KEEP RELIGION OUT OF POLITICS

I was downright outraged this afternoon when I heard NPR’s report of the Bill Pryor nomination by the US Senate’s Judiciary Committee. How dare Republican’s use a candidate’s religion to intimidate Democrats? It is clear that the power-hungry in Washington will stop at nothing to get what they want. No bigotry is beneath them.

To say the Democrats are opposed to Pryor because of his Catholic faith is like calling me a white supremacist because I’m white. (That also reminds me of the comparison that saying everyone who tries marijuana will end up addicted to harder narcotics is like saying every child who rides a bike will grow up to join a biker gang—but that’s another soapbox.) Let’s look at the facts: the nominee has criticized prior rulings of the Supreme Court, yet also said he would do everything in his power to uphold those same laws. An op/ed piece in The New York Times criticized the Democrats and accused them of blocking Pryor based on his religious affiliation even though one of the Democrats on the committee is a Catholic.