The politicians' response has been predictable. "I can't let my religion take precedence over my duties as legislator," says Lassa. "I'm concerned that the bishop would pressure legislators to vote according to the dictates of the church instead of the wishes of their constituents." "The votes I cast are driven by my own independent judgment and conscience, not by a set of marching orders given by any church hierarchy," said U. S. Rep. David Obey, a Democrat who represents Wisconsin's 7th district. (Obey "stopped short of identifying himself" as the recipient of a letter from Bishop Burke, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, but issued a statement nonetheless.) In reply to a chastising letter by Bishop Robert Carlson of Sioux Falls, Sen. Tom Daschle said, "I have been a Catholic all my life and will remain one."
William Bablitch, a former Wisconsin state Supreme Court justice and a Catholic, summarized the liberal argument. "The doctrine regarding the separation of church and state is well-founded in our democracy for a very good reason," he said. "Certainly the bishop has every right to express his own views to an elected official. But to invoke the moral authority of the church in a threatening way to a legislator seems to cross over a line that has been very carefully drawn and is very well respected in this country."
'In a threatening way?' Let's see what exactly what bishops have 'threatened.' Bishop Burke's letter said that if Catholic legislators continued to vote for bills related to abortion rights, he would "ask them not to present themselves to receive the sacraments because they would not be Catholics in good standing."
How 'threatening' is that, politically speaking?
What the legislators and their supporters don't seem to realize is that, precisely because America does have separation of church and state, bishops can't "threaten" legislators at all. What Bishop Burke and others are doing is not telling legislators how to vote, but how they can identify themselves if they vote in certain ways.
