Nancy Pelosi Defines "People of Faith"

This past Friday, the Catholic League issued the following press release regarding House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's comments last week at the National Press Club:

January 27, 2006

PELOSI DEFINES “PEOPLE OF FAITH”

At the National Press Club yesterday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi commented on President Bush’s upcoming State of the Union address. In doing so, she touched on the subject of values and religion. Referring to Democrats, she said that the “best way…for us to speak to people of faith is in terms of the work we do; in terms of the budget, for example. The budget is a document that’s supposed to be a statement of our national values.” By “people of faith,” Pelosi meant people like the 114 protesters who were arrested last month for blocking the entrance to the Capitol. “We had the people of faith working against this budget. They had events in the Capitol, they were arrested on the steps of the Cannon Building….”

Catholic League president Bill Donohue saw this as illuminating:

“Ask anyone leaving church on Sunday what public policy issues motivate ‘people of faith’ and the likely answer will be such things as abortion, same-sex marriage, assisted suicide, drugs, illegitimacy, etc. Ask Nancy Pelosi and she says the federal budget.

“Worse than her ignorance is her disdain for the faithful. For example, she likes to call those who are pro-life ‘anti-choice.’ She not only objected to the ‘Justice Sunday’ event that took place last April in Louisville, she said the rally (which included several prominent people of faith, myself included) was marked by ‘assaults on the courts.’ When her party lost the 2004 presidential election, she arrogantly said, ‘As a devout Catholic, I observe with great regret the intervention of some Catholic bishops who joined evangelical leaders in the political arena.’ In other words, all these religious leaders not only fail to meet her qualifications as ‘the people of faith’ (as she likes to call them), they are a threat to democracy.

“According to Democratic strategist Paul Begala, on the night of the presidential election, former President Bill Clinton told him, ‘you can’t ignore those social, cultural values voters.’ He was right. Moreover, Clinton knows the difference between a budget and a bible.”

My Comments:
But perhaps Pelosi is on to something. It seems as if Bishop Skylstad, President of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, would agree with Pelosi's understanding of what constitutes the appropriate activities for "people of faith" to engage in (hat tip: Rich Leonardi):

Bishop Urges U.S. House to Reject Budget Deal

WASHINGTON, D.C., JAN. 30, 2006 (Zenit.org).- A recent budget reconciliation bill fails to "meet the needs of the most vulnerable among us," says the president of the U.S. bishops' conference.

In a letter last week to the U.S. House of Representatives, Bishop William Skylstad of Spokane spelled out some concerns over the legislative.

The bishop said his greatest concerns included: increased Medicaid cost-sharing burdens; cuts to child-support enforcement; and changes in temporary-aid programs for needy families which, he says, underfund work programs and child care.

"We recognize that the bill also includes positive elements, such as additional funding for victims of Hurricane Katrina and a program to promote marriage and healthy families," Bishop Skylstad asked the congressmen in his letter.

"We are also grateful that cuts to the Food Stamps program were dropped from the package," he said. "However, we believe that, overall, the impact of this bill will be to fail to meet the needs of the most vulnerable among us.

"Therefore, we urge you to reject the conference agreement and work for policies that put poor children and families first."

(emphasis added)

I love Rich's spot-on comment regarding Bishop Skylstad's moral authority (or lack thereof) regarding how best to budget the taxpayers' money:

Indeed. There's a comedic irony at work in a bishop who filed for bankruptcy lecturing Congress about its spending priorities.

Yep.