America's Religious War

By Bonnie Erbe

We're at war, all right, but not just against terrorism. We're fighting an even more massive and ultimately divisive conflict: our internecine battle over America's religiosity and the extent to which we want our secular laws dictated by certain religious beliefs.

Example A: Went down to observe the abortion-rights march in Washington last weekend. Stopped at the spot along Pennsylvania Avenue where pro-life opponents of abortion had reserved a permit to protest. The sprinkling of protesters perorated evangelical themes as wave after wave after wave of marchers walked by. Very few marchers carried signs with religious messages except for the occasional proclamation, "Catholic for Choice," or "Please, Lord, Deliver me from your followers."

The pro-life protesters, on the other hand, relied heavily on images of Jesus. One sported a huge picture of Jesus with the caption, "Don't Kill Jesus' Children." Another carried a sign with evangelical overtones proclaiming the merits of murdering abortion providers. (Of course, not all evangelicals support this view. Let's hope quite few do. What's shocking is that even one would feel free to publicly display a sign of this nature.)

Example B: Last week's pronouncement by a top Vatican cardinal ordering priests to deny communion to Roman Catholic politicians who support abortion rights. Cardinal Francis Arinze stopped short of saying whether it was right for presidential candidate John Kerry to receive communion (Kerry subsequently did), but rarely in recent times have church officials felt so free to meddle in the political realm. One Catholic friend asked, "What's next? Denial of communion for Catholics who use birth control?"

Whether they are Buddhist monks, Wiccans, Episcopal priests, Methodist ministers, followers of the Dalai Lama or rabbis, etc., church officials ask for nothing short of armed conflict when they meddle in politics.