My name is Sister Mary Carol Bennett and I am a member of the Sisters of Mercy. I am also co-chair of The Interfaith Alliance of Southwestern Pennsylvania. I've come here today for two reasons: First, to represent hundreds of thousands of people across America who are joining together on the local and state levels to organize a grassroots, faith-based response to the extreme religious right. This movement is known nationally as The Interfaith Alliance. Second, as a Catholic member of The Interfaith Alliance, I am here to stand alongside other Catholics and publicly challenge the false claims of Pat Robertson's Catholic Alliance.
Let me begin by saying a bit more about the organization to which I belong. The Interfaith Alliance is a grassroots, faith-based organization which was founded a little over a year ago by mainstream religious leaders from around the nation. It is now active in 16 states, with approximately 20,000 members nationwide. In contrast to groups like Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition, The Interfaith Alliance seeks to promote the positive role of religion as a healing and constructive force in American public life. We believe that religion best contributes to public life when it works for reconciliation, inspires common effort, promotes concern for the less fortunate, and instills in its adherents a sense of honesty and mutual respect.
All across the nation, local and state Alliances are providing people of faith with an alternative voice to that of groups like Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition. In Northern Virginia, the local Alliance distributed fair and honest voter guides which highlighted the issues that were actually important to Virginia voters. In Washington state, local Alliances asked candidates to sign a pledge to conduct decent and fair campaigns. In Central Florida, the local Alliance went to the Florida Straw Poll and issued a public call to Florida Republicans to resist the intimidating tactics of the far right. And in many states, like my home state of Pennsylvania, local Alliances have held educational forums on various issues relating to the topic, "Faith and Public Policy." Together with other faith-based organizations and other citizen's groups, local and state Alliances are working towards a transformation of the public dialogue--one in which citizens from diverse backgrounds can come together and participate in open, honest debate about the future of our nation and about the role of religion in public life.
Throughout the nation, The Interfaith Alliance is shining the light on the deceptive tactics and destructive agenda of extremist groups who manipulate religion for political gain. As part of this mission, we are working with Catholic leaders and Catholic organizations to expose the Catholic Alliance for what it really is: a front group for Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition. Together with mainstream clergy and laity in the Catholic Church, we are alerting the public that the Catholic Alliance does not represent all Catholics any more than the Christian Coalition represents all Christians or even all evangelicals. Like its parent organization, the Catholic Alliance is primarily a political organization--one which manipulates the language of faith for partisan political gain. Like the Christian Coalition of which it is part, the Catholic Alliance uses the symbols of faith against its political opponents, and tries to use the authority of religion to push its own extreme political agenda.
Contrary to what they may claim, the agenda of the Catholic Alliance is not the agenda of the Catholic Church. It is instead the agenda of Pat Robertson, Ralph Reed, and the extreme right. On issues like welfare reform, capital punishment, civil rights, health care, gun control, labor laws, and immigration, the agenda of the Christian Coalition's Catholic Alliance runs directly counter to the teachings of the Catholic Church as expressed by the Pope and the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops.
Pat Robertson and his Christian Coalition have no interest in the Catholic faith except to use it for their own political purposes. That is why Catholics and other people of faith must speak out against this crass manipulation of religion. Not only Catholics, but all people who value the integrity of faith, must come together, work together, and together loudly say, "Enough is enough. Pat Robertson and his political front groups do not speak for us."
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