Sept 22^nd

 Religion and politics are an explosive mixture in this country where some people take both very seriously. Within a few minutes of my writing this Pope Francis will be arriving here and he won’t be greeted by cheers from everyone. Rick Santorum, a Catholic candidate for the Presidency, believes the Pope should not be discussing climate change as the Church does not have a credible history in science. Of course Santorum is quite certain that climate change is not influenced by mankind which, might possibly, influence his disagreement with Pope Francis on this issue. Santorum’s scientific credentials are nonexistent. One wonders if Santorum has ever heard of an Augustinian Monk named Gregor Mendel, probably not.

Then, moving from the ridiculous to the even more ridiculous, we see comments for that savant Bouncy-bouncy Limbaugh. He has spoken out quite forthrightly and wrong-headedly proclaiming the Pope is not a head of state and was not elected to his post, that he is a communist and should not be addressing a joint session of Congress. That is absurd. The Vatican is a State and is widely recognized as a state. We have an ambassador to The Holy See named Ken Hackett. Moreover, the Pope becomes Pope as a result of his election to that office by the College of Cardinals.

For Limbaugh, and for many others on the right, any concern for the poor that suggests the “haves” should have less so the “have nots” can have more is anathema and clearly communistic. A prominent Liberation Theologian, Brazilian Archbishop Helder Camara, said, “When I gave food to the poor they called me a Saint: when I asked why there were poor they called me a communist.” Has anything changed?

The news of the week concerns Ben Carson who has declared that a Muslim would be unfit to serve as President. Then after a considerable outcry from many—except for Donald Trump who declared that there were those who thought we already had a Muslim in the White House-- Carson modified his stance just slightly; he would agree if the Muslim would place loyalty to the constitution above “sharia law.” I wonder if Carson would be willing to place the Constitution above the Ten Commandments or other admonishments in the Old Testament. After all the Old Testament tells us that fathers should take disobedient sons to the elders so that they can be stoned to death, Deut. 21: 18-21. If you are a Biblical literalist would you support that? There are other Old Testament requirements such as the stoning to death of harlots that are probably not allowed by our constitution.

The ethical concerns of most religions evolve; some do not. Some believers accept aspects of their religious literature as metaphor; some cannot. These latter should not be in our body politic. The conundrum occurs when the Constitution’s Article 6, no religious test to hold office, allows for the election of someone whose intent it is to destroy our constitutional government and impose a different system.