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Kerry's ideas, on the other hand, move beyond secular to secularist. As Joseph Bottum noted in The Weekly Standard, in the thought of politicians like Kerry and former California Governor Gray Davis, "John F. Kennedy's promise that he would accept no order from religious officials in the performance of his office has devolved into the idea that religious officials may not even instruct believers in the tenets of their faith."

Some bishops don't want to use Communion as a threat when dealing with prochoice Catholic politicians. But it is certainly appropriate. Communion is the moment in church life at which we most deeply realize our connectedness, both to Jesus and to all his followers.

Our age idolizes personal autonomy. Both sexuality and Communion, by their very nature, create and foster interdependence. Our culture fights sexual interdependence by promoting abortion-on-demand and the misuse of contraception to help people bypass normal family and reproductive life. Sexual liberalism fosters the philosophy of personal autonomy—and that is in direct conflict with the interdependence created by both biblical sexuality and participation in Communion.

The religious schizophrenia of some politicians reveals the unintended fruit of hypermodern individualism. In many churches, this same spirit causes members to forget who they are: members, in the antique sense of "body parts." Writing about how believers receive the body of Christ in the Communion bread, Augustine of Hippo said, "The faithful know and receive the Body of Christ if they labor to be the body of Christ; and they become the body of Christ if they study to live by the Spirit of Christ: for that which lives by the Spirit of Christ is the body of Christ."

If church discipline of a public figure takes the form of denying him Communion, it is only a recognition of a disconnect that already exists. In a culture that emulates celebrities, high-profile individualism, when it goes unopposed, suggests to the rank and file that anything goes. Church leaders owe it to both the body of Christ and the body politic to help form the consciences of their members—including, and especially, politicians.

Copyright © 2003 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

More on the Catholic Church's communion issue includes:

Bishop Bans Pro-choice Voters From Communion | Votes may be considered sin if cast for politicians who support abortions. (May 14, 2004)

Catholic Life Group to Spend $500,000 Denouncing Kerry-friendly Bishops | Such pressure has made nearly every recent Sunday of John Kerry's campaign a spectacle (May 07, 2004)

Communion Watch Continues | Why John Kerry probably won't be denied any time soon. (April 12, 2004)

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June 2004, Vol. 48, No. 6