Bush's State/The Pope's Church

The October 12th New York Times reports that a group of Catholic Bishops is trying to decide the November election. It’s nothing new that religious organizations have their druthers about politicians. It’s nothing new that preachers and priests often give voting advice and guidelines to their congregations. But what is newsworthy is that Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Colorado and a group of Roman Catholic prelates are telling Catholics it’s a sin to vote for John Kerry. They say that anyone who plans to vote for Kerry must confess that sin before receiving communion. Chaput’s group argues that Kerry is pro-choice and pro-stemcell research and therefore, he advocates the killing of US citizens (that is, the unborn, to use a right-of-center phrase). When Bush visited the pope this year he asked the Vatican to get American bishops to support conservative issues. According to the NYT, one-quarter of voters in the US are Roman Catholics. How many of these Catholics are conservatives and may be swayed by Bishop Chaput is unknown. George Bush got less than half of the Catholic vote in 2000 and is banking on doing better...much better this time around. Even if it means supporting the Roman Catholic Church’s plan to dictate government policies. Since Great Britain has a state-sponsored church (the Church of England), the United States came into being because of a desire to practice religion as one sees fit and not as dictated by the government. Most Americans believe that the separation of church and state is a tenet of our Constitution. It is not. The First Amendment only states that, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion”. Nevertheless, even after 228 years, it is repugnant for any organized religion to try to influence politics. Particularly by using such a loaded phrase as, “it’s a sin to vote for...”. Incredibly, that very religion makes no public outcry that unnecessary wars are a sin or that the death penalty is a sin.