Catholic Bishop Compares Obama to Stalin and Hitler Before Telling Congregation Not to Vote for Him

Bishop Daniel R. Jenky said the following during a Mass at St. Mary’s Cathedral for the Diocese of Peoria (Illinois):

Bishop Daniel R. Jenky (John Kringas - Chicago Tribune)

Hitler and Stalin, at their better moments, would just barely tolerate some churches remaining open, but would not tolerate any competition with the state in education, social services, and health care.

In clear violation of our First Amendment rights, Barack Obama — with his radical, pro abortion and extreme secularist agenda, now seems intent on following a similar path.

…

This fall, every practicing Catholic must vote, and must vote their Catholic consciences, or by the following fall our Catholic schools, our Catholic hospitals, our Catholic Newman Centers, all our public ministries — only excepting our church buildings –- could easily be shut down. Because no Catholic institution, under any circumstance, can ever cooperate with the [intrinsic] evil of killing innocent human life in the womb.

So… yeah… totally a sane guy and everything…

No doubt, though, there’s a connection between calling Obama “pro-abortion” and then telling the Congregation to vote against the “killing [of] innocent human life.”

Americans United, in a brilliant move, is now asking the IRS to investigate the Church (PDF).

The implication is clear: Obama is engaged in acts so evil they follow the pattern of Hitler and Stalin, and faithful Catholics must vote against him. In fact, Jenky goes on to assert that the situation is so serious that a failure to vote against Obama could lead to Catholic institutions being closed.

To be sure, Jenky never utters the words, “Do not vote for Obama.” But the Internal Revenue Code makes it clear that statements need not be this explicit to run afoul of the law.

The IRS needs to be more pro-active about punishing Churches who don’t pay taxes but who feel they’re above the law and can tell the congregation how to vote.

If the Diocese of Peoria agrees to pay taxes, they can say whatever they want. Their relevance is fading, anyway, so I wouldn’t care if they did. But if they want special privileges other non-profit groups don’t get, they have to forego their tax-exempt status.

Or, you know, the Catholic Church could do something more useful.

(via Religion Clause)

Jett Perrobone

PZ Myers has a doppelgänger! I bet if they both shook hands, they would annihilate each other in a bright flash of light. 😉
Lamocla

The Roman Catholic Pedophile Protecting Church is a great source of morality. Those pedophile protector have no credibility, why listen to them.
Riderz

When are we going to start taxing these bastards?
Alexander Ryan

We’re not allowed to tax them. God needs the billions of dollars they bring in every year. Every single dollar. Going against that would be an affront to God, obviously.
HeathenBlonde

TAX THEM!!!!!!!
Richard Wade

I know that the IRS has occasionally investigated churches and ministers who have crossed the line of political advocacy, but I don’t remember ever hearing that any of those churches or ministers lost their tax-free status either permanently or temporarily, and I don’t remember ever hearing of tax money actually being paid by one of those churches to the IRS.

Has that ever actually happened? Will the Bishop scoff at the prospect of losing his tax free status simply because it never comes to that?
Tr Dev

I totally didn’t notice that until I read your comment! rofl They would totally annihilate each other!
PJB863

The wall of separation was originally intended to protect churches from the state. However, the tables are now turned, and we need to protect the state from churches, or more accurately, prevent the churches from becoming the state.

But first and foremost, we need to take back the term “secular.” The religious reich has made it into a negative term, which all of us here know to be BS.
Ggsillars

According to one corollary of Godwin’s Law, this son-of-a-bitch just lost the argument by default.
Reason_Being

Outrageous. How long will the “moderate” and “cafeteria” Catholics continue to put up with BS propaganda like this?
snicketmom

That’s my town. I felt my minister had a good response-
http://www.pjstar.com/blogs/religion/x763762656/Contraception-Is-Not-The-Holocaust
Fester Sixonesixonethree

A friend of mine reports that his parish has found a way to keep their money from being sent to the diocese office!
All donations to the parish are made by check, and on the memo line, they write the name of the parish and add, if they like, a particular program the parish is undertaking – like the food bank, or aid to the homeless, or the fund to rebuild the pipe organ.
It seems that, according to the Church’s own rules, NONE of the money so designated can be sent to the diocese, but has to stay in the parish.
My friend says they haven’t sent any $$$ “downtown” for many months!
>Applause!<
ortcutt

Hopefully, the IRS will at least send them a sternly worded letter reminding them of the conditions for 501(c)(3) status. There is no requirement that IRS warn the organization before their 501(c)(3) is revoked though.

IRC 501(c)(3) requires that organizations with that status “not participate in, or intervene in (including the publishing or distributing of statements), any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office”.

If the Diocese of Peoria doesn’t want to be a 501(c)(3) organization, that’s their choice, but they can’t enjoy the benefits of that tax-status without abiding by the conditions of that status.
ortcutt

I’d feel uncomfortable giving any money to this organization at any level. I’m sure the Diocese can find ways to get money out of parishes if they want to. They have no problem closing parishes without the approval of parishioners.
ortcutt

The IRS is rightly scared of the churches. They know they will be called before Congress and perhaps be subjected to even stricter regulations by Congress if they do anything to enforce the laws. With today’s Court, as well, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Court “discovered” a Constitutional right of churches to electioneer without losing their tax exempt status.

I can only look forward to a day when there are enough secular people in this country that churches will be made to obeys the laws like any other non-profit organization.
Denis Robert

This liar for Christ should read up on something called the Reichskonkordat, which gave a monopoly for education to the Catholic Church under the Nazis in many of the German states. He’s either lying or he doesn’t give a damn about the truth. Par for the course for a pedophile apologist.
C Peterson

Has this guy considered what the result would have been had he made this comment about Stalin while living in Stalinist Russia? Or the result of saying this about Hitler while living is Nazi Germany?

