Forms Of Government

[SanctitasDeo]

I hope that this quote is speaking of goldchild17's ideal government, and not the current state of things. I could not condone this.

quoting goldenchild17:
[quote]
I believe that freedom of religion, when speaking of a non-Catholic religion, is restricted to a personal private practice. I don't believe freedom of religion in the terms of Church teaching extends to public practice, which would include it's affect on the political process. So while I think it permissable for a non-Catholic to hold their belief (who can force one to believe something other than what they do?) I don't believe it permissable for them to let their faith affect public matters. [/quote]

So because I am not Catholic, I can only believe what I believe privately and not mention it in any public forum whatsoever?

A non-Catholic cannot let their faith affect public matters?

So we have a sort of established Catholic religion--at least in the sense of what people are allowed to talk about--and then some other religions swept into the corner, hidden away. That sounds like certain middle-eastern countries right now, where Muslims practice their religion openly, and Christians only in secret, if at all.

If our government made that law, I would have to join a rebellion.

[quote]I don't believe it permissable for them to let their faith affect public matters.[/quote]

Also, this in particular has never made sense to me. I can see how a politician can avoid preaching his religion and so on, but to say that he should never let it affect public matters is to misunderstand the nature of religion.

If whatever religion you belong to is true enough for you to belong to it, if you seriously believe it, even over all the other religions out there, I cannot see how you would stop your religion from affecting public matters. Every decision you would make would in some way be informed by your religion.

And to say that a Catholic can let his religion affect public policy, but not any other person is just ridiculous.

[edited to add a negative]

Edited December 21, 2006 by SanctitasDeo