Rangel says issue of religion will 'come back to haunt us'

[babylonsister]

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/05/04/rangel-says-issue-of-religion-will-come-back-to-haunt-us/#more-6888

May 4, 2008
Rangel says issue of religion will 'come back to haunt us'
Posted: 12:15 PM ET


(CNN) — Hillary Clinton supporter Rep. Charles Rangel, D-New York, attacked the media coverage of Barack Obama’s former pastor on CNN’s “Late Edition”, blaming them for over-hyping the issue and implying that it could hurt the Democratic Party down the road.

“It's disgraceful that he has to make any explanation for anything,” the outspoken congressman told Wolf Blitzer. “The intrusion of the media and Republicans into the sacred relationship that worshipers have with their spiritual leaders, I think, is going to come back to haunt us.”

“To think that we have to go into the lives and the beliefs of rabbis and priests and ministers and imams is absolutely ridiculous,” he went on.

Rangel’s comments defending the privacy of Obama’s relationship with Reverend Jeremiah Wright goes against what even the Illinois senator has said about the issue. Last Sunday, Obama told Chris Wallace that it is a “legitimate political issue” and that he understands why people are discussing it.

But Rangel argued that the Democratic candidate’s beliefs are completely different than those of his pastor— and the media know it.

“Of course he's a candidate, and he doesn't want to take all of you on,” Rangel alleged. “If we've got to get into the Jerry Falwells and to the Robertsons and to the number of people that have what appears to other religions to be bizarre beliefs, we'll never get to the issues that America is concerned about.”

From: CNN's Peter Lanier

[tbyg52]

1. No kidding. I wish more people would start paying attention to that little part of the Constitution

that says "NO RELIGIOUS TEST"!

[dkf]

2. I think he doesn't like the idea that pastors and religious

leaders need to be pressured into being politically correct.

[MJJP21]

3. Barack should

Barack should come right out and say religious beliefs are a private affair and that he has no intention of leading the country down any one religious path instead following the guidelines of the founding fathers who were mostly Deistic in nature. Religion should not be an issue in the campaign and he should say as much. Rangel is right this issue is not going to go away unless he makes it go away and the sooner the better.

[liberal N proud]

4. I look back in time will prove that

Nearly every time religion became the driving force in government, the end result was a failed government.