Undue Influence

[RANT]
I am old enough to remember the political campaign for the 1960 presidential election, it was a major campaign issue that Kennedy was a Catholic. The big issue was if the Catholic Church would have undue influence on Kennedy, I remember at the time the Bishops saying that they recognize that in the interest of government elected officials might have to go against church teachings as they govern.

Jump forward 60 years.

Bishops’ move to press Biden not to take Communion reflects power struggle in split Catholic Church 
The Conversation
By Steven P. Millies
May 5, 2021


President Joe Biden is the highest-profile and most powerful lay Catholic in American life today – but he also holds policy views that diverge from many Catholic bishops. And that is causing some problems.

The dilemma looks like this. The Roman Catholic Church teaches that abortion is the taking of a human life, no different from murder, and so grave a sin that it incurs an automatic excommunication. Yet prominent Roman Catholics in public life – including Democrats such as Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi – support abortion rights. It has led to concern from some Catholic bishops that a contradictory picture of Catholic faith is being presented to the public.

In response, U.S. bishops reportedly are preparing a pastoral statement expected to be released in June that would instruct Catholics about when they should and should not receive Communion. The effect of that document would be to exclude Catholics like Biden and Pelosi from full participation in the church.

This is really blackmail. For a religious person to be told that they cannot take part in the sacraments is exerting undue influence, or the equivalent of arm twisting against politicians.

Right now the arm twisting is focused on abortion. In the past it has been focused on us. I know for a fact that when we were discussing the non-discrimination bills the politicians kept on asking what was the Catholic Church position on the bill.

As the number of religious people in the U.S. decline their influence is increasing. Politicians fear the political weight of an organized block of voters giving them an unproportionate  amount of power compared to their size.

The Republicans packed the court with evangelical Christians who put the Bible above the Constitution. The most radical Supreme Court justice is Amy Coney Barrett who was placed on the bench just days before the election and was nominated by evangelical Christians organizations because she is anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-abortion. She has said that she would overturn Roe vs. Wade.

The article goes on to say…

The reason the issue has come up now in the U.S. appears to be more about concerns among bishops over their waning influence.

The conservative Bishops are out of touch with their parishioner and is an attempt to win back their authority over the parishioners.

It also could backfire as an attempt to wrestle back authority for U.S. bishops. A preelection debate over the sincerity of Biden’s Catholicism proved divisive among the faithful. Biden, through baptism and participation in the other sacraments, is a Catholic. There is no question about that.

Because they reflect intense divisions in the church, these efforts to disqualify the president from the sacraments and the church are, I believe, a threat to church authority today. Nothing that furthers or deepens those divisions will help the bishops or the Catholics that they lead.

The decline in attendance is partly caused by the conservatives themselves…

'Allergic reaction to US religious right' fueling decline of religion, experts say
Percentage of churchgoing Americans is steadily falling, and the swirl of rightwing politics and Christianity is playing a key role
The Guardian
By Adam Gabbatt
April 5, 2021


Fewer than half of Americans belong to a house of worship, a new study shows, but religion – and Christianity in particular – continues to have an outsize influence in US politics, especially because it is declining faster among Democrats than Republicans.

Just 47% of the US population are members of a church, mosque or synagogue, according to a survey by Gallup, down from 70% two decades ago – in part a result of millennials turning away from religion but also, experts say, a reaction to the swirling mix of rightwing politics and Christianity pursued by the Republican party.

The evidence comes as Republicans in some states have pursued extreme “Christian nationalist” policies, attempting to force their version of Christianity on an increasingly uninterested public.

In an article on the NBC website they look in to where all the anti-trans bills are coming from…

Ehardt worked with the Alliance Defending Freedom in crafting the measure, The Idaho Press reported. Founded in 1994 by Christian conservatives, the Arizona-based group has provided legal counsel for a variety of efforts to curtail LGBTQ rights, from defending gay-marriage bans to ensuring the right of businesses to refuse LGBTQ customers. Perhaps most notably, the ADF defended Jack Phillips, the owner of a Colorado bakery, Masterpiece Cakeshop, in his 2018 Supreme Court case over his refusal to sell a wedding cake to a gay couple.

It is the ADF that is representing the cis-gender women in the Connecticut lawsuit against trans athletes.

In October 2019, three months before sponsoring the bill, Deutsch [A South Dakota state Republican] attended the Summit on Protecting Children From Sexualization in Washington, D.C. Panelists included representatives from the ADF, the Heritage Foundation, the Family Policy Alliance and the Kelsey Coalition, a group of parents who claim their children have been harmed by transgender health care practices. Attendees were given a gender resource guide for parents detailing how to oppose trans-affirming policies in their schools and communities, according to The Washington Post.

As religions decline their political influence increasing… it is time to stand up to them and break the strangle hold they have over politicians.
[/RANT]

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I just want to point out that not all religions are involved in politics some do stay out of politics, it seems like the affirming churches are not exerting undue influence on the politicians.