That’s an oxymoron, when you’re talking about social policies that should affect everyone equally. And a double standard. But both are at play in politics and media on a regular basis. When religion is involved, it gets more gnarly.

GetReligion has an interesting post on all this, especially as it involves the ongoing tension publicly playing out between Rep. Patrick Kennedy and Providence Bishop Thomas Tobin. The key snip picks up after citing a Reuters faith blog piece that asks questions about who can oppose various Catholic Church teachings and to what consequence. Legitimate questions which we hear asked all the time, but not so intelligibly answered.

These are not bad questions. They are brought up routinely by critics of the Catholic Church and critics of the church’s teaching on abortion. Sometimes I think we should have a GetReligion drinking game. If we did, there would have to be an entry for taking a shot when someone commented on a post by questioning the church’s consistency.

But — and I say this as an avowed non-Roman Catholic here — these questions also have answers. And since these questions are raised so regularly, the media need to do a better job of at least explaining what the Catholic Church teaches in this case.

There’s a key point right there. Religion reporters do not have the same aptitude for their subject as….say…..business or economy reporters, who have to know the language of the markets and translate it for those who don’t.

So GetReligion goes to a good source for answers to Catholic Church teachings on the issues in question here. Pope Benedict:

Not all moral issues have the same moral weight as abortion and euthanasia. For example, if a Catholic were to be at odds with the Holy Father on the application of capital punishment or on the decision to wage war, he would not for that reason be considered unworthy to present himself to receive Holy Communion. While the Church exhorts civil authorities to seek peace, not war, and to exercise discretion and mercy in imposing punishment on criminals, it may still be permissible to take up arms to repel an aggressor or to have recourse to capital punishment. There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not however with regard to abortion and euthanasia…

Regarding the grave sin of abortion or euthanasia, when a person’s formal cooperation becomes manifest (understood, in the case of a Catholic politician, as his consistently campaigning and voting for permissive abortion and euthanasia laws), his Pastor should meet with him, instructing him about the Church’s teaching, informing him that he is not to present himself for Holy Communion until he brings to an end the objective situation of sin, and warning him that he will otherwise be denied the Eucharist.

Bishop Tobin has done that, discreetly. Rep. Kennedy has taken his refutation public. Tobin responded in that public arena. And continues to clarify.