Poll on role of religion in politics shows huge gap between the US and its

[dArKeR]

allies

Religious devotion sets the US apart from some of its closest allies. Americans profess unquestioning belief in God and support mixing faith and politics at much higher rates than people in other countries, AP-Ipsos polling found.

Respondents in Western Europe, where Pope Benedict XVI has complained that growing secularism has left churches unfilled on Sundays, were the least devout among the countries surveyed.

Only Mexicans come close to Americans in embracing faith among the 10 countries polled for The Associated Press by Ipsos. However, unlike Americans, Mexicans strongly object to clergy lobbying lawmakers, in line with Mexico's historic opposition to church influence.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2005/06/07/2003258313

[Mythsaje]

1. I have a theory

about this. Europe has seen, first hand, what the result of religion's influence in politics has been. They had CENTURIES of this crap, and, while our forefathers fled to get away from it, the Europeans were forced to confront their history head on.

[dArKeR]

2. A few European friends tell me, "The churches are empty."

Maybe they learned about the child molestations a long time too!

[Mythsaje]

4. I figure

it's been going on for centuries. It wouldn't surprise me that they figured it out a long time before we did.

[dArKeR]

3. Pope Tells Journalists To Search For 'Truth'

Pope Tells Journalists To Search For 'Truth'
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/04/23/AR2005042301372.html?nav=rss_world/europe

The Vatican has sought the intervention of the U.S. State Department to declare Pope Benedict XVI immune from a sexual abuse lawsuit filed here, according to court documents.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3201751

Vatican said Monday there was no investigation under way of allegations that the Mexican founder of a conservative religious order sexually abused seminarians
http://www.winktv.com/x466.xml?URL=http://localhost/APWIREFEED/d8a8vi600.xml

Vatican Reportedly Clears Priest
Vaca, a former priest, is one of at least eight men in Mexico and the United States who have accused the Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado of molesting them when they were teenage seminary students in the 1940s, '50s and '60s.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/22/AR2005052200966.html?nav=rss_world/europe

Despite the horrific drumbeat of child molestation revelations, however, sensible Catholics hoping for a more transparent and less sexually repressed church shouldn't hold their breath. The new pope is not only a longtime leader of vicious church attacks on "evil" gays, he also has shamefully blamed the molestation scandal on the media.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/thenation/20050524/cm_thenation/20050606scheer0524_1

Vatican Accused of Child Molestation Cover-Up
http://atheism.about.com/b/a/098516.htm

Survivors Network says the overwhelming majority of its members have never sued and are too traumatized to do so. They say they adopted their tactics after bishops promised for years to take action against guilty clergy, then never did.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7463011/page/2

Pope's Nazi past
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7576505 /

[Mythsaje]

5. Hey, Mister Pope

Quoth the Raven

"Eat my shorts."