One of the most disturbing things to come out of the current presidential election is the growing tendency of liberal politicians, activists, and organizations to use various means, including government agencies, to try to shut down opposing views. They’ve even tried to use the U.S. Department of Justice to get a perfectly legitimate political ad off the airwaves. For one such organization, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the preferred agency is the Internal Revenue Service.

In a column yesterday, AU staffer Rob Boston essentially threatened the Catholic Church with revocation of tax exempt status for the crime of stating its pro-life stance, and its implications, from the pulpit. He writes:

Two Texas bishops have released a letter informing their congregants whom they can and can’t vote for and remain faithful members of the Roman Catholic Church.

The missive by Bishop Kevin Farrell of the Diocese of Dallas and Bishop Kevin Vann of the Diocese of Fort Worth is being read in all Catholic churches in the area. It states in part, “To vote for a candidate who supports the intrinsic evil of abortion or ‘abortion rights’ when there is a morally acceptable alternative would be to cooperate in the evil – and, therefore, morally impermissible.”

Over the past several years, the Catholic Church has been struggling with the question of voting as it relates to its most essential moral teaching. What the bishops wrote to their own congregants is, near as I can tell, in line with the current state of that teaching regarding abortion. It’s a view of the franchise that is held by millions of people who could never bring themselves to vote for a pro-abortion candidate. But in the world of liberal political advocacy that AU swims in, that is a violation of the tax code:

The letter never mentions Democratic candidate Barack Obama or his opponent, John McCain, by name. But you’d have to be very dense indeed not to get the message. Farrell and Vann go on to assert that other issues traditionally important to Catholics – social justice, care for the poor, health care – need not be seriously considered this year. Instead, Catholics must base their vote on abortion.

In fact, the bishops never tell people to vote for McCain. They might, based on the church’s teaching, vote for a third party candidate. They might decide that their conscience wouldn’t allow them to vote at all. (Catholic writer Mark Shea seems to be taking this approach.) But in the world of AU, if you make a statement of moral principle, and allow people to draw their own conclusions, that must mean you’re endorsing a candidate, and that’s a no-no.

Oh, and you might also notice that, in addition to considering themselves the ultimate arbiter of church-state relations, Boston is apparently looking to substitute AU wisdom for Catholic teaching. The church is now apparently not allowed to elevate abortion as a moral concern, because that offends AU’s sense of political propriety.

Nicole LeBlanc, a member of Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Dallas, was among them.

“As a Catholic, we’re taught about being independent moral agents with free will,” LeBlanc said. “That letter from the bishops is basically telling us that if we vote for a candidate who supports abortion rights, we are basically immoral and our souls are imperiled.”

Ms. LeBlanc is evidently a cafeteria Catholic who doesn’t like the church telling her what its stance on moral issues and their implications are for everyday life (including voting). So she stomped out. She’s held up by Boston as a hero who refused to hear the teaching of her church, and instead did what any good liberal should do–close her ears and cry, “I can’t hear you!”

PLEASE NOTE: Ms. LeBlanc has told me via the comments that Boston was incorrect in his reading of the Dallas Morning News story from which he got her name, and that she did not leave the service, nor would she. He has corrected his mistake at the AU blog, and I am happy to do so here as well. My apologies to Ms. LeBlanc for the misdirected harsh words, and for impugning her faith in any way.

Now back to our regularly scheduled post:

Americans United Executive Director Barry W. Lynn said the bishops are walking a fine line.

“This is clearly an attempt on the part of these bishops to do an end-run around the federal tax law ban on electioneering by churches,” Lynn told the Morning News.

Uh, no. I know that Rev. Lynn, a UCC minister, is well aware that his own denomination is full of advice for its members regarding voting. But that advice invariably places the UCC on the side of whoever is the most liberal candidate in a given election. The never come out and endorse, of course–they walk a fine line. But the political preferences of UCC leadership are absolutely crystal clear. The Catholic bishops just made the mistake of emphasizing the wrong issues and the wrong stances.

When it comes to the presidential contest, it would be difficult to read the Farrell-Vann letter and the one issued by [Scranton, Pa. bishop Joseph] Martino as anything but an indirect endorsement of McCain. If the bishops now take the next step and issue “voter guides” telling where the candidates stand on abortion, they will be in clear violation of federal tax law, and an IRS investigation would be in order.

And there’s the threat.

I made clear a couple of weeks ago that I have no use for clergy endorsing candidates from the pulpit. But at this point, AU is looking to use the taxing power of the government as a threat to prevent Christian leaders from giving guidance to their congregations based on the clear moral teaching of their church. If that isn’t a liberal organization trying to use the state to interfere with the life of a church in pursuit of its political goals, I don’t know what is. I guess church-state separation is only important when your political preferences are being supported.

Advertisement
Privacy Settings