Bishop says singer's views push moral evil

ST. LOUIS, April 26 (UPI) -- A Roman Catholic archbishop accused rock singer Sheryl Crow of pushing "moral evils" with her support of embryonic stem cell research and abortion rights.

St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke said he felt so strongly about the matter that he resigned earlier from a Catholic hospital foundation's board because it wouldn't uninvite Crow from performing at a concert benefiting the hospital's children's cancer center, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Thursday.

Burke said he had to take a stand against someone who "publicly espouses the mass destruction of innocent human beings" being part of fundraising for a Catholic hospital.

"What if, for instance, there were someone appearing who we discovered was openly racist and who made statements and took actions to promote racism?" he said at a news conference Wednesday. "Do you think that I would let that go on?"

Crow, a native of Kennett, Mo., 210 miles south of St. Louis, is to perform Saturday to raise money for the Bob Costas Cancer Center at Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center.

Allen Allred, an organizer for the event and foundation board member, said he is "disappointed and saddened" at the attempt to politicize an event that Crow is attending to help sick children.