Religion and politics are intersecting more often in our American discourse. Pat and I discussed the participation of church officials in the political process. I, as a member of a religious minority, feel quite strongly that some restrictions on political speech by religious officials are important to maintain a separation between church and state. None of this prevents clergy from participating in our “marketplace of ideas” because they are allowed to campaign issues and educate people about morality, God, and life. They just can’t publicly endorse a candidate or tell there followers to vote against a candidate. The penalty for crossing this line is pretty severe: loss of tax exempt status for the church.

Well, I bring this all up because Bush is apparently trying to convince the Vatican to apply pressure on Kerry because of his views on abortion. An excerpt from Josh Marshall’s post:

Now, a decision which leans in the direction of sanctioning Kerry would of course be helpful to the president. But a decision which led to denying communion to various Catholic politicians who dissent from various Church-positions could quickly get out of hand. So one of Karl Rove’s chief conservative Catholic allies, Deal W. Hudson — with whom he has recently been strategizing — has tried to simplify the issue.

Here’s a clip from the Post …

Karl Maurer, vice president of Catholic Citizens of Illinois, a conservative grass-roots group, said he would add sodomy and gay marriage to that list. Some liberal grass-roots groups have said they believe the church’s teachings against war and the death penalty are worthy of equal treatment.

“Once you open this door, what’s going to come rolling through it?” asked Deal W. Hudson, editor of the magazine Crisis and a key Catholic ally of the Bush administration. “Pretty soon, no one would be taking Communion.”

Hudson said he believes the denial of Communion should begin, and end, with Kerry. Even better, he said, would be if priests would read letters from the pulpit denouncing the senator from Massachusetts “whenever and wherever he campaigns as a Catholic.”

Hudson’s and Rove’s agenda here seems rather clear.

This is unfortunate because of the selective enforcement of church doctrine (if a bishop were to actually deny Kerry communion but not, say, Giuliani or Santorum). It’s also morally wrong, IMHO, because the church isn’t doing this for any moral reason but simply out of political partisanship (government money for religious charity, maybe?).

Update: Coincidently (or not), the front page story on Boston.com is Church gives pre-election scorecard. The church gives scorecards and identifies which candidates are the “good” ones vs. the “bad” ones… effectively endorsing one or the other. Fine line….