Ten Top Abuses of Religion and Politics

[Freedom_from_Chains]

The Interfaith Alliance has compiled a very helpful list, reprinted in its entirety on the flip, with links to press accounts of ten egregious examples of abuses by pols and religious leaders this year. The list includes Democrats who in a misguided, in my view, effort to ape Republican excesses in this area, are contributing to the the debasement of basic ideas of separation of church and state and respect for religious pluralism. I would greatly prefer polititians who stand for respect for religious difference among citizens, instead of pandering to the values of religious supremacism.
During the presidential campaign of 1960, John F. Kennedy took the question of his Catholicism to a group of protestant ministers, many of whom were concerned about possible Vatican influence. Kennedy not only addressed that, but the wider question of religion and public life. He spoke of core "values" we rarely hear from political leaders these days: Kennedy valued:

"an America where the separation of church and state is absolute - where no Catholic prelate would tell the President (should he be Catholic) how to act ... For while this year it may be a Catholic against whom the finger of suspicion is pointed, in other years it has been, and may someday be again, a Jew - or a Quaker - or a Unitarian - or a Baptist ... Today I may be the victim - but tomorrow it may be you - until the whole fabric of our harmonious society is ripped at a time of great national peril."

1. KANSAS ATTORNEY GENERAL USES PASTORS TO FUNDRAISE
Attorney General Phill Kline often talks about his Christian faith. But a leaked memo shows how Kline has mixed religion and money as part of an aggressive strategy to raise campaign funds and win re-election. "Get the pastor to invite 5 `money people,' whom he knows can help," Kline told his campaign staff in a detailed, four-page memo titled "church efforts." The anonymously leaked e-mail memo provides a rare, behind-the-scenes look at political fundraising and the methods the incumbent Republican is using as he faces Democratic challenger Paul Morrison, the Johnson County district attorney...."The Goal and Objective - numbers," Kline wrote to campaign workers Bill Roche and Sylvia Chapman in the Aug. 8 e-mail. "Please try to get me in front of the largest crowds as we move through the remainder of the campaign schedule."


(con't) http://www.talk2action.org/story/2006/11/3/14924/5289