separation of church and state? i m afraid the constitution doesn t say anything about the separation of church and politics. are you saying that s a good thing? i m saying that s the way it is. do you think the voter needs to know if i go to church? i don t need to know but then i m not going to vote for you anyway. former republican senator john danforth has written a book whose title would terrify the secretly atheist county in the west wing. the book is the relevance of religion, how faithful people can change bpolitics. back with us to discuss the book is senator danforth. reverend danforth. you re episcopalian. that s right. i created that republican candidate in the west wing. i came up with what if he is secretly an atheist.
jake tapper with poppy harlow. let s go out to miguel right now for a second. miguel, tell us what you re seeing. this is the moment. this is incredible. look at the people. the motorcade is just coming around the way here. i m going to get on my tippy toes and you can just see the top of the pope mobile coming down market street. this crowd is about to go wild. how excited are you for the pope? very, very cool. there are people from el salvador, mexico, mexico, sierra leone, congo, texas, philadelphia, of course. hannah, i m going to talk to you very briefly. you re a lifelong episcopalian but have come to see the pope, why? i think he s a breath of fresh air, his policies on the environment, he s just speaking to areas that have not been
potentially evolve to the point where, as i was discussing with my colleague chris matthews earlier today, much like the anglican church, episcopalian in the united states, women are recolle rectors, they serve the equivalent of a preach in their church. the issue of the married priesthood and the issue of opening up the priesthood beyond making a life-long vow of celibacy. let s not forget how the church has evolved, i have a ph.d. in theology. i didn t introduce you as doctor, i should considering your earned it. a question for you on a different topic. pope francis touched on the immigration issue when it came to his address on thursday. visited the children s school in east harlem in new york city, a larger latino neighborhood in the upper portions of manhattan for those that aren t familiar. there was a recent poll i want
think about it this way, all politics is local. if you are a voting in the united states on suffrage, and you are a male, and only males were allowed to the vote for women to have the right to vote, you are probably married. you are married to someone who wants to vote. and that is a strong lobby, don t you think? and the men didn t have much choice, did you think? and somebody is good hearted and whatever the motive, they did agree to have women to have the vote, and you don t have that situation in the priesthood and you don t have a woman next to the guy saying, come on buddy, get your act together, and how about equality for once, a n you say it, so believe it for once, and whereas the episcopalian, you have married priests, and the wife saying to the priest or the minister in that case, hey, bud buddy, get your act together and how about the women priest, because there is no way to get to there, and you don t get to the women priest through the mar
liberalization versus conservativism. if you look at successful churches, evangelical churches. then the main-line protestant churches, episcopalian, presbyteri presbyterian. those main-line churches become very liberal about the gay orientation, they re open to that more than the catholic church has done. they re not doing so well in terms of numbers and people going to church. the evangelical church, maybe because they re more lively, if you will. what s the strength of liberalization and conservatism in terms of encouraging the size and success of your flock? let s begin with the united states, chris. i think it s fair to say that the liveliest parts of the church in the united states, the growing parts of the church in the united states, whether we re talking about parishes, diocese, seminaries, religious orders of