Replies to post #169082 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

[BullNBear52]

religion has a whole lot to do with politics right now

Only with the extremists on either end of the ploticial spectrum imo.

There are a lot of things I disagree with when it comes to the Catholic Church and a few other religions as well for that matter.

People like Santorum, Graham Jr and the republicans are trying to bring religion back into the public square.

Senate Rejects Step Targeting Coverage of Contraception

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/02/us/politics/senate-kills-gop-bill-opposing-contraception-policy.html?_r=1&ref=politics

“The president is trampling on religious freedom,” said Senator Mike Johanns, Republican of Nebraska.

Fortunately there are still people like Snowe who understand.

One Republican, Senator Olympia J. Snowe of Maine, joined 48 Democrats and two independents in opposing the plan, days after she announced she was retiring from the Senate.


JFK got it right over 50 years ago and little Ricky is full of it.

While the so-called religious issue is necessarily and properly the chief topic here tonight, I want to emphasize from the outset that we have far more critical issues to face in the 1960 election:
•the spread of Communist influence, until it now festers 90 miles off the coast of Florida;


• the humiliating treatment of our president and vice president by those who no longer respect our power;


• the hungry children I saw in West Virginia; the old people who cannot pay their doctor bills;


•the families forced to give up their farms; an America with too many slums, with too few schools, and too late to the moon and outer space.
These are the real issues which should decide this campaign. And they are not religious issues — for war and hunger and ignorance and despair know no religious barriers.

[fuagf]

The American mullah .. what a hoot .. on Kerry, lol, it seems
Ratzinger acted impulsively when he wrote his note ..

John Kerry Receives Communion at Papal Mass



Sen. John Kerry received communion .. http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-pope-us,0,7461283.story .. at the Mass that Pope Benedict XVI celebrated today in Washington, The AP reports. That wouldn't normally be newsworthy - but for the fact that a huge controversy raged during the 2004 presidential campaign when a few bishops announced that they would deny the Eucharist to Kerry, a Catholic, because of his support for abortion rights.

Kerry, who received communion from a priest at a spot far off from the altar where the pope presided, said there was nothing political about it.

Catholic anti-abortion groups had been trying to stoke outrage over the prospect that Kerry, and other Catholic politicians with whom they disagree, would receive communion at the papal Mass. One group, the American Life League, announced .. http://www.all.org/article.php?id=11364 .. that it would photograph them as they received communion.

The furor in the 2004 campaign has not prevented Kerry from receiving the Eucharist, which, according to Catholic teaching, is the "source and summit of the Christian life." According to Catholic News Service, .. http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0603607.htm .. Kerry received communion from Archbishop Pietro Sambi, the papal nuncio to the United States, when he attended the installation Mass of Washington's Archbishop Donald Wuerl in 2006.

During the presidential race, a letter issued by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, .. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0408/9605.html .. the future Pope Benedict XVI, was taken by some bishops as support for denying communion to Catholic politicians who supported the legal right to abortion.

After consulting with the Vatican, the U.S. Catholic bishops eventually came up with a policy .. http://www.usccb.org/bishops/catholicsinpoliticallife.shtml .. - one that didn't really resolve the issue. It allowed each bishop to make his own judgment.

"Bishops can legitimately make different judgments on the most prudent course of pastoral action," it said. "Nevertheless, we all share an unequivocal commitment to protect human life and dignity and to preach the Gospel in difficult times. The polarizing tendencies of election-year politics can lead to circumstances in which Catholic teaching and sacramental practice can be misused for political ends."

Photo: Priest distributes communion during Mass at Nationals Park in Washington. Getty/Chip Somodevilla.

http://pope-newsday.blogspot.com.au/2008/04/john-kerry-receives-communion-at-papal.html

========

Kerry and Communion: The Real Issue

The media's obsession with his churchgoing misses the point. At stake is an attempt to erode the church-state boundary

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.

That's just one bishop's opinion, of course -- individual Catholics and bishops in other dioceses might have different views. But it's disturbing nonetheless. Before Sheridan's pronouncement, the issue of pro-choice Catholics receiving Communion had been largely confined to politicians -- most specifically to Presidential candidate Senator John Kerry. Last year, the Vatican put forth a doctrinal note that Catholic lawmakers have "a grave and clear obligation to oppose any law that attacks human life. For them, as for every Catholic, it is impossible to promote such laws or to vote for them."

