5 Big Lies About the Phony 'War on Religion' - & Fox manufactures rift between Obama and Catholics

[Bill USA]

http://www.alternet.org/story/154059/5_Big_Lies_About_the_Phony_%27War_on_Religion%27/

Exploiting religious divides has long been one of the ways conservatives seek to win over working-class voters, whom they otherwise don't seem to care about. Abortion, gay rights and religious education become wedge issues for politicians like Rick Santorum, who blend a kind of faux-populism with frighteningly reactionary sentiments about the rights of women and LGBT people.

That's just it, too. The claims of “war on religion” seem to always come when a move by the administration, a court, or legislature has granted more rights and protections to those who are not straight, male and usually white. When white evangelicals and Catholics claim that Obama's declaring a war on religion, they mean on their religion. They're evoking the same xenophobia as the demands for the birth certificate, as the claims that Obama is a Muslim. The insinuation is that the president isn't American, isn't like them, and thus is to be feared, hated, or simply voted out of office.

We've collected five examples of the GOP and religious-right leaders claiming their rights are being infringed when the government tells them they can no longer use their beliefs as an excuse to discriminate against others.

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also:

Fox and Friends manufactures rift between Obama and Catholics

Fox & Friends has been struggling recently with two things: the improving economic indicators and President Obama's rising approval ratings. This morning, for example, the show hosted Dick Morris to use a widely discredited line of attack in an attempt to cast doubt on the improving employment numbers. Later in the show, co-host Gretchen Carlson conceded that Obama's approval rating is increasing as a result of a growing economy, but immediately followed that by claiming "some people say" that the employment figures "are fabricated," a charge they have only begun discussing since unemployment has been dropping.

But nowhere has their attempt to spin poll numbers been so characterized by outright falsehoods as their attempt to claim Catholics overwhelmingly oppose Obama's recent mandate that health insurance companies cover women's reproductive health.

On this morning's show, for example, after Carlson suggested the administration was "fabricat[ing]" the employment numbers, co-host Brian Kilmeade replied, "You know, one thing that's not calculated into this is the Catholic vote, and the recent polls show that Catholics are just about 60 percent are against him, especially after what happened last week." Watch:

(video at link)

It's unclear why Kilmeade assumes national polling data wouldn't include Catholics, but one thing is certain: He is wrong about how Catholics are responding to the administration's contraception rule.
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[socialindependocrat]

1. One person was against contraception

I took a religion class and the instructor was a Catholic priest.

He said that the bishops all were in favor of contraception
but the Pope stood up and said -NO

Then a Catholic man in the class said, "You mean it wasn't God that said we couldn't use contraception?!"

Then added..

"There's going to be some changes around my house from now on!"

That's what I got - straight from a priest.