c. 2008 Religion News Service

Bishops urge Canadians to vote with `discernment’

TORONTO (RNS) Canada’s Catholic bishops are urging their flock to vote with “discernment” in the country’s Oct. 14 federal election.

The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops has issued a four-page guide encouraging Catholics “to become better informed about the issues, to voice their concerns with the political candidates … and, most of all, to vote.”

Prime Minister Stephen Harper called the election recently in an effort to turn his minority Conservative government into a majority in the House of Commons.

The guide goes on to list some basic principles from Catholic moral and social teaching to help voters examine and evaluate public policy and programs.

These principles include respect for life and the dignity of the human person, as well as the preferential option for the poor.

The text also addresses Canada’s seven-year-old involvement in the war in Afghanistan, and the four bishops who signed the document call on the political parties to engage in a peace process for Afghanistan.

“War is never the best solution for people in solving a problem,” it states. “The social doctrine of the Church is clear on this … Our country should be a leader in finding a way to resolve this conflict by focusing on the basic issues.”

The guide also addresses the environment, saying that “love for God and neighbor involves love for creation, which calls for choices that go beyond short-term interests.”

Choices for Catholics “can be tough,” the bishops allow, especially when a party or candidate holds “values that are not fully in line with Church teaching.”

In that case, “a well-formed Christian conscience does not permit one to vote for a political program or an individual law which contradicts the fundamental contents of faith and morals.”

_ Ron Csillag

Amish farmers join in case against agriculture departments

(RNS) Six Michigan farmers, including two Amish men, say a state-required livestock numbering system infringes on their religious beliefs and are suing the U.S. and Michigan departments of agriculture to stop the program.

The electronic numbering and tagging procedure is designed to trace sick animals and protect public health.

But Robert Alexander and Glen Mast, both members of the Old Order Amish community, believe that “God and the Bible authorize (them) with dominion over all the animals on the planet.”

Moreover, they argue in a suit filed Sept. 8 in federal court in Washington, D.C., that “use of a numbering system … constitutes some form of a `mark of the beast.”’

The Bible’s book of Revelation warns that the Antichrist will force everyone to receive the “number of the beast” during the end times.

The Amish men are joined in the suit by two ministers, Robert Keyworth, a Pentecostal pastor, and Rev. Roseanne Wyant, who is identified as “an ordained Reverend of the Christian faith.”

All six plaintiffs contend the tagging requirements violate their religious beliefs, which are outlined in numerous Bible verses, according to the suit.

“Plaintiffs’ religion pervades and determines virtually their entire way of life, regulating it from diet through the strictly enforced rules of their respective church communities,” the suit says.

In addition, the ID program forces the Amish farmers to “violet tenets of their Old Order Amish beliefsâÂ?¦they are forced to use technology they would not ordinarily use.”

The Falls Church, Va.-based Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund is representing the farmers.

_ Daniel Burke

Quote of the Day: The Rev. Howard Bess of Palmer, Alaska

(RNS) “She scares me. She’s Jerry Falwell with a pretty face.”

_ Retired American Baptist pastor Howard Bess of Palmer, Alaska, who says his book, “Pastor, I Am Gay,” was on a “hit list” of books that vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin wanted banned when she was mayor of neighboring Wasilla. He was quoted by Salon.com.

END RNS