Pulpit Politics: Religious Leaders Should Persuade, Not Pronounce

[cbayer]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/henry-g-brinton/religious-leaders-should-persuade-not-pronounce_b_1510849.html

Henry G. Brinton
Senior Pastor, Fairfax Presbyterian Church


Posted: 05/16/2012 6:00 pm

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is calling for repeal of contraception coverage mandated by the Department of Health and Human Services. Seeing this as a violation of religious liberty, the bishops have scheduled "A Fortnight for Freedom," June 21 to July 4. They want to focus "all the energies the Catholic community can muster" for religious liberty.

I understand the need to preserve freedom of religion. Problem is, a March 15 poll by the Public Religion Research Institute revealed that Catholics reject the idea that religious liberty is under siege, by a 57 to 38 percent margin. In addition, 65 percent of Catholics support the contraception requirements for publicly held corporations, and 60 percent of Catholics say religiously affiliated colleges should have to comply.

Religious leaders should focus their energies on persuading their own people, not on making pronouncements to the nation.

I've seen this in my denomination. Eight years ago, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) issued a resolution condemning the invasion of Iraq as "unwise, immoral and illegal." The stridency of the language bothered me, and I feared it would have a polarizing effect.

more at link

[longship]

1. It seems to me that this a double-edged sword.

Take the Catholics for instance. The bishops pronounce a position that a good percentage of their lay parishioners are against. No wonder they're having troubles filling their churches. We Democrats didn't do this to them.

Likewise the evangelical Protestants who are doing similar idiocy. Youths in their churches are leaving in droves. Again, they're doing it to themselves.

I have no sympathy for any of them. But it's their right to do it. However, if they practice partisanship from their pulpits, that violates IRS rules, and they deserve to lose their tax-free status. (I am generally for repealing all tax-free status for religion, but that's a different matter.)

Finally, I don't know how anybody could stop them from doing what they're doing without getting into sticky First Amendment issues.

[cbayer]

2. The tax free status prohibits promotion of specific candidates, but

there is no prohibition against promoting issues.

[longship]

3. Yup, I did write "partisan"

AFAIK, partisan advocacy is interpreted as advocating for a candidate, or at best slate of candidates.

Hell, we should just tax them all and be done with it. Certainly, the parsonage exclusion should be repealed, or severely restricted.

I would settle with strict enforcement of IRS rules. Unfortunately, no candidate would get elected advocating any such thing.

Face it. We're going to have to live with this system until either somebody has some guts to change the system or for people to realize that the system is rigged against the people, which it is in so damned many ways, including both corporations and religions.

It's too damned bad. The country would be in a lot better political shape without this stuff.

[cbayer]

4. Sorry about that. I missed that point.

As the daughter of a minister, I can't agree with you on the tax issues.

Without a parsonage, we would have been in a real fix. Our homes were not lavish by any means and a minister's salary is pretty meager in most instances.

We also received professional courtesy from doctors.

My other argument is that as long as the government is not supplying the kinds of services desperately needed by the worst off among us, we have to continue to rely on religious institutions to do so. They couldn't possibly do that if the tax laws were changed.

The issue for me is how to detect and stop abuses of the current system.

[longship]

5. Yes, and that's where reasonable people can come to an agreement

For instance: The parsonage exemption should not be unlimited. Charity maybe tax exempt as long as it's not used as a vehicle for converting people. Stuff like that. One expects compromises in these things.

But I strenuously object to these mega-church pastors living the life of Riley on tax free parsonage allowance. It is being grievously abused. No limos, no private jets. No $100,000 air conditioned dog houses. Let's start with that. I think reasonable people would agree. The poor people being bilked by the pastors doing that shit. And they call themselves Christians.

Also, I have a very high contempt for the faith healing scams, like Benny Hinn, and Peter Popoff. They're the scum of the earth. It is just too damned bad we don't have anything like Monty Python' Church Police.

Sorry. Got into a bit of a rant there.

