Religious blackmail

Tweet

Once again the Catholic church is trying to blackmail it's members. In 2004, the Catholic church was trying to tell John Kerry that if he supported his non-Catholic constituents right to decide for themselves whether they should have an abortion or not; that he would not be permitted to take communion and risked excommunication. Now, in 2007, the Catholic Church is once again threatening one of it's members, Guiliani, with this same threat. This time Pope Benedict XVI and the Vatican are backing the local bishops on this issue. A Vatican spokesman has stated that "politicians who vote for abortion rights should exclude themselves from communion". The Pope himself, when he recently talked about Mexico's vote on abortion rights, stated "Catholic legislators in Mexico who had recently voted to allow abortion had effectively excommunicated themselves from the church". Politicians who have stated that they personally do not believe in abortion; but, will not deny others the right to decide this issue for themselves, should not be bullied or blackmailed by religious leaders. We are supposed to have separation of church and state here in the US. Some foreign religious leader, who is not even the leader of the religion of the majority of people in our country, should have no right to blackmail his followers for doing their job (representing the people who elect them to office). If the Catholic church wants to behave in this manner; then ALL Catholic churches in the US should forfeit their tax exempt status. If they want to involve themselves in American politics; let them pay the price. Personally, any religion that has to bully and threaten their members earns no respect from me.