Monday, July 9, 2012

Religious Freedom in the US from the USCCB

Many years ago, Rush Limbaugh (and you don't have to agree with him) stated that one day, the "food police" will legislate what you can and cannot eat and drink.  Many laughed at him, but look at what is happening in NYC and in school lunch rooms around the country.

Some of us, including myself, stated that the same thing would happen when Obama became president.  He and his ilk would allow us to practice our faith -- we can pick it up at the church door and then leave it there, when we left the church building.  Many laughed and scoffed at us. 

It seems that the USCCB, via their blog, have come to state just this: there is an attack on religious freedom. 

One last thought...I wonder how many of those who voted for Obama have their religious freedom now threatened?  And do they really care?

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Look in the United States, where freedom of religion is guaranteed by the First Amendment’s free exercise clause, and you see a sophisticated type of assault. It is unbloody, but far-reaching. Ironically, the assaults are not from some guerilla group or despot, but from the government. Foreign nations that look to the U.S. to protect their religious freedom have to shudder.
The assaults vary, but what they have in common is preventing religious bodies from operating according to their moral standards. For example, through the new Affordable Care Act most employers, including many religious ones, are compelled to provide free-of-charge to employees and their families contraception, female sterilization, and abortion-inducing drugs, even when they violate church teachings. Government in a miserly gesture says it will grant an exception to entities it defines as religious enough to merit protection of their religious liberty. That means the parish church is religious enough but not the church’s hospitals, schools, colleges, soup kitchens and other social services. You may think the latter obviously are religious works but the government says they are not if you serve needy people other than your co-religionists. Catholicism calls Catholics to help those in need.

Hard to live out the free exercise of your religion with this HHS mandate, the first of its kind in U.S. history. To add insult to injury, for centuries these church services have very effectively helped people who otherwise would have had to rely on government for such care. In fact, one out of six people in the U.S. who need hospital care get it at a Catholic hospital.


A New Jersey judge recently found that a Methodist ministry violated state law when the ministry declined to allow two women to hold a “civil union” ceremony on its private property. Also recently, a civil rights complaint was filed against the Catholic Church in Hawaii by those wanting to use a chapel to hold a same-sex“marriage” ceremony. Is the country better for such in-your-face rejection of a church’s teaching?

To read the entire posting, click here.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

There is Religious Freedom for everyone liberal including budist lesbians but Not SSPX and other Traditional Catholics???