Family Research Council yesterday responded to a quote attributed to U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) by The Hill to the effect that Catholic Bishops and other conservative Christians should not have input in public policy debates. The Hill now reports that it inaccurately quoted the Congresswoman’s ABC News interview and that she said Christian groups should have input.

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins made the following comments: “We are pleased by this clarification and gratified that Rep. DeGette is not opposed to people of faith participating in the political process.

“However, Rep. DeGette accused the Catholic Bishops of controlling the outcome of the health care legislation and also accused them and other conservative Christians of violating the ‘wall of separation’ between church and state.

“Rep. DeGette is frustrated that her efforts to have the federal government pay for or at least subsidize abortion were thwarted by the Stupak-Pitts amendment. Anyone who has ever suffered legislative setbacks, as the pro-life movement has many times, understands this frustration. But what is unacceptable is the targeting by her of religious groups.

“Moreover, according to Zogby International, more than 70 percent of the American people have expressed their opposition to federal funding of abortion. That includes both religious and non-religious Americans, something advocates of federal financing of abortion on demand should find sobering.

“As to the substance of Rep. DeGette’s criticisms, neither the Bishops, the Catholic Church generally nor Evangelical Protestants are breaching any ‘wall.’ They are not controlling anything nor are they asking any American to accept a specific doctrinal statement. They are not asking for the federal government to endorse their denominations. They are simply participating in the American political process, employing their rights of free speech and religion as our Founders envisioned.

“One of the signers of our Declaration of Independence was Charles Carroll, a Catholic Marylander who believed deeply in both the American Republic and the religious liberty it ensures. In 1827, near the end of his long life, he wrote, ‘To obtain religious and civil liberty, I entered zealously into the Revolution … God grant that this religious liberty … be preserved to the end of time.’

“We at the Family Research Council respectfully would ask Rep. DeGette to ponder Charles Carroll’s wise words, and reflect on her aggravation with people of faith in the public square. We’re not going away, and as this reality settles in perhaps her aggravation, and public hostility, will become less pronounced.

SOURCE: Press Release from Family Research Council