As Sen. Reid unveiled the Senate healthcare reform bill and the chamber prepares for a weekend vote to open floor debate on health care reform legislation, local pastors and lay leaders from Louisiana, Nebraska, Michigan, Colorado and other key states are on Capitol Hill meeting with Senate offices to make the moral case for reform that extends quality, affordable healthcare to all American families.
In addition to today’s visits, clergy and lay leaders will be holding conference calls and meetings in the coming days and weeks with Sens. Landrieu, Conrad and Dorgan, as well as Sen. Ben Nelson’s Chief of Staff, urging them to support reform and highlighting the devastating impact on families in their states if reform fails to pass.
The Family Research Council has issued a correction of their press release yesterday that accused Congresswoman DeGette of “religious bigotry” based on a misquotation. Good for them.
However, after acknowledging the inaccuracy of yesterday’s attack they slammed her again, saying
“However, Rep. DeGette accused the Catholic Bishops of controlling the outcome of the health care legislation and also accused them and other conservative Christians of violating the ‘wall of separation’ between church and state.
If they’re basing that charge on DeGette’s ABC interview from yesterday, that’s still a rather dubious charge, as her remarks contained no reference to the Catholic Bishops “controlling the outcome.” But I won’t assume FRC is basing the entirety of their accusation on that interview, even though they don’t cite any others.
Again, here’s a transcript of Rep. DeGette’s remarks to ABC (ellipses indicate beginning of responses to new questions):
“I gotta tell you, last I heard we had separation of church and state. I don’t think the Catholic bishops are in charge of writing our healthcare bill. I think that they are one of many groups that we should listen to, but in the end they should be concerned that 36 million more people in this country will get healthcare. Many of them are their parishioners.”
…”I’m not going to comment on what happened with the leadership.”
…”I’ve got to say that I think that the Catholic bishops and all of the other groups should have input, but in the end what we need to do is have healthcare for 36 million Americans and not take away rights people have right now to get full reproductive care.”
Earlier this evening the Family Research Council sent out a press release with the headline “FRC Calls On President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, and Senator Reid to Repudiate Diana DeGette’s Religious Bigotry,” which stated
Family Research Council President Tony Perkins today called on President Obama and Congressional leaders to repudiate comments made by U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) to The Hill’s Michael O’Brien that “religiously-affiliated groups…should be shut out of the process” in the health care debate because of their support for the Stupak/Pitts amendment. She told The Hill, “Last I heard, we had separation of church and state in this country,” she said. “I’ve got to say that I think the Catholic bishops and all of the other groups shouldn’t have input.”
I can understand why FRC would want to rebuke a Member of Congress for claiming that people of faith should be excluded from a political debate. What I can’t understand is sending out a press release calling on the President of the United States and Congressional leaders to denounce a Congresswoman’s “religious bigotry” without even bothering to check what the alleged bigot actually said. That doesn’t take too much effort — all you have to do is watch the video, which is easily found on the ABC News homepage. Accusing a public official of bigotry is serious business, and should be done cautiously, not opportunistically.
Here’s a transcript of the portion of her interview that dealt with religious groups’ role in the healthcare reform debate:
“I gotta tell you, last I heard we had separation of church and state. I don’t think the Catholic bishops are in charge of writing our healthcare bill. I think that they are one of many groups that we should listen to, but in the end they should be concerned that 36 million more people in this country will get healthcare. Many of them are their parishioners.”
…”I’m not going to comment on what happened with the leadership.”
…”I’ve got to say that I think that the Catholic bishops and all of the other groups should have input, but in the end what we need to do is have healthcare for 36 million Americans and not take away rights people have right now to get full reproductive care.”
Video of the interview is available here. Congresswoman DeGette’s segment begins at the -5:53 mark, and the discussion about the bishops begins at the -1:12 mark.
The Family Research Council is putting on an anti-reform webcast tonight, and the lineup of guests features none other than Rick Scott of Conservatives for Patients’ Rights. If that name rings a bell, it’s probably because Scott and CPR are among the mostprolificdeceivers in the healthcare reform debate. Given the importance and complexity of the issue, why would FRC feature a documented dissembler in their webcast?
Yesterday approximately 1,000 African Methodist Episcopal clergy and lay leaders from across the western US gathered in Los Angeles for their annual meeting and used the occasion to call their members of Congress and urge them to support healthcare reform. And their effort attracted the attention of LA news outlets:
This is just a preview of things to come, as numerous African-American denominations observe “Health Care Sunday” in congregations nationwide this weekend to continue building support for healthcare reform.