Politics on the Pulpit

Forgive me if posting is thin this week. Still not entirely well. Energy levels wax and wane.

Last week, I wrote a long screedy post about Catholicism and politics. I questioned whether some of recent attacks on the political and social views of Catholics were due to some lingering anti-Catholicism in America. Now that the antibiotics have kicked in, I’m a little more reasonable.

I do think that the charges that the pope is responsible for AIDs in Africa are wrong, as I explained in the comments. But some of the comments and posts by other bloggers are valid. Jay maintains that he should have a position on Catholic politics, because Catholics have a world view that they seek to impose on others.

The problem is that the church isn’t just taking positions on these issues with regard to Catholics, but rather working to institute their positions in civil law and society. And that does affect me and is my business.

Exactly. This is true. Catholics have positions that affect their politics which can affect others, even non-Catholics. And non-Catholics should protest when they feel that their rights and freedoms will be limited by these policies.

Should Catholics and other religious groups be denied to the right to organize, because they are members of a religious group? Should we be at all shocked that when religious leaders talk politics at the pulpit?

No. That’s what politics are about. Everybody is organized under some sort of organization. If not religious, then other interest oriented.

The NRA, the ACLU, the National Wildlife Organization, NOW are all groups of people seeking to turn their interest into policy. And all of them have counter groups that feel that their interests are going to be affected. The NRA feel that the gun regulation activists are limiting what they see as their God given rights to carry around AK47s. The loggers feel that the environmental activists are curtailing their rights to put food on the table for the family.

Politics is about the clashing of rights and interests. Politics is about people organizing to have their world-view made into law. It’s about jockeying for the position to become a majority. It’s about the minority adjusting its message to make itself into the majority in the next election.

Yes, we should watch and even protest political action by religious groups. But we shouldn’t be surprised when they talk politics in church, and we shouldn’t try to stifle them.