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The Church is also a special interest group
Q: U.S. Catholic bishops are defending their direct involvement in congressional deliberations over health-care reform, saying that church leaders have a duty to raise moral concerns on any issue, including abortion rights and health care for the poor. Do you agree? What role should religious leaders have -- or not have -- in government policymaking?
The Catholic bishops have the right to be as deeply involved in these deliberations as the Congress will allow -- just like any other special interest group in the U.S. does.
I grew up in a strongly Catholic household. Dad was a police officer, then later in the FBI. Mom was a school teacher. Both voted Democrat, as all good, conservative, middle-class folks from Boston did then. They gave what money they could to causes they cared about -- from Boston College (where they both graduated), to groups for abused or missing children, or to groups, like the March of Dimes, fighting to cure diseases.
As such, they had a lot of "special interest groups" representing one or another facet of what they likely cared about. They were simultaneously members of the police union, the teachers union, the Catholic Church, the Democratic Party, the Boston College community, and the loosely-connected set of Americans who cared about issue A or issue B. And every one of those groups, at one time or another, spoke as loudly as it could to the legislative levels that it could reach, to influence things they cared about -- all on behalf of the people, like my parents, whose interests they were there to protect.
The Catholic bishops have that same role and that same right. Although they might bristle at words like "special interest group" (or even more that they would use "lobbyists") -- the fact is they represent one dimension of a very large group of Americans that identify themselves as Catholic.
Still -- the ground here has to be tread carefully. Because unlike the police or teachers unions -- which offer protection from worldly woes like losing a job -- the bishops profess a way that offers protection from a far worse and other-worldly woe of eternal damnation. And unlike the police and teachers unions, the bishops have some of the Congressmen in their "special interest group" as Catholics. And that is great power.
And as someone once said (I think it was Spiderman) -- "with great power comes great responsibility."
By
Leo Brunnick
|
November 17, 2009; 2:02 PM ET
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Posted by: withouthavingseen | November 18, 2009 1:33 AM
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The catholic church bishops have spent millions of dollars in many states to shoot down child victim's legislation to eliminate the Statutes of Limitations on child sexual abuse.
Recently, New York state legislation was molested by catholic lobbiest thru the bishops..
I have come to the conclusion they "molest" whole governments.
A kind of "institutional rape" by institutional rapists.
Posted by: dangerous1 | November 18, 2009 12:57 AM
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CONTINUED:
If they have so much revenue to spend on lobbying, can pull together millions to stop women from having abortions in Ireland, they do not need to be on the dole.
MOreover, their "need" is no longer the issue. The provisions allowing their tax exempt status allows lobbying so it does not interfere with the church's primary mission. Lobbying the Congress, the UN, raising millions to oppress women in the United STates, Ireland, and elsewhere, to make sure that more children are born in starving nations, many HIV positive, tells us that they have lost sight of their primary purpose, if in fact they ever had it in view.
What to do:
1. SEPARATE church and state. Pass legislation prohibiting lobbying by religious institutions.
2. END tax exemptions for religious institutions. Give them one year to identify other funding sources to replace any losses they might incur.
3. OPERATE NGO style agencies to provide social services and contract with them, not the church.
Posted by: Farnaz1Mansouri1 | November 17, 2009 6:22 PM
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to view a partial list of crimes committed by FBI agents over 1500 pages long see
http://www.forums.signonsandiego.com/showthread.php?t=59139
to view a partial list of FBI agents arrested for pedophilia see
http://www.dallasnews.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3574
Posted by: mabumford | November 17, 2009 4:30 PM
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Lol. Happily, our legislators are notorious equal-opportunity special-interest supporters. They will happily accept the backing of almost any group that will fund them.
I wonder how many legislators belong to the Planned Parenthood, NARAL, and various GBLT special interest groups? Did you know that they get funding and endorsement from those groups? Those groups couldn't possibly wield any power over the legislators in their group, could they, though...
Ryan Haber
Kensington, Maryland