# Catholic politicians get strict orders from pope

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-politicians-get-strict-orders-from-pope/395822>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [March 14, 2007, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-politicians-get-strict-orders-from-pope/395822 "2007-03-14T00:13:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 50

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**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\
**Post date:** [March 16, 2007, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-politicians-get-strict-orders-from-pope/395822/50 "2007-03-16T05:05:18Z")

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> [@Voyager](#):
>
> In a secular society a politicians duties are to his or her constituents, to the Constitution, and to his personal moral code, not necessarily in that order.

I tend to agree. What worries me about this issue is not that Church authorities are advocating a particular moral/ethical stance, which I think they have every right to do, but that they’re deliberately putting pressure on Catholic politicians about how they should act in their secular capacity as government representatives of constituents who include non-Catholics as well as Catholics.

If these were, say, Shi’ite mullahs in Iraq demanding that members of the Iraqi parliament make the secular laws conform to the mullahs’ idea of proper Qur’anic ethics, would we think it was okay? I’m fine with religious leaders advocating the moral principles of their religion and encouraging all their adherents to follow those principles. I’m not so comfortable with religious leaders deliberately targeting politicians in the exercise of their secular functions and threatening them with religious penalties if they don’t strive **to impose their religious principles by force of law upon all citizens of whatever religious persuasion**.

ISTM that secular laws that apply to the entire population should be backed up by secular principles. “My God said so” is not an adequate justification for imposing your God’s dogma on people who don’t happen to believe in your God, or don’t agree with your interpretation of what your God said. That’s not religious freedom, that’s theocracy.

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