...I'm okay with being REALITY-based.




Monday, May 17, 2004
      ( 2:32 PM )
 
Separation? What Separation?

The Archbishop of the Portland Diocese has joined the merry band of priests who are dictating to their parishoners how they should vote in government elections. I just blogged on Friday about the Bishop of Colorado making the declaration that he would actually refuse communion to parishoners who voted the same way. This has gone too far already. Any church or church leader that declares a political position or some sort of rule over the voting of their parishoners should immediately be denied its 501(c)(3) status. It should no longer enjoy the rights of a church separated from governmental regulation.

There is no call for this sort of subjugation of church goers. It recalls days of indulgences when the Church charged christians for their salvation. Is it not the same here? How can a priest refuse communion to a person who is at peace with God about what they believe and their relationship with Him?

There is further hypocrisy in the whole thing because these bishops, archbishops and priests are putting the litmus test on their parishoners according to only one position of the church. They are not calling on all parishoners who are for the death penalty or who vote for death penalty supporting politicians to cease their taking of communion. The Pope and the church has publicly declared that Iraq is not a just war, so how can priest refuse communion to someone who is pro-choice but yet allow it for someone who supports the war in Iraq?

There are too many variables when you start dictating that a person's personal faith and their choices must be regulated by the church - especially when it comes to politics. What is the church going to do next, have their parishoners sign on voting cards before they can receive communion? The church should get out of politics or it should lose its protection as a religious organization.

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