Religion & Spirituality

Santorum can't be blamed for wanting to throw a little red meat to conservatives as he seeks to maintain his momentum in the race for the Republican presidential nomination. But he is as wrong on his theology as he is on the science.

Larry B. Stammer,  Los Angeles (CA) Times

Photo: Matt Stamey, Associated Press

It has long been a maxim that mixing religion and politics can spell trouble. So when Rick Santorum told a partisan crowd in Columbus, Ohio, recently that President Obama's worldview was based on a "phony theology" that drives "radical environmentalists," he must have known his comments would reverberate far beyond his conservative political base.

Santorum was speaking of efforts to forestall the worst effects of climate change through controls on greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels, and policies aimed at encouraging the development of renewable sources of energy. Obama, he said, was putting the Earth before the needs of humans. "It's about some phony ideal, some phony theology."

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• Father Marcel Guarnizo, at St. John Neumann Catholic Church in Gaithersburg, MD, reportedly told the daughter when she approached him for Holy Communion: “I cannot give you communion because you live with a woman and that is a sin according to the church.”
• Clobbering "Biblical" Gay Bashing
• Special Report | Catholic Bishops' Ongoing Abuse of Human Sexuality

Human Rights Campaign

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A Maryland priest denied Communion to a lesbian at her own mother’s funeral and even left the altar during her eulogy. The disturbing story was reported by The New Civil Rights Movement and picked up by the Huffington Post.

Father Marcel Guarnizo, at St. John Neumann Catholic Church in Gaithersburg, reportedly told the daughter when she approached him for Holy Communion: “I cannot give you communion because you live with a woman and that is a sin according to the church.”

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Related:

Clobbering "Biblical" Gay Bashing, Rev. Mark Sandlin, Believe Out Loud

• St. Paul has something to tell you, “...you have no excuse, whoever you are, when you judge others; for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things.” (Romans 2:1).
• Christianity and “Biblical” Hatefulness

Special Report | Catholic Bishops' Ongoing Abuse of Human Sexuality, Week of February 12, David Culver, Ed., Evergreene Digest
From marriage to contraception, the tax-exempt Catholic Church wants to run the public agenda.
 

• In offering the bishops an "accommodation" they refused to accept on a contraception provision of the new healthcare law, the Obama administration effectively exposed the powerlessness of the bishops when the rest of the church rose to accept the offer.
• With Catholic leaders and churchgoers turning their backs on the bishops, the men who rule the church are watching their political power wane.
• What War on Religion?

Adele M. Stan, AlterNet

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In politics, it's said, the perception of power amounts to power itself. If that's the case, then the political power of the U.S. Catholic Bishops has long been based on little more than perception, that of an all-powerful church, an idea too often advanced by a corporate media romanced by the clerics' silken vestments and those great stone piles in which they preach. But among the people of the church, the bishops' pronouncements on matters of sex and politics don't amount to a hill of beans.

Politicians and media have long known this, but the perception remained that there was a "Catholic vote," one the bishops could deliver, even if those voters ignored the bishops' backward sexual edicts. But the events of the past week reveal that the bishops command no one, not even the leaders of Catholic institutions.

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What War on Religion? Stephanie Mencimer, Mother Jones

• If Obama is hell-bent on waging battle with religious institutions—as his critics allege—he sure has a funny way of showing it.
• Far from waging war on religious organizations, Obama has largely left in place the federal faith-based infrastructure created by President George W. Bush. He has also increased the amount of federal dollars flowing to religious groups...Under Obama, Catholic religious charities alone have received more than $650 million...US Conf,Of Catholic Bishops got $81.2 million (a raise from Bush's $71.8m)
• Special Project | President Obama, Change we can believe in?

• If Obama is hell-bent on waging battle with religious institutions—as his critics allege—he sure has a funny way of showing it.
• Far from waging war on religious organizations, Obama has largely left in place the federal faith-based infrastructure created by President George W. Bush. He has also increased the amount of federal dollars flowing to religious groups...Under Obama, Catholic religious charities alone have received more than $650 million...US Conf,Of Catholic Bishops got $81.2 million (a raise from Bush's $71.8m)
• Special Project | President Obama, Change we can believe in?

Stephanie Mencimer, Mother Jones

Submitted by Evergreene Digest Contributing Editor Lydia Howell

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For months, Catholic religious leaders have waged a PR campaign criticizing the Obama administration for allegedly infringing on their religious liberties. They've blasted, among other things, an administration requirement (since rescinded) that institutions affiliated with religious organizations offer contraceptive coverage in their health insurance plans. Religious conservatives are also fuming that the administration declined to renew a contract with the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) to provide services for human trafficking victims because the group refused to provide referrals for contraception and abortion to sexual assault victims.

Gary Marx, the executive director of Ralph Reed's Faith and Freedom Coalition, sent out a fundraising letter this month urging people to sign a petition fighting Obama's "war on religion," writing: "The Obama Administration's actions are evidence of a pattern of hostility towards religious institutions and an antipathy to uphold and protect the nation's most fundamental founding principles."

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Special Project | President Obama, Change we can believe in? Week of February 19, Jeanette Eastman, Associate Editor, Evergreene Digest
The key point is that Obama is a president who hasn’t merely tried but failed to achieve what he promised to achieve. He has deliberately and publicly worked to do the opposite of what he promised on key issues.
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