04/17/2004: "Democratic Party at prayer"

Some of the same folks who would admonish Catholic bishops regarding their "disregard of church-state separation" gathered recently in Washington for "Ecumenical Advocacy Days for Global Peace with Justice." According to John Lomperis, writing for the IRD, it was the usual suspects�NCC, peace-and-justice, church-and-society types of various denominations, etc. What's interesting is the level of overt partisanship on display, not too surprising since the participants "included a[n] official of the Executive Committee of the Democratic National Committee, a liberal Democratic congressman, an aide to another liberal Democratic congressman, and an activist who fondly recalled her work on George McGovern�s 1972 presidential campaign.��Also speaking was Maureen Shea, the Director of Government Relations for the Episcopal Church, who previously held prominent positions in the Clinton Administration, a pro-abortion political action committee, and a Democratic-leaning activist group." Among the sillier, not to mention more revealing, moments was right at the start:

The conference opened with an impassioned sermon by Jim Winkler, the head of the United Methodist Board on Church and Society.�He excoriated "the disastrous war against Iraq" and the "oppressive imperial army" of the United States.

According to Winkler, the estimated $13 trillion spent by the U.S. military during the Cold War years was "the equivalent of burying money in the ground."��He claimed that the world would have been a "paradise" if the U.S. had had no national defense budget during that time and instead had spent that money "to bring the world adequate food, clothing, and shelter."�This expenditure, according to Winkler, could have guaranteed a clean environment and "adequate health care and free education" for "everyone in the world."

Translation: the whole world would have looked just like Cuba�Winkler's definition of "paradise."