(ABP) — Can a church leader withhold sacraments as an attempt to steer his parishioners' votes?
Because Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry supports abortion rights, many U.S. Catholic bishops have said they would deny him communion, a sacrament integral to living the Catholic faith, on the grounds that he does not adhere to the church's teachings.
Bishop Michael Sheridan of Colorado Springs, Colo., has gone a step further, writing in his parish's newspaper that anyone who votes for Kerry or supports his viewpoint should also be denied communion.
Derek Davis, an expert on church-state studies, disagrees with Sheridan's approach to dealing with Kerry and his supporters.
“I think it's overreaching for bishops to deprive Catholics of communion for political purposes. This is part of what church-state separation is for,” said Davis, director of the J.M. Dawson Institute of Church and State Studies at Baylor University. “[Kerry] should not be penalized in religious or spiritual terms just because of his political views.”
The issue of denying communion is of particular importance to members of the Roman Catholic Church because the sacrament of communion is closely linked with salvation. According to Catholic teaching, “the faithful receive 'the bread of heaven' and 'the cup of salvation' … and no one may take part in it unless he believes that what we teach is true.”
While communion, or the Lord's Supper, is a central practice in almost all Christian traditions, restricting access to the sacrament is rare. But there are Christian leaders on both sides of the debate over Kerry and communion.
Church historian Walter Shurden of Macon, Ga., said he doesn't think Baptist churches would go as far as some Catholic bishops have.
“I don't know of any institution in Baptist life where a person has been denied communion because of his position on abortion,” said Shurden, executive director of the Center for Baptist Studies at Mercer University. “I certainly would object to it in my church.”
Shurden also said he thinks the practice is a “treacherous idea,” saying church leaders should not single out one issue like abortion to enforce church discipline. “Logic would suggest that if you're going to use moral issues to deny communion, you have to be consistent,” he said.
However, Timothy George, dean of Beeson Divinity School at Samford University, said churches should withhold communion — and have — on issues that are important enough.
“It's quite conceivable to me that a church could take action to maintain a member's fidelity,” said George, also a church historian. “What we have to decide is: Is abortion that kind of issue? A lot of Baptists think it is.”
He compared the current debate over abortion to the civil-rights era, when some church deacons and ministers were also members of the Ku Klux Klan. That offense was serious enough that churches should have responded with discipline, George said.
Although Baptist churches lack the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, church discipline has occurred in Baptist life in the past and could in the future, George said.
“It would happen a different way,” he continued. If Kerry were a member of the Baptist faith, “the church could admonish him, following Jesus' instructions in Matthew 18.” Kerry could then by placed under church discipline, which means he would still be a member of the church but could be denied communion and other church member benefits, George said.
As with the Baptist historians, there is disagreement among the Catholic bishops over the practice of withholding communion. Some bishops have opposed the views of Sheridan, the Colorado bishop.
“[It's good] for people to realize that these are complicated questions to which bishops may not all have the same answer, and that our Catholic faith is not a whole series of black and white positions,” Daniel Pilarczyk, archbishop of Cincinnati, said in an interview with Catholic News Service.
According to Pilarczyk, it is possible for a political candidate to agree with the church's stance on a certain moral issue such as abortion yet decide that legislation to outlaw it would not be in the best interest of the country. He said the act of voting in favor of abortion “does not necessarily indicate a break” with the church.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which serves as a coordinating body for U.S. dioceses, has taken no official stance on whether denying communion is an acceptable practice, said Bill Ryan, a member of the conference's communications department.
“The conference named a task force in November to decide in what way the church should deal with these political candidates,” Ryan said. “Most bishops are waiting to see what the task force says.”
The task force likely won't complete its findings until after the November presidential election. But Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington, who is leading the study, said he is uncomfortable with withholding communion from politicians.
“As a priest and a bishop, I do not favor a confrontation at the altar rail with the sacred body of the Lord Jesus in my hand,” he wrote in a May 13 column of the diocese's newspaper. “There are apparently those who would welcome such a conflict, for good reasons, I am sure, or for political ones. But I would not.”
The issue has crossed over into a legal debate, as some have accused Sheridan of violating the separation of church and state.
On May 27, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State asked the Internal Revenue Service to investigate the Catholic Diocese of Colorado Springs in response to Sheridan's letter. According to Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United, the Colorado bishop crossed the line into partisan politicking when he stated he would not give communion to pro-choice voters.
Under the IRS Code, churches and other 501(c)(3) organizations cannot endorse or oppose candidates or political parties. The alleged infraction could jeopardize the diocese's tax-exempt status.
Lynn said Sheridan's statement that he would deny communion to those who voted for a candidate who advocated abortion, stem cell research or euthanasia — while leaving out issues such as the death penalty and the war in Iraq — is a clear advocacy for Republican nominees.
Sheridan defended his position in the May 1 letter, writing that in no way “does the American doctrine of separation of church and state even suggest that the well-formed consciences of religious people should not be brought to bear on their political choices.”
Davis, the church-state expert from Baylor, said while denying communion for political views should not be allowed, he does not believe it will cause Sheridan's diocese to lose its tax exemption.
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— Sandi Villarreal is an intern with Associated Baptist Press