Right On, William Donohue!

The Catholic bishops have received some credit for helping to get an amendment passed which would forbid federal funding of abortion in the health care bill. Predictably, this act of the church calling upon the state to achieve a particular moral outcome has been viewed by some as a violation of the supposed separation of American politics and religion.

William Donohue (thank you, sir and bless you, sir) recently made the point (one I spent an entire chapter on in The End of Secularism ) that American secularist liberals have not exactly been consistent in their opposition to religious participation in the formation of public policy:

The following is a partial list of religious groups that want abortion coverage in the health care bill: Rabbinical Assembly, Women’s League for Conservative Judaism, Episcopal Church, Society for Humanistic Judaism, Jewish Reconstructionist Federation, Union for Reform Judaism, Central Conference of American Rabbis, North American Federation of Temple Youth, United Church of Christ, United Methodist Church, Unitarian Universalist, Presbyterian Church (USA), Women of Reform Judaism, Society for Humanistic Judaism, Church of the Brethren Women’s Caucus, Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association, Lutheran Women’s Caucus, Christian Lesbians Out, YWCA.

Stephen Carter has said it. Richard John Neuhaus has said it. Religion from the left “speaks truth to power” while religion on the right is nothing but ugly “theocracy.” The double standard continues. It’s been running strong for at least four to five decades.