To many used to recent Polish politics, the close connection between church and party will not come as a surprise. However, recent developments have seriously questioned the understanding of Jesus’s teachings. It has become public knowledge that Father Tadeusz Rydzyk, the self styled leader of Radio Marya has laid out an ultimatum to PiS with regards to the currently debated Lisbon Treaty. F. Rydzyk has proclaimed that if PiS do not stop the treaty from being ratified by the Polish parliament, then he will withdraw his support from the party. This means in effect all the listeners to Radio Marya who amount to the majority of votes PiS hold. This would in effect cripple PiS in any future elections.
The boundries between church and politics clearly seem to have been croosed by this recent move. While I grant that such matters as abortion law have an ethical and therefore religious aspect, the Treaty of Lisbon has a purely political dimension and as such is not part of the Church’s remit. This interfering by F. Rydzyk seems to contradict one of Jesus’s teachings where Jesus states: “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's.”
This statement by Jesus has become the cornerstone of European secularism and the separation of Church and State. F. Rydzyk seems to show either a profound ignorance of the bible (which would be strange coming form a monk) or perhaps a more sinister ability to pick and choose the bible’s teachings to fit his personal plans. Either way Poland needs to resist the ever present grip of F. Rydzyk and his ilk.
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