[cbayer]

6. agree on all counts, longship

[meow2u3]

7. I have a serious problem with bishops shoving right-wing ideology down my throat

and having the nerve to try to pass it off as Church doctrine. In Scripture, Jesus told off the Pharisees when they condemned the disciples for eating with dirty hands instead of following men's rules.

http://old.usccb.org/nab/bible/matthew/matthew15.htm

1
1 Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said,
2
"Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? 2 They do not wash (their) hands when they eat a meal."
3
He said to them in reply, "And why do you break the commandment of God 3 for the sake of your tradition?
4
For God said, 'Honor your father and your mother,' and 'Whoever curses father or mother shall die.'
5
4 But you say, 'Whoever says to father or mother, "Any support you might have had from me is dedicated to God,"
6
need not honor his father.' You have nullified the word of God for the sake of your tradition.
7
Hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy about you when he said:
8
'This people honors me with their lips, 5 but their hearts are far from me;
9
in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts.'"
10
He summoned the crowd and said to them, "Hear and understand.
11
It is not what enters one's mouth that defiles that person; but what comes out of the mouth is what defiles one."
12
Then his disciples approached and said to him, "Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?"
13
He said in reply, 6 "Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted.
14
Let them alone; they are blind guides (of the blind). If a blind person leads a blind person, both will fall into a pit."
15
Then Peter 7 said to him in reply, "Explain (this) parable to us."
16
He said to them, "Are even you still without understanding?
17
Do you not realize that everything that enters the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled into the latrine?
18
But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile.
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8 For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, unchastity, theft, false witness, blasphemy.
20
These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile."

And...http://old.usccb.org/nab/bible/luke/luke11.htm

45
Then one of the scholars of the law 12 said to him in reply, "Teacher, by saying this you are insulting us too."
46
And he said, "Woe also to you scholars of the law! You impose on people burdens hard to carry, but you yourselves do not lift one finger to touch them.
47
Woe to you! You build the memorials of the prophets whom your ancestors killed.
48
Consequently, you bear witness and give consent to the deeds of your ancestors, for they killed them and you do the building.

The USCCB seems to have themselves forgotten Jesus' teachings, but instead follow the un-Christlike example of the ancient Pharisees and religious leaders who eventually had Him crucified. Now the Vatican leadership is crucifying Catholics faithful to the teachings of Christ!
They've been using their authority to load the faithful with oppressive burdens (the pay, pray, and obey--or else! doctrine); demanding blind, unquestioning compliance to far-right ideology, under the guise of orthodoxy, threatening the faithful with censures ranging from admonition to excommunication to interdict (shunning) if we even ask for an explanation; and taking money from, and doing the bidding of, secret societies right-wing cults new church movements such as Opus Dei, the Legion of Christ, all while protecting a criminal, sacrilegeous faction of clergy (does the sexual abuse crisis ring a bell?) at the expense of the most vulnerable. And they wonder why the Church is losing members in droves, and their moral authority to boot. Instead of taking a long gaze in the mirror and heal the church, they've redoubled their efforts to turn what's supposed to be the universal (that's what Catholic means--universal, open to everybody) Church and turn it into a heretical, rightist sect of their own making.

[cbayer]

8. Are you a member of the Catholic church now?

Do you think there are things that can be done by parishioners that would cause the USCCB to change at all?

[meow2u3]

10. Yes, I am. And I'm voting with my wallet instead of my feet

I don't want to have to leave my faith just because of all the political BS. That's exactly what the conservatives want: for us moderates and/or liberals to vote with our feet. We need to teach the fascists a lesson in Christian charity. AFAIC, they're the ones who strayed.

[cbayer]

11. That makes sense to me. I am glad you have found a solution that makes sense for you.

[longship]

9. A very thoughtful post

You'd think that the guys would read the damned thing. After all, it is called The New Testement.

I have long since stopped quoting chapter, verse to the ideological religious. It rarely does any good. The usually trot out yet another chapter-verse that counters.

Lather, rinse, repeat. It's a nearly hopeless technique from any side of an issue.

However, your post is on target.

Many thanks.