The bishops might have been promoting a strictly Democratic line, but U.S. Senate Chaplain Barry Black was more ecumenical. Amid the shutdown, Rev. Black offered a daily prayer in the Senate chamber asking God to \u201csave us from the madness. We acknowledge our transgressions, our shortcomings, our smugness, our selfishness, and our pride.\u201d\u009d Later he condemned the \u201chypocrisy of attempting to sound reasonable while being unreasonable.\u201d\u009d His listeners in one party no doubt assumed he was talking about the other side.<\/p>\n
It is one thing to spiritually shame politicians, as Rev. Black did. Trying to do their jobs is another. The bishops and other clergy in the Circle of Protection go well beyond their competencies when they make such policy prescriptions. Speaking about the moral issues of the day is certainly within their pastoral purview, but the bishops\u2019 calls to raise revenues (aka taxes), for instance, or eliminate \u201cunnecessary\u201d\u009d military spending are not.<\/p>\n
Bishops routinely assert their authority as \u201cpastors and teachers,\u201d\u009d as Bishops Blaire, Gomez and Pates did, but according to the tradition of their own church, they have no teaching authority when it comes to politics.<\/p>\n