Cardinal warns about misuse of 'language of faith' in political arena

Published: 2005-09-28

PITTSBURGH (CNS) -- Characterizing some of the exchanges during the 2004 presidential campaign as "shallow, shrill and disingenuous," Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick warned Sept. 19 that some groups continue to cater to religious people simply to use them to further their political cause. "They have used the language of faith to advance partisan agendas, sometimes finding the best biblical sound bites to justify their political positions," the Washington archbishop told an audience at Pittsburgh's Duquesne University. Father Richard John Neuhaus, editor in chief of First Things, a journal on religion and politics published by the Institute on Religion and Public Life in New York, also spoke during Duquesne's daylong Faith and Politics Symposium. Cardinal McCarrick and Father Neuhaus agreed that separation of church and state does not require people of faith to take their beliefs out of politics. That was never the intention of the Founding Fathers and, in any case, is simply wrongheaded, both said. Politics deals with how people should live together and how they can create the best society, they said.

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