ON SUNDAY ONLY

Religious freedom in America is at a tipping point. But first, a pop quiz. What is religious freedom in the USA?

Does it mean one can assemble for worship? Does it mean one can live their life in accordance with their sincerely held religious beliefs? Does it mean the government won’t censor what is said from the pulpit?

The answer is D: None of the above.

I am not a good Catholic. In fact, I’m not a Catholic at all. But I concur with the Catholic community who are furious over what is happening. And they have good reason to be upset. ALL of us should be alarmed.

Obamacare now requires that the health insurance policies for Catholic hospitals include contraceptive coverage, the use of which goes against sincerely held Catholic doctrine. This issue has three facets:

1. The Catholic Church is not actually providing contraception directly, they are just paying for it. But if paying for something “wrong” is not wrong in and of itself, then it also would not be “wrong” to hire a hit man to murder someone. The point is that compensating someone to do something “wrong” is just as wrong as the act itself. Don’t get hung up over whether or not using contraceptives is ‘wrong’ – that is not the point. The point is the government is showing complete disregard for the ability of Catholics to exercise their sincerely held beliefs, simply because the government doesn’t share those same beliefs.
2. The Catholic church had written a letter for priests to read from the pulpit. But Catholic military chaplains were unilaterally barred from reading that letter from the pulpit last Sunday. I’m not that familiar with China, but it sounds to me that the situation here may be similar. The government approves the churches and what they can, or cannot, preach.
3. The government has been urging the Catholic church to back off their opposition, since the plan is to not actually enforce the existing health insurance provision for awhile. Really? Is the government saying that laws should be ignored, if punishment for violations are not imminent? Yep, if you don’t think you will be caught and punished, then get over it – pretend the law doesn’t exist! Good argument, Uncle.

But the assault on ‘religion’ is not directed toward Catholics only. Dozens of churches have had to close their doors in New York because they met in public buildings. These buildings are leased to others for numerous functions, but recently leases to churches were abruptly terminated simply because theirs was a ‘religious’ use. Of course I don’t think there is a clear distinction between the sacred and the secular (even stop lights have a moral purpose). And the term ‘religious’ invariably is used to denote a Theistic rather than Atheistic context.

Which brings me back to my original point… A segment of non-Catholics are trying to use the force of government to compel Catholics to live as though they were Atheists. This mentality toward sincerely held religious beliefs is a slippery slope toward total loss of freedom for anyone and everyone to live their convictions outside of one hour on Sunday morning. And even then, remarks must be limitied to what is politically correct.