Every Sunday, I am reminded that right of religious freedom
in the United States
is in imminent danger of being outlawed.
Every Sunday, I pull on the doors to the church ever so slightly,
expecting them to be locked and the parish priests arrested and tortured for
their beliefs. It’s gotten to the point
that I think I need a disguise on Sundays in case the government is watching
where I worship, how I worship, and to whom I pray. At least, that’s what I’m being told.
On Sunday, services ended with a prayer to protect Catholic
religious freedom in America. I am beginning to wonder if the calls to
protect religious freedom are actually coded calls to protect religious
orthodoxy by voting against a certain Socialist who wants to take away freedom
and while he’s at it, more than a few guns.
Focus on the Family’s political arm is sending Iowa voters a flyer claiming that President Obama thinks “we’re no longer a Christian nation”. When the President states that we’re a pluralistic nation of many faiths, I would hope that people claiming to be protecting religious freedom agree. I am apparently mistaken.
Doug Saunders in The
Globe and Mail discussed the ugly side of “religious freedom” in a recent
article:
“The concept (of religious freedom) has been invoked by the
Indian Hindus to justify killing Muslims, by Sri Lankan Buddhists to imprison
Hindus, by Israeli Jews to deny Muslims citizenship, and by Egyptian Islamists
to oppress Coptic Christians. In many
places, religious freedom refers to the right to restrict women’s freedom.”
He added: “That’s why
the most important religious freedom is freedom from religion.”
The public may be starting to agree and they are voting with
their denominational preferences. Members
of a Protestant religion no longer represent the majority of Americans. One of the fastest growing religions is the
absence of membership in any organized religion. Could it be that as religious institutions
become more muscular and louder in the public square that potential members are
being driven away? Call the Marketing
department!
The world’s organized religions have played a vital role in the
march of civilization throughout history, and thankfully so. Where would Europe
be without the Christianity and the church structure? It cannot be ignored however that the
combination of nation-states and religion also had painful results for those
outside the majority faith. Who can
forget the freedom of the Spanish Inquisition, the freedom of the Salem Witch
Trials, the freedom brought to non-believers during The Crusades, and the
freedom of the Shia in Iraq?
Saunders made one more point: “Using government to promote religious
freedom over other freedoms will only embolden extremists – of every sect.”
In our country today, politicians seem emboldened when
divining God’s will for the rest of us. Republican
Richard Mourdock, his party's U.S. Senate candidate in Indiana, arguing in a debate last week that
a rape pregnancy "is something that God intended to happen." This is
quickly becoming a major national controversy for the candidate -- and Mitt
Romney, who's championed Mourdock -- for good reason. It’s a troubling trend.
Maybe it’s not Will and Grace and their message of tolerance
that’s destroying freedom; maybe it’s organized religion and its message of
hierarchical obedience and intolerance of other religions.
I end with this clip from The Week:
A schizophrenic inmate
on Florida’s
death row can be executed, a state judge ruled, because his grandiose religious
delusions are quite common. The legally
insane may not be executed, but Judge David Glant ruled that murderer John
Ferguson’s claim to be the “Prince of God” who will sit at God’s right hand is
“a relatively normal Christian belief” and doesn’t prove he’s crazy.
Next Sunday when I pull on that church door, maybe it will
only be locked for me.
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