(title: Catholic bishops say voters' souls at stake)
Proclaiming a sense of new energy and empowerment, the nation's Roman Catholic bishops on Wednesday issued instructions to Catholic voters that their eternal salvation could be at stake when they cast ballots.
Bishops emphasized that voters must consider the church's teachings on abortion and other moral issues when they select a candidate for the White House or any other office. If they don't, bishops said, it's not clergy who will judge them but God.
"It is important to be clear that the political choices faced by citizens have an impact on general peace and prosperity and also the individual's salvation," the bishops said in the document, titled "Faithful Citizenship." "Similarly, the kinds of laws and policies supported by public officials affect their spiritual well-being."
38 comments
This is the USA. Catholic clergy have no standing here nor do they have the authority to judge anyone.
I was born of a Roman Catholic family (my parents are devout and fundie) but my soul, if I have one, is my own. I am its master and no cross-dresser with delusions of
Sorry about the rant but it seems some deluded priests need their balls kicked off.
I say the same I said in 2004. If God knows people and is going to judge them, let him REALLY do his job and he will know why they vote such a party or other. Moreover, what happens if the two main parties have policies that contradict God's plans?. For example, the war in Iraq, condemned by Jesus and the Pope alike. Why abortion is, say, more important than that?
So, no war on Iraq, no abortion, no voting to those who doesn't support bening immigration policies or agree with torture. What's the solution?, no voting?
and this is why the US has a legal (if breached) separation of church and state, and why the UK and other countries should.
The exercise of power by god botherers over the consciences and votes of the lay members of their churches is an abuse.
Only explicitly specify abortion as a valid moral issue. None of the other big things like charity and kindness. Makes ya go "Hmm...", eh?
But if I take that into account, I guess the only sure way to save my soul is to abstain from voting.
And the IRS will stand by and do nothing.
I'm starting to find the Catholic Church to be truly disgusting. It's like the Lateran Treaty had never happened -- they're going back to the way they supported the fascists in the Spanish Civil War.
Well, I guess the Catholics are screwed, then.
They can either vote Democrat, allowing abortion and birth control, or vote Republican, thus condoning needless war and abandonment of the needy.
The answer is simple. If the churches interferein the running of the State, the State should respond in kind - like calling in all the accounts for special audit. We'd soon see a back off then and squeals of scalded preachers and Ayatollahs.
Yeah. I like it! And put Phelps and Robertson at the head of the list.
Too vague. People like to be told specifically who to for. Name names.
(Yeah, I know, for whom to vote.)
But ballots are supposed to be private!
Damn God, stinking his nose in where he ain't wanted!
...Oh, and what if you only have the choice between a pro-choice Repub and a pro-choice Dem? Are you damned by default?
This is what first made me question the church
My Mother and Father gave him the bums rush
ps this was in the early 70s in Melbourne Vic Australia
We used to have a parish priest who would lecture us endlessly during his sermon about the evils of birth control and abortion.
funny how this country (USA) works. First we were (rightfully) pissed off about taxation without representation and now fundies want representation without taxation. Sorry guys, you can't have your cake and eat it too. Maybe you can live in some fantasy land where everything goes your way and you don't have to contribute anything after you die and go to heaven or whatever.
I seriously would love to see the Catholic Church lose its tax-exempt status over this. I'd love to see the same change imposed on any other church -- Protestant, Muslim, or whatever -- that meddles in politics. Separation of church and state is meant to protect BOTH, but it can't do that if either side insists that it can do what it likes with impunity -- and from what I've seen, the religious side is the only one that regularly flouts that wall of separation.
Does this remind anyone else of the Blackadder episode, where the archbishop keeps swaying people to leave their lands to the church by preaching hellfire and brimstone?
"Hell! Where the mind is never free from the torments of remorse, and the bottom never free from the pricking of little forks!"
So, what, is poverty not a moral issue? Is war not a moral issue? Is the death penalty not a moral issue? SERIOUSLY NOW, COME ON.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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