○  truth and tolerance in america  ○

- even slavery -- to condemn labor unions and public spending for the poor. i believe that the prophecy, ”the poor you have always with you” is an indictment, not a commandment. and i respectfully suggest that god has taken no position on the department of education -- and that a balanced budget constitutional amendment is a matter of economic analysis, and not heavenly appeals.

religious values cannot be excluded from every public issue; but not every public issue involves religious values. and how ironic it is when those very values are denied in the name of religion. for example, we are sometimes told that it is wrong to feed the hungry, but that mission is an explicit mandate given to us in the 25th chapter of matthew.

second, we must respect the independent judgments of conscience.

those who proclaim moral and religious values can offer counsel, but they should not casually treat a position on a public issue as a test of fealty to faith. just as i disagree with the catholic bishops on tuition tax credits -- which i oppose -- so other catholics can and do disagree with the hierarchy, on the basis of honest conviction, on the question of the nuclear freeze.

thus, the controversy about the moral majority arises not only from its views, but from its name -- which, in the minds of many, seems to imply that only one set of public policies is moral and only one majority can possibly be right. similarly, people are and should be perplexed when the religious lobbying group christian voice publishes a morality index of congressional voting records, which judges the morality of senators by their attitude toward zimbabwe and taiwan.

let me offer another illustration. dr. falwell has written--and i quote: “to stand against israel is to stand against god.” now there is no one in the senate who has stood more firmly for israel than i have. yet, i do not doubt the faith of those on the other side. their error is not one of religion, but of policy

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