I have never liked the presence of the clergy in the administration of the State. As a Catholic, I thought political representation co-opted the independence and moral authority of the Church. (Yes, I'm well-aware of political entanglements during the history of the Church since at least the reign of Constantine the Great.) But as I've noted in multiple posts in the blog (e.g., whether Jesus was a socialist), Jesus explicitly rejected political power or being seen as an insurrectionist. He complied with tax policies and His infamous "Render onto Caesar what is Caesar's" has often been cited (wrongly) as confirming support of the State. I think if and when clergy meddle in the affairs of State, it is a point of confusion and potentially divisive among the faithful.
In fact, a couple of priests (from religious orders vs. diocesan) in the 1970's, most notably Fr. Drinan, were elected to the House from MA and WI, respectively as Democrats. Drinan's career began as a vocal opponent of the Vietnam War. Perhaps most notoriously, Drinan (with a legal background) was a principal architect of a pro-abortion standpoint that has been adopted by every pro-abort Catholic Democrat ever since, i.e., I'm personally opposed to abortion, but I will not impose my religious beliefs on others. [In passing, let me point out that the Church's position on abortion (known at least as early as the first century Didache, opposing the Roman practices of abortion and infanticide) is moral, not doctrinal, and it makes no more sense to argue we are imposing our moral beliefs on murder, theft, and false witness on others.] This posed a challenge to the Church's fundamental position against the abomination of abortion. St. John Paul II, soon after the beginning of his papal tenure around the turn of the 80's, soon required priest to leave elective office, leading Drinan to retire from Congress (and his Wisconsin colleague to drop plans to regain his lost House seat).
All of this deals with Speaker Ryan's decision to terminate House chaplain Jesuit Fr. Conroy. While Ryan, also a Catholic, denies that it's politically motivated, it should be noted during tax reform deliberations, Conroy's prayer included: "May their efforts these days guarantee that there are not winners and losers under new tax laws, but benefits balanced and shared by all Americans." This is basically verbatim from Democratic political spin opposing tax reform. It was blatantly partisan, and I would have terminated him for cause the day it happened. Ryan is saying he was responding to the complaints of unidentified House members. Conroy is playing the victim card and says that Ryan told him that he needs to stay out of politics. I don't really care what the "real" reason is; when you politicize prayers deliberately, you know damn well what you did, and you accept the consequences of your bad behavior.
Conroy, like fellow Jesuit Pope Francis, is economically illiterate. Any time you are discussing redistributing tax rebates to people other than the people who earned the original income, i.e., the Democratic position, you are discussing theft; Up to 40% of American households pay little or no income taxes, freeload on the taxes assessed on other people. What do Americans do with their own income? They spend or save/invest in the economy. That contributes to the foundation of a growing economy, more goods and services to serve all in this economy, not frittered away by an unaccountable government which often spends twice as much as the private economy for the same effect. Under a growing economy, there are more job opportunities, and the lower-income are able to stretch their money. The idea that just because you don't get a tax refund when you don't pay taxes is "unfair"is patently absurd, what Bastiat means by the things seen and unseen.