Here, he’s free to say what he wants (even when it violates the law) without reprisal, and he thinks there’s a valid comparison to be made? Demagoguery at its worst.
Nazani14

Republican Congresses have cut funding for the IRS to they point where they lack the manpower to investigate much of anything. when’s the last time you heard of anyone being audited? It used to be fairly common.
I_Claudia

To be absolutely fair this kind of overt political activism happens on both sides of the political spectrum. Though I do think it’s more common on the right, one only need to look at

the scene at Ebeneezer Baptist Church on election night, ’08, to see that election activism exists in all kinds of churches. Black churches organized their asses off to get Obama elected.

I think the best thing for all involved would be to do away with this tax-free status altogether. The government should not be in the business of telling religious institutions what they can and cannot say or advocate. On the other hand, you shouldn’t get treated as a charity if you have no discernable charitable function. Let the churches pay taxes and bloviate about who to vote for to their hearts content. They’re going to do it anyway, we might as well get a buck out of it.
Sgtangel

The Catholic Church has outlived it’s usefulness and are now just a burden on humanity.
Renshia

I t just never fails to amaze me that a living thinking human could identify themselves as being catholic.

Seem to me it should be right up their with being a member of the KKK . Something done in secret with a hood over your head.

It is people like this guy whose so shallow in their thinking that are the bane of civilization.
Renshia

Well we know the truth doesn’t, it’s why they have the bible.
Erp

I suspect that by designating the purpose for which the money should be spent, the donor then has standing to sue in the regular courts if the money is used for an unrelated purpose (or the church has to return it).
Rolland_calgary

Keep mouthing off GreaseBall – we’re gonna find a way to tax you!
Fsq

Hoe can this be allowed and not challenged? I once got audited for a minute mistake made by me; by the time they IRS was done, they had checked me for polyps they were so far up the rectum…Yet here is some pedophile supporting scumbag preaching from his pulpit ILLEGALLY and going against tax code and it is ALLOWED?!

These fuckers need to go the way of the dodo.

And with the clear cut conspiracy the catholic church is guilty of, the feds need to step in and charge the church under the RICO act.

Enough is enough. And anyone who goes to this horrid church and gives tacit support is equally guilty of the crimes perpetrated by the priests/shamans.

SHAME ON THE CATHOLICS.
Stephan

http://ffrf.org/legal/report/

For anyone who actually knows that this happened, instead of just reading about it!
Dan Dorfman

The catholic church never excommunicated or distanced themselves from Hitler, so if they wanted to be true catholics they should support Obama if he really was like Hitler.
Margaret Whitestone

The churches obviously have no interest in following the laws. Tax them all.
Richard Kent Matthews

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PsiCop

Does anyone really think the IRS will seriously investigate this incident as an abridgement of the Church’s tax-exempt status? Really? I don’t. I think they will either decide not to investigate, or they will, but it will take forever, and at the end they’ll choose to take no action at all.

My guess is that it’s rare for the IRS to take tax-exempt status from a church. So rare that it almost never happens. I expect this will continue to be true.
dantresomi

ah, the catholic church, the same folks who gave Hitler the go ahead signals to murder Jews… ah, such standards of morality…
Kris

It’s embarrassing to admit it now, but when I still thought of myself as catholic, albeit a badly lapsed one, I had no clue how the rest of the world viewed that belief. All of the specific dogmatic principles never struck me as peculiar, they were what I’d been taught as a child, and it never occurred to me to question them. Those days are long gone.

I was kind of shocked to discover how the rest of christianity perceived catholics. Now I’m just embarrassed to have ever been part of it.
Kris

Didn’t JP Morgan close down or freeze a Vatican bank account in March? And wasn’t that the most recent in several such occurrences? For some reason, it’s difficult to find news and information about it, although it’s probably part of the war on christianity, somehow…
Renshia

I don’t think you should, in anyway, be embarrassed about your past affiliation. We were taught to respect authority without question. I was even an alter boy for years. We lived next door to the church. I can honestly say that I owe my life to the priest that lived there. I was raised in a extremely unstable environment and the church really was a sanctuary for me. There is no embarrassment in my affiliation, and there should be none at yours. We were trained to follow, and it worked, that is all.

You should be proud, that you have the intelligence to see the bigotry and lies that the foundation of the churches are built on. You should be proud that you have the strength to get beyond the indoctrination and separate yourself from them and see them for what they are.

Many good people have been partner to horrific things, because they believe. It is not a shame, only a pity.

The great thing is now you can help those that are still trapped. It is a small way to make right what we contributed to. That is something to be proud of.

Shame is a waste of energy, it focuses us on the problem and cripples us. Don’t waste a second on that shit.
thebigJ_A

The church will do anything to get people to forget its complicity in fascism and genocide.

Sadly, it seems to be working.
Demonhype

I guess if someone is still “in” enough that they still hold out some hope of the church doing some good, that’s at least one way to make sure the money they send isn’t used to, say, silence rape victims or provide funding for any other immoral church actions and you have some way to ensure that the money goes to something that actually helps people for real–you know, like the church loves to say it does but rarely does in reality.

It’s better if they get out all together, but at least this method shows some individual decency. If the diocese wants to close them down for not letting them run the show (since they’ve done such a FANTASTIC job of it so far, right?), then maybe they’ll realize that church-controlled religion isn’t so great and join the ranks of the unaffiliated (note I said unaffiliated and not atheist).
T-Rex

Says the man with the imaginary friend while he practices celibacy, wears a dress and funny hat and practices cannibalism. Fucktards….all of them.
Blazer

Let’s count the “AMERICAN CHRISTIANS – Catholics included, who will vote the right way this time………………