fed up with crazy nuts.
I must be getting old.


79 posted on 09/24/2008 7:09:32 AM PDT by Scotswife
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To: Scotswife
I’m getting so fed up with crazy nuts. I must be getting old.

That makes two of us.

80 posted on 09/24/2008 7:32:17 AM PDT by Tax-chick ("Even for a thin-skinned solipsistic narcissist, Obama seems a frightful po-faced pill." ~Mark Steyn)
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