The relentless assault on our religious liberties

By Tom Quiner

The Bill of Rights hits it head on with the First Amendment:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

According to the primacy of its position in our Constitution, the “freedom of religion” is THE most important right we have.

Someone should tell the president and his administration. They are hard at work at stripping away our freedom of religion.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services used the heavy-hand of the State to require nearly all private health insurance plans to provide coverage for sterilization and contraception, including abortifacients, whether the insurance company wanted to provide it or not; whether their customers wanted the coverage or not.

The Catholic Church said this is a violation of the religious freedom of Catholics.

The Obama administration said “tough.”

The Catholic Church works with human trafficking victims. The Obama administration now bars them from helping these tragic people unless they offer the ‘full range’ of reproductive services including abortion.

The Catholic Church said this is a violation of the religious freedom of Catholics.

The Obama administration said “tough.”

Catholic Relief Services works to help prevent and treat AIDS in Africa and other developing nations. Now the State Department’s U.S. Agency for International Development is pressuring them and other contractors to provide contraception or bow out, this according to Bishop