Catholic Church on gay marriage: ‘from the Bible to the ballot box’?

New York state’s Catholic leaders have condemned that state’s recent passage of a bill legalizing gay marriage. Nicholas DiMarzio, bishop of Brooklyn, called on members of his diocese to “not to bestow or accept honors, nor to extend a platform of any kind to any state elected officials, in all our parishes and churches for the foreseeable future.”Is the Catholic Church going too far? Should politicians be ostracized for promoting public policy that violates church teaching? Where is the line between church and state?

All religious organizations — including the Catholic Church — have the right to determine their membership. This includes the authority to disfellowship and even to shun members. Were it not for this right to ensure identity and preserve institutional autonomy, the religious freedom protections in the First Amendment’s religion clauses would be seriously undermined.

But, what one has the right to do is not always the right thing to do. What is legal is not always ethical. To deny full communion to persons because of a disagreement on a public policy position — especially on some (e.g., gay rights and abortion) and not on others (e.g., war and peace, world hunger) — is arbitrary and unfair. I would hope religious bodies would be able to tolerate a variety of opinions on public issues, even if they must demand theological fidelity and insist on circumspect behavior. Moreover, by no means should Catholic Church officials, acting as such, formally endorse or oppose the candidacy of their public servants if they want to maintain their preferred tax-exempt status.

People of faith — proceeding in good faith and for essentially religious reasons — can come to different conclusions about what policies to support and for whom to vote. As the great evangelical theologian Carl F.H. Henry once said, “There is no one direct line from the Bible to the ballot box.”

This is why I am glad I am a Baptist. At our best, not always but at our best, we have avoided ecclesiastical hierarchies, enforced uniformity of thought, and the top-down vitiation of conscience of our public servants and our local churches and their members.

J. Brent Walker  | Jun 30, 2011 7:11 AM