{"id":7388,"date":"2004-04-28T09:17:06","date_gmt":"2004-04-28T09:17:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2004\/04\/torquemada_redux.html"},"modified":"2004-04-28T09:17:06","modified_gmt":"2004-04-28T09:17:06","slug":"torquemada_redux","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2004\/04\/torquemada_redux.html","title":{"rendered":"Torquemada Redux"},"content":{"rendered":"

A DMN columnist advises the Vatican<\/a><\/p>\n

I remember arguing with a good friend back in the 1970s that I couldn’t see how anyone could embrace the Bible’s emphasis on justice for the poor and not support the Voting Rights Act.<\/p>\n

I now think my assumption was wrong. I still don’t understand how anyone could take the Bible seriously and not support federal efforts to promote voting rights, but it’s arrogant and wrong not to allow for that possibility. <\/p>\n

That’s what is troubling about the Kerry episode. The Bible itself doesn’t lead us into separating out believers on issues like abortion. <\/p>\n

In fact, Scripture doesn’t explicitly deal with the topic. The Psalms talk about God knitting us together in the womb, but that’s about as far as they go. The rest is left for us to figure out. <\/p>\n

Fortunately, few bishops have rushed to deny Mr. Kerry the blood and body of Christ. Let’s hope it stays that way. We need to learn how to apply religious values to political debates without drumming out those with different views. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\nIn the DMN Blog, Roduemada responds<\/a><\/p>\n

Look, I think the bishops ought to discipline pro-choice Catholic politicians, but I could be wrong about this. I am certainly open to hearing an argument that this move would be imprudent, given current circumstances. But I want to hear an argument made on Catholic terms, taking seriously the Catholic Church’s understanding of itself. I don’t find much value in an argument that tells me why Catholics ought to be better liberal Protestants.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A DMN columnist advises the Vatican I remember arguing with a good friend back in the 1970s that I couldn’t see how anyone could embrace the Bible’s emphasis on justice for the poor and not support the Voting Rights Act. I now think my assumption was wrong. 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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/author\/awelborn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7388\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}