Sunday, SUNDAY, SUNDAY!

Julian Sanchez | August 14, 2005

I caught most of the Justice Sunday webcast earlier this evening, during which the Catholic League's William "Christ-hating Jews control Hollywood" Donohue waxed enthusiastic about the Catholic/Evangelical alliance against creeping secularism. DLC blogger Ed Kilgore notes a certain irony here, by way of the following quote:

I recognize no power in the institutions of my church to interfere with the operations of the Constitution of the United States or the enforcement of the law of the land. I believe in absolute freedom of conscience for all men and in equality of all churches, all sects, and all beliefs before the law as a matter of right and not as a matter of favor. I believe in the absolute separation of church and state.

Roman Catholic Supreme Court nominee John Roberts defending himself from vicious secularists? Actually, Al Smith, Roman Catholic presidential candidate, defending himself in 1932 against Protestant ministers who feared he'd be taking orders from the Vatican. Now, Smith's answer strikes me as a great one (for all the good it did him), but Kilgore's probably on to something when he suggests that this attitude would today be viewed "as 'secular humanist,' 'anti-Catholic,' and 'anti-Christian.' It's clear that poor Al Smith, were he resurrected today and lifted to public office, would again suffer persecution from the same people, but for the opposite reasons."

Comments

|8.15.05 @ 5:13AM|#

Y'all should read some of that transcript, its rather funny to see various types of social conservatives knife one another. :)

|8.15.05 @ 7:23AM|#

I look forward to the destruction of the wall separating church and state.

Finally, the state will be able to control the church for full political advantage. They'll beatify Reagan first off I imagine. Patron saint of deficits.

Hallelulah!

But frankly, evangelicals and opus dei types both think the other group is going to hell so how long will this partnership of convienence last?

|8.15.05 @ 7:48AM|#

One of my mother's parish priests when she was a kid was the legendary Father Coughlin of Royal Oak, Michigan.

I thank god she married an athiest which has given me absolutely no emotional stake in anything whatsoever that is Catholic. For me, watching Catholics go at it like watching a bunch of squirrel monkeys at the zoo fighting over a banana.

|8.15.05 @ 8:30AM|#

Wasn't Al Smith the Democratic presidential candidate in 1928?

|8.15.05 @ 8:31AM|#

Or did he run in the 1932 Democratic primary? I hadn't thought of that.

|8.15.05 @ 9:00AM|#

According to a Protestant story from the time, when Al Smith lost the election he sent a telegram to the Vatican with one word: "Unpack."

Jesse Walker|8.15.05 @ 9:33AM|#

Isaac: Smith was also an unsuccessful candidate for the '32 nomination.

|8.15.05 @ 10:14AM|#

Jesse

That possibility occurred to me after the post.