Bishops flex muscle, see opportunities

[defendandprotect]

Bishops flex muscle, see opportunities

AP …
Jeanne Cummings – Mon Nov 23, 4:18 am ET

Emboldened by their success in inserting restrictive abortion language into the House health care bill, Roman Catholic bishops say they’ve found a lobbying model that could provide them a louder voice in future policy debates.
“It was a good example of how we, as a conference, can work together to have a positive influence on legislation,” Bishop William Murphy, head of the domestic justice and human development committee of the U.S. Conference of Bishops, told the Catholic News Service last week.
Success in the House came after the church ran a classic lobbying operation: deploying paid staff to Capitol Hill, tapping influential bishops to make private appeals to key congressional leaders and distributing bulletin inserts to 19,000 parishes with easy instructions — and sample wording — for sending a message to local representatives.
But it remains to be seen if the bishops can have the same results as the broader health bill moves forward or on more complex life issues such as embryonic stem cell research.
In the health care debate, for instance, the bishops have consistently identified three priority areas: abortion, religious conscience clauses and immigrant rights.



http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20091123/pl_politico/29829

[ellie]

1. WTF?

God, I hate these assholes.

[joeybee12]

2. Tax the bastards....n/t

[potisok]

3. Separation of Church and State ??????????

"distributing bulletin inserts to 19,000 parishes with easy instructions — and sample wording — for sending a message to local representatives"

I do not understand how this is allowed,

[Odin2005]

4. TAX THEM!

[GodlessBiker]

5. They should be allowed to do this, but not tax free!

[defendandprotect]

8. Do you fail to understand the reasoning behind Separation of Church & State? ....

or do you want a theocracy?

[GodlessBiker]

9. You're going to jail religious leaders who ask Congress to pass certain laws?

Religious people and religious leaders should be free to lobby, but they should not be free to do it with tax-free contributions to a church.

[defendandprotect]

10. No . . . NOT to "lobby" especially with tax-exempt dollars . . ..

And where did YOU get this idea that anyone wants to "jail religious leaders who ask Congress

to pass certain laws" -- ??????????

No -- representatives of a CHURCH -- should not be free to lobby Congress.

And, certainly NOT when they are seeking LIMITATIONS on human rights for women and/or

homosexuals -- or any other human being!!

We are always willing and eager to hear of expansion of human rights/civil rights --

but not the reverse.

[QC]

6. They are agents of a foreign government seeking to influence legislation.

They should have to register as foreign lobbyists.

[msongs]

7. too bad they didn't stand up to hitler when they had the chance nt