Thursday, July 13, 2017

Politicians should not be cherry-picking from the Bible

Politicians should not be cherry-picking from the Bible: Distinctly Catholic: I do not support religious tests for office, to be sure, but it seems to me we have a right to know something about a candidate's worldview.

MGB:_Voters can use any criterion they want, including the religion of the candidate. Presumably members of the electoral college can do that too (since theirs is mostly a ministerial role, although if a party’s electors en masse picked a different candidate because of religion, it might form a constitutional crisis. It is Congress, who counts presidential votes, who is prohibited from a religious test in qualifying a President, sitting a member or approving a federal officer.

I like JFK’s remark about the direction of prelates. It applies to Kathleen Sebelius, who was misused by Burke for P.R. purposes, as were all Catholic pro-choice politicians, although this does not get them out of their obligation to tell the Church where it has it wrong on Roe. As experts in law, they are honor-bound to speak up, if only to counteract caustic voices like Bill Donohue. They should also proffer a Catholic solution, like higher refundable child tax credits. Why are non-Catholics in the lead on this?

Proverbs is a very didactic book. It is why conservatives love it so, because they can take it out of context and use the advice of a father to a son to paternalistically scold the poor. No surprise Cruz would go there. A religious test, like avoiding sloth, also cannot be used to deny benefits. Call the ACLU!


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