President of the House of Deputies Bonnie Anderson is quoted in the Boston Globe today:
Some leaders of mainline Protestant denominations, meanwhile, are fuming over Santorum’s accusation that their churches have “gone from the world of Christianity.’’
“It is upsetting and kind of bizarre that a candidate has gone out of his way to question the faith of about a quarter of the US population,’’ said Bonnie Anderson, the president of the House of Deputies of the Episcopal Church. Speaking as the top elected lay leader of the worldwide church and a member of a Michigan congregation, Anderson said, “People are tired of seeing faith used as a political weapon, and Mr. Santorum might want to ask himself whether he and other politicians are contributing to this problem. I think it is very possible that he is.’’
In taking on mainline Protestant churches, Santorum risks alienating a large group of people who include many general election swing voters. White mainline Protestants make up 18 percent of the US population, and historically African-American Protestant churches account for 7 percent, according to a survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. Evangelicals make up 26 percent, Catholics are 24 percent, and Mormons and Jews are each 1.7 percent, the survey found.
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God just told me that he wants Rick to shut up.
On this first Sunday in Lent, when the day’s gospel reading about Christ Jesus in the desert reminds us that he rejected the devil’s promptings to pursue power and wealth — two priorities of Rick Santorum’s life, by all appearances — he would do well, before accusing others of “bad theology,” “not being Christian” and “serving Satan,” to reflect on his behavior in the light of Luke 6:42, where Jesus says: “How can you think of saying, ‘Friend, let me help you get rid of that speck of sawdust in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the plank in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the plank in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck of sawdust in your friend’s eye.”
He would also do well to read the United States Constitution, in which America’s Founding Fathers explicitly outlawed using religion as a test qualifying or disqualifying anyone for public office, from the presidency on down, in this country. Article 6 says: “No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.” That’s the law of our land. In America, we elect a president to head the executive branch of our government, not an inquisitor or an ayatollah.