Scotland: Labour lacks Christian values, says bishop

[muriel_volestrangler]

A Catholic bishop is urging his flock not to vote for Labour in next month's elections for the Scottish Parliament, claiming that the party is "devoid" of Christian values.

Joseph Devine, the Bishop of Motherwell, said that Labour's family policies, and in particular its support for civil partnerships and gay adoption, were testing the support of its traditional Catholic voters.
...
He said: "I'll not ask people to follow me but if they want to take that lead that's fine enough."
...
The bishop said that he would wait until he had seen other party's manifestoes before deciding for whom to vote, although he expected to make his mark for the Christian Peoples Alliance, a "pro-family" and "pro- life" party, which is opposed to gay adoption.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/03/12/nscbish12.xml

Note that the CPA is not just a simple right-wing organisation - it opposed the invasion of Iraq, opposes the renewal of the British nuclear deterrent, and wants the minimum wage increased to £8 per hour to combat poverty. However, it is undoubtedly right wing when it comes to matters like sex and abortion.

I wonder if someone ought to direct the bishop to the Scottish Roman Catholic website about politics:

The Catholic Church is characterised far too often as simply:

•Interfering in the affairs of government.

•Objecting to changes in social legislation and thereby being seen as a negative or reactionary force.

•Identifying with one particular political party or only very limited political causes.

This is not the mission of the Catholic Church nor should it be seen as such

In fact
•The Church sees the State and its organising of society as distinctly separate from the mission of the Church.

•The Church will always support and co-operate with the state in its pursuit of the common good.

•The Church has a comprehensive and consistent view of what constitutes the common good.

http://www.rcpolitics.org/index.php?module=pagemaster&PAGE_user_op=view_page&PAGE_id=27

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Substitute "Democrats" for "Labour" and welcome to America! n/t

[Red Zelda]

2. The clusterfuck

between the church and the corporate right is amazing.
It's like czarist Russia has returned everywhere.

My personal solution: Fuck the church in all its forms forever.
Oooh ... gotta get that on a bumpersticker.

[MADem]

3. What a putz...is he getting his talking points from those intolerant

bastards over here?

Maybe the good bishop should let people make up their OWN minds. What a concept, that!

[cosmik debris]

4. I'm curious

How much influence does a Catholic Bishop have in the UK. I know that there are several places in the USA where a Catholic Bishop could do more harm than good with such a proclamation.

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. In the 2001 census, 16% of Scots said they were Catholic

(and another 5% or so declined to answer). So overall, their influence might no be great, but in some areas (particularly the Glasgow area), the amount of Catholics is considerably more - 21% of Catholics live in Glasgow, which has 11% of the population, while 14% live in North Lanarkshire, which has just 6% of the population.

How much these nominal Catholics listen to a bishop (and there is a more senior Archbishop in Scotland) on political issues, I'm not sure. I think only a Scottish Catholic would be able to give a believable answer to that.

[cosmik debris]

6. Thanks for the details n/t

[moggie]

7. I bet he's not a TRUE Scotsman n/t

[TheBaldyMan]

8. fuck the pope and fuck Bishop Devine too,

at least my boss didn't receive basic training from the Hitler Youth.

Not the same Bishop Devine that covered up the pedophilia scandals? Devine is quite a common catholic surname in Scotland so it's a fair chance he shares the same surname as another Scottish RC bishop.