[mware]

Hey these guys are the ones who are always spouting seperation of church and state. So let it be said, so let it be done.

[ladylib]

If being a politician is more important than being a Catholic, then be a politician. Apparently, you can't have your cake and eat it too anymore.

What does this have to do with separation of church and state? The government isn't telling the pols they can't be Catholic and be pro-abortion -- the Catholic Church is.

[dagar]

Good. It's about time.

[Mean Daddy]

''The problem with it is that elected officials have to represent people of all faiths and none, and not adhere to one religious demand like the bishop's,'' he said.

You can't have it both ways. If you want to support something outside of the doctrine of your faith, then you should find a new religion ala Howard Dean. Who by the way quit his first church over a dispute over a bike path. A true man of God.

[Jim Noble]

A Roman Catholic bishop who waded into politics with a decree that lawmakers who support abortion rights can no longer receive holy communion has ignited a debate over the separation of church and state

How is that "wading into politics"?

What does politics have to do with communion?

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[Felis_irritable]

"The problem with it is that elected officials have to represent people of all faiths and none..."

Then they need to pick their faith carefully, keep their mouths shut, or have none. IMHO.

[Catspaw]

I wonder why he didn't excommunicate them.

[Sofa King]

"The problem with it is that elected officials have to represent people of all faiths and none, and not adhere to one religious demand like the bishop's,' he said."

The problem is that these liberals want to be religious but at the same time don't want to have to follow the word of God.

[NonValueAdded]

Look out for a new church, coming to a party caucus near you. Isn't that what happened the last time a lawmaker, chief, or potentiate didn't like the rulings of the Catholic church? [insert rousing chorus of "I'm 'enery the eighth I am" here].

[leprechaun9]

Democratic U.S. Rep. David Obey

This is the same disOBEY who accused the Republican Congress of holding not a gun, but specifically an AK-47 to the head of Billy Clintooon on the issue of the budget!

[BlackElk]

No Catholic asked for the insolent opinion of the Rev. Mr. Barry Lynn (Unitarian or Congregationalist?) and his anti-Catholic organization of bigots. The original name of the group was Protestants and other Americans for Separation of Church and State, when it was run by Paul Blanshard and chummy with the notorious Madeline Murray O'Hair. The very name was a slur against Protestants. The organization originated in the early Cold War as a reaction against Catholic anti-communism and as a reaction of anti-Catholics, many not at all Protestant, but atheist, agnostic and secular humanist who wanted to have a platform to attack anti-communist cardinals such as Francis Cardinal Spellman of New York, Richard Cardinal Cushing of Boston and James Cardinal McIntyre of Los Angeles.

As for Obey, we know where his heart lies. He may have been baptized Catholic but his loyalty is with the baby-killing Demonrats. Congressman Obey, you are what you vote for. What you vote for, Mr. Obey, is not Catholic and neither are you.

May every Catholic bishop in this country do as Bishop Burke has done. May every other Christian leader worthy of the name do likewise. Next stop for Archbishop-designate Burke is St. Louis. Next in line of desireable major changes in the Roman Catholic Church in the United States would be the rapid replacement of Roger Cardinal Mahoney in Los Angeles by an actual Catholic like Burke.

[muir_redwoods]

If you don't like the rules, don't join the "club" Any faith has the right to make it's own rules. Some churches might vote other have an authority the speaks ex cathedra. If you don't like it, do what Dr. Dean did and join another church.

[onedoug]

God didn't say, "I put before you this day, Life, Death and politics."

"Therefore," He did say, "Choose Life."

[OpusatFR]

" Obey said Burke can instruct him on faith and morals in his private life, but should use ''persuasion, not dictation'' to affect his political votes."

If he thinks the Bishop's instructions conflict with his beliefs in public, like a good pharisee, he should find another religion.

[arasina]

This isn't the first time a Catholic bishop has "waded into politics" ---

Tom Daschle's Duty to Be Morally Coherent
A Weekly Standard Exclusive: The Senate minority leader is ordered to stop calling himself a Catholic.
by J. Bottum
04/17/2003 12:00:00 PM

TOM DASCHLE may no longer call himself a Catholic. The Senate minority leader and the highest ranking Democrat in Washington has been sent a letter by his home diocese of Sioux Falls, sources in South Dakota have told The Weekly Standard, directing him to remove from his congressional biography and campaign documents all references to his standing as a member of the Catholic Church.

This isn't exactly excommunication--which is unnecessary, in any case, since Daschle made himself ineligible for communion almost 20 years ago with his divorce and remarriage to a Washington lobbyist. The directive from Sioux Falls' Bishop Robert Carlson is rather something less than excommunication--and, at the same time, something more: a declaration that Tom Daschle's religious identification constitutes, in technical Catholic vocabulary, a grave public scandal. He was brought up as a Catholic, and he may still be in some sort of genuine mental and spiritual relation to the Church. Who besides his confessor could say? But Daschle's consistent political opposition to Catholic teachings on moral issues--abortion, in particular--has made him such a problem for ordinary churchgoers that the Church must deny him the use of the word "Catholic." <--snip-->

Tom Daschle's Duty to Be Morally Coherent

If there is any "separation of church and state" to be done here, it is on the part of the politicians who use their so-called Catholicism to garner votes.

[mercy]

What a joke. If their faith meant a hill of beans to them they would not be pro abortion. Guess they'll just have to become Episcopal.

[Polybius]

A Roman Catholic bishop who waded into politics with a decree that lawmakers who support abortion rights can no longer receive holy communion has ignited a debate over the separation of church and state.

There is no conflict here.

The Catholic Church has absolutely no power to legislate in the U.S. and the politicians have an absolute right to find another Church that does not believe that abortion is a sin.

[Happy2BMe]

MILWAUKEE -- A Roman Catholic bishop who waded into politics with a decree that lawmakers who support abortion rights can no longer receive holy communion has ignited a debate over the separation of church and state.

I salute and greatly admire this champion of right, decency, morality, and the right of the unborn to live.

BRAVO and God forever bless this great and wonderful man!

[A. Pole]

A Roman Catholic bishop who waded into politics with a decree that lawmakers who support abortion rights can no longer receive holy communion has ignited a debate over the separation of church and state.

Some people think that this so called "separation of church and state" means that the Church may not refuse the sacraments to the people in power. Weird.