“It’s revealing that when Congress and the President have debated such topics as same-sex "marriage," partial-birth-abortion, and religious liberty around, these bishops remained silent, despite our church's clear stances on these issues. Where were the bishops’ voices when Congress and the President debated matters of the soul?
Same-sex marriage is a matter of the soul? Why, I thought it was blatant discrimination! Partial-birth abortion is a matter of the soul? Why, I thought no such medical practice existed (for those whose "harumph"-meter suddenly went off the charts, it is called Intact dilation and extraction [IDE]; birth has nothing to do with this quite legal and ethical medical procedure)? The question of "religious liberty" to which Tooley refers is beyond my reckoning, although it might be prayer in public schools, or putting the Ten Commandments on public property in direct violation of federal court orders, or perhaps something I may have missed all together. What has Tooley so up in arms is that the Council of Bishops has condemned the President's budget for fiscal year 2008 because of its neglect for programs to aid the poor.
I am quite sure Tolley is correct to say that spending on social programs, including entitlements such as SSI and Medicare, are at historically high levels; however, these are due to structural problems in the programs in question (including a lack of serious health care policy at the national level, that puts an undo burden on Medicare). Of course, one could also argue that, if it is true that social welfare spending is at an all-time high, what does this say about the vaunted Bush economy? None of this addresses the question of whether the comparison Tooley makes are in constant dollars or adjusted to account for inflation. You see, spending on everything is higher today than it was in years past, because a dollar is worth less today than it was even five years ago, and therefore everything costs more.
Tooley's remarks about worshiping at "the altar of the welfare state" are just plain silly. The Bishop's statement, including condemning the way in which the Bush budget priorities are warped out of alignment towards supporting human beings - including our troops - to helping corporate interests and the Iraqi war machine, is pretty standard, and lightweight, stuff. Tooley's comments would be laughable if they were not meant in dead earnest; calling Congressional debate to restrict same-sex marriage a matter of the soul is so much rhetorical nonsense. One would wish that Scaife's money were buying better criticism than this.
I bring this up as a further example of the kind of nonsense even religious institutions face from right-wing nuts.
