Vatican, U.S. Fundamentalists Join Forces in Unholy Alliance

[drakonyx]

Several Catholic churches and organizations have filed suit against the Obama administration over a mandate that insurance companies provide coverage for birth control.

This is not your father's Catholic Church ... it's your great-grandfather's.

These days, the Catholic Church is increasingly forging ties with the religious right that go far beyond their longtime agreement on abortion. Want evidence? Just listen to Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, issuing a call to arms against the federal government.

"We are called to be very active, very informed and very involved in politics," Dolan said, apparently ignoring the First Amendment the same way the church of old was wont to ignore the human rights of people who didn't accept its teachings. "In the public square, I hate to tell you, the days of fat, balding Irish bishops are over."The degree to which the Vatican enforces its beliefs upon parishioners is a matter for the church, the faithful and their god. But when it seeks to enforce those beliefs on the American public at large - and tries to play the victim in a make-believe war on religion - it crosses the line.

Read the full story on http://www.theprovocation.net/2012/05/vatican-us-fundamentalists-join-forces.html.

[CurtEastPoint]

1. Crossed the line long ago. I'm ashamed of them. BTW, the link...

doesn't work but this one does. Weird. http://www.theprovocation.net/2012/05/vatican-us-fundamentalists-join-forces.html

[patrice]

8. Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics in Washington also obtained WH Visitor Logs listing who

amongst the national religious coalitions visited Bush and how many times during the build-up for Bush's War.

http://www.citizensforethics.org/

Those lists were linked to their site; I downloaded but have had a systems crash since then, haven't gone back to get them again yet.

[jpbollma]

2. Every time I read about them I am overcome with anger

I certainly hope all progressives leave this monstrosity. If only they joined forces to end war under GW Bush.

[libinnyandia]

3. A few weeks ago I went to the website of my hometown parish and saw a Glenn Beck video

on the site. I had thought about going to church there but I guess not.

[patrice]

4. Check this out,

http://www.tfp.org/

[meow2u3]

14. TFP is a traditionalist Catholic cult disguised as a charity

They seem to want to impose an Inquisition-era version of Canon Law on every American, abolishing the Constitution. They even want to outlaw blasphemy.

If they outlaw blasphemy, the fundies and the pedophile abetters would end up in prison because they use God's name to cover up, and commit, unspeakable crimes.

[patrice]

5. My theory: They tried to buy SCOTUS in coalition with Fundie End Timers supporting Bush's War

I believe The Order of the Golden Spur was even HQed in Eric Prince (Blackwater -> Xe) 's town for a while, Colorado Springs, hometown of the Air Academy which apparently was in danger of being co-opted by Fundie officer-candidates for at least a while.

It's making good on all of that that is causing them to double-down now.

[spanone]

6. time to rethink those tax exemptions....we taxpayers are subsidizing them

[tanyev]

7. Gosh, remember when fundamentalists thought the Catholic Church was the whore of Babylon?

Seems like it was just yesterday.

[regnaD kciN]

16. Actually, it WAS just yesterday...

Fundies still think Catholicism is a Satanic sect; they just don't mind cutting deals when it benefits them. Fundies also think that the Jews are all going to be sent off to Hell at the Second Coming, but they aren't above making common-cause with those Hell-Bound Hebrews when it comes to foreign policy they think will bring about that Second Coming.

[cr8tvlde]

18. and Today and Tomorrow, as well. "My enemy's enemy is my friend"

... but technically not all the Jews will perish ... 144,000 will convert to Christianity during the Apocolypse and be spared. That momentous event which of course fries the entire population unsaved or unconverted of the globe in a Hell on Earth. The Remnant is to seed the New Age of Peace. Multiples of 12 ... the 12 tribes.

At what point the True Gentile Christians magically ascend up into the clouds is heavily debated within the Fundies...before or after the Apocolypse.

Either way, then Jesus comes down and He's left with a pretty big mess and some converted Jews to reign for 1000 Years of Peace. Hard to make this stuff up.

[ohheckyeah]

9. Really?

"We are called to be very active, very informed and very involved in politics,"

Called by whom to be very involved in politics? Jesus wasn't. The disciples weren't. The early church wasn't. That isn't the calling of the church at all.

[Recursion]

10. We need more Jim Wallises and Gregory Bolyes

I hate seeing Christianity reduced to this.

[hifiguy]

11. I am an atheist and was nominally raised Lutheran, but even I

know that John XXIII has to be spinning in his crypt fast enough to generate a lot of electricity.

[DearAbby]

12. Oh Hell Yeah!

[meow2u3]

13. We need to alert Americans United or the White House on their illegal politicking

Threaten Dolan and the other right-wing dioceses with revocation of their tax-exempt status. Tell the bishops that we're not going to take their tax dodging and blackmail lying down. Either get out of partisan politics or pay taxes--including back taxes!

http://www.au.org/
http://www.au.org/get-involved/report-a-violation

[regnaD kciN]

15. Since we live in a democracy...

...no religious body can "enforce those beliefs on the American public at large" unless said public at large votes for them, or for candidates who endorse them.

(And, by the way, the thing that makes this different from "your great-grandfather's" Roman Catholic Church is that, back then, when the clergy spoke on politics, the laity fell in line. Not anymore. I suspect Dolan is about to find out that the days that bishops could dictate the faithful's behavior in the voting booth are just as over.)

[Dawson Leery]

17. The Vatican and Evangelicals are making an overt attempt

to subvert our free society.