Faith-based voters can’t be stereotyped

Mixing religion and politics remains ever potent, with people on all sides of issues upset when preachers or priests step out of the pulpit and into the electoral fray.

Conservatives don’t like preachers who want to give advice about immigration or gun violence. Liberals want priests to stay out of the abortion debate or remain silent on same-sex relationships. The reality is, though, ministers, imams, rabbis, priests, nuns or monks, just like members of their flocks, carry with them the privilege of citizenship.

Religious leaders have the right and the responsibility to speak out on issues that matter to them, without endorsing particular candidates. Political involvement on behalf of individual candidates, however, is a violation of current federal law, which holds that a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization “does not participate in, or intervene in (including the publishing or distributing of statements), any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office.”

How that advocacy plays out, though, can end up with an implicit endorsement for one candidate or another. That’s a line churches and organizations should avoid, and if they don’t, their tax-exempt status should be yanked.

Take what is happening in Santa Fe and New Mexico, where attempts to define the “Catholic voter” have emerged in the midterm campaign.

Individually, the Rev. Larry Brito has raised eyebrows with the sign he hangs at his parish, St. Anne Catholic Church, calling on Catholics to vote “pro-life.” To many, that appears to be a signal that good Catholics can vote only for candidates who oppose legalizing abortion. Perhaps that is the intent, making the sign a-not-so subtle nod toward GOP candidates, who tend to be against legal abortion more than Democrats.

However, any person who is knowledgeable about the Catholic Church’s expansive pro-life policy understands that abortion is one part of the whole — the church believes in the sanctity of life from conception to natural death. Along the way, that means opposing the death penalty and offering support for the poor, for refugees, for the elderly, for all who are weak — for the living as well as the unborn.

Then, there is the advertisement that ran in Sunday newspapers, including the Santa Fe New Mexican. Headlined, “Are You A Catholic Voter?” the ad is misleading, as New Mexico’s own bishops have pointed out. Using a letter from the New Mexico Conference of Catholic Bishops to attempt to educate Catholic citizens on how to vote, the ad clearly steered them to GOP candidate Steve Pearce over Democrat Michelle Lujan Grisham in the governor’s race. Were this actually an advertisement paid for by the Catholic church, it likely would violate the law.

The bishops, however, did not approve of their letter being placed in a political advertisement, issuing this statement Monday: “We were not aware of plans to publish our statement, On The Dignity of Human Life, issued on March 6, 2017, as part of a political advertisement. We did not coordinate or pay for this advertisement. Our statement was written a year and half ago and was never intended to be used for political advertising.”

The statement was signed by all three of New Mexico’s bishops, Santa Fe Archbishop John Wester, Gallup Bishop James S. Wall and the Most Rev. Gerald Kicanas, bishop emeritus of the Diocese of Tucson and apostolic administrator for the Diocese of Las Cruces. The ad was paid for by the Hispanic Action Network, which also was distributing “voter guides” at some Catholic parishes over the weekend, another attempt to influence voters.

Bottom line: There is no “Catholic voter” in the sense that all Catholics will vote the same way because of dictates from a church leader, no matter how well-intended.

What the Catholic Church does teach is that voters must study the issues and make their decisions for the common good, using Catholic teaching as their guide. It’s called “faithful citizenship.” However — and this is key — individual Catholics will interpret those teaching differently, and vote accordingly.

The same can be said of all religious people — there are right-wing Christians, Muslims or Jews, and there are liberal people of faith as well. They will debate the issues, as is right and necessary. What should not be debated, though, is that religious leaders need to keep out of choosing candidates — that’s an unholy mix bound to divide an already splintered country.