Since then, several bishops have informed Kerry that he won't be given Communion in their dioceses. And the media engaged in a shameless game of "will-he-or-won't-he" prior to Easter Sunday. (For the record, Kerry took Communion on Easter in his hometown of Boston, and he did likewise in Pittsburgh on Mother's Day.)

PAPAL BULL. What are Catholics -- and all Americans -- to make of this increasing clerical activism in trying to shape their political decisions? The bad news is it shows that the Church -- for centuries no stranger to abuse of power, muddled priorities, and interfering where it shouldn't -- seems to be at it again. The good news: Perhaps now the media will stop personalizing the matter vis-à-vis a Presidential candidate and be forced to frame the issue in its proper context: Where is the line that separates church and state?

The Church has long sought to exert a level of influence over its members that, to me, has involved demands and restrictions that have precious little to do with the teachings of Christ. I'm not alone, either. Millions of Catholics face the same choice. Bad enough that the Church wants to dictate what its people do in their bedrooms -- now it wants to tell them what to do in the voting booth? On Apr. 23, the Vatican issued guidelines for the giving and receiving of Communion. Among the reasons a priest can choose not to give a person Communion: If the Communicant is not "rightly disposed."

To make matters worse, the Church is attempting to influence not only the actions of politicians and the people who vote for them but also the lives of people who aren't members of the Church. That smacks of a one-true-religion arrogance that makes people nervous.

SELECTIVE FOCUS. When John Kennedy ran for President 44 years ago, suspicion about Rome's hold on its faithful ran deep. Kennedy went to great pains to assure the American people that the Vatican wouldn't be directing his every move. He tried to make it clear that he would be a President who also happened to be a Catholic and that he wouldn't allow his religious views or the views of his Church to override his judgment about what was best for his country and its people.

Politicians and lawmakers are required to make decisions on scores of subjects, not just those relating to abortion, gay rights, and the death penalty. Those issues may be among the ones people are most emotional about, but they have little to do with many people's day-to-day lives. In my view, it's irresponsible and naive to judge -- or portray -- a candidate with only those issues in mind.

Sure, there are plenty of religion-based, politically oriented factions and groups (Moral Majority, anyone?). But these aren't churches or religions per se. The Catholic Church is the only religious institution that's threatening to withhold its Sacraments -– which are considered a key part of the religion's practice –- from members who disagree with it politically.

The media has helped inflame the passions surrounding this new activism by the Vatican and some of its clergy by giving way too much attention to Kerry's observance of the sacraments and by being so selective in its coverage. How do I know Kerry took Communion on those two Sundays? Because it was so widely reported. Did Homeland Security Chief Tom Ridge, who is pro-choice, take Communion on Mothers Day? How about Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, another pro-choice Republican? Or New York Governor George Pataki, a Catholic who supports both abortion rights and the death penalty?

PRIVATE MATTERS. I don't know about any of them, because I couldn't find news coverage about what they did on those Sundays. Their church habits, their pursuit of religious freedom, apparently didn't make the news. Nor should it.

Same goes for Kerry. He's just one of millions of Catholics who disagree with the Church on some matters but who still feel moved to practice their religion. Not everything that happens is newsworthy -- even if it's done by a Presidential candidate. I happen to think a Catholic practicing his religion and partaking of one of its Sacraments should be private.

If the media wants to take the tack that a politician's religious behavior is important because it could inform his decisions, then they should be reporting on all of the prominent Catholic politicians and their religious practices. And they don't, because really, it's largely irrelevant to public discourse. Nothing can be extrapolated from knowing that a Catholic politician, fearing Rome's wrath, declines to present himself or herself for Communion. Nor is anything to be gleaned by a Catholic's seeking the Sacrament.

Put the focus on where it belongs -- on an institution that's trying to exert influence in
outmoded ways, not on those who seek to practice a religion they've made their peace with.

http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/may2004/nf20040519_9978_db045.htm