Notre Dame's Obama Invite Riles Catholic Bishops: "This coming week, Bishop Thomas Wenski of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orlando, Fla., will take the unusual step of celebrating a Mass of Reparation, to make amends for sins against God. The motivation: to provide an outlet for Catholics upset with what Wenski calls the University of Notre Dame's 'clueless' decision to invite President Barack Obama to speak at its commencement and receive an honorary doctorate May 17."
This sad story epitomizes the illogic of pretending that church and state can really be separated. Our current supreme court illustrates the problem as well. We have a majority of Roman Catholic justices. Unless we assume that these people are not influenced by their religions, then the rulings of their religious authorities must play a role in their judgements ... for better or for worse.
Our system effectively prevents theocratic authorities .. whether that means the neo-Caliphs of Tehran, the Pope, or Billy Graham from exercising their authority. On the other hand, we ought not to pretend that a person's religion is irrelevant to her role as a governor or president. The Catholic majority of the SCOTUS should be assumed to listen to their own bishops differently than an atheist or Muslim judge.
Religion does matter for good or for bad. MLK and Gandhi USED religion and were clearly driven by religious beliefs . So was Bush.
This meme does not imply that religion is bad or good. Father Drynan, the antiwar figure and a rebel within the Church, is an illustration of how rebellion against religious authorities is also very real part of the political calculus we should consider when choosing our political elders.
There is a practical lesson to be learned. With all due respect to God, his vicars are just human and we, the people should feel free to criticize them. Islamophobia is not an irrational point of view as long as Islam sticks by the political views of the Quran, anymore than fear of Marxism is irrational. When a leader says he is a Catholic or a Jew or a Muslim or a Buddhist, we SHOULD pay attention.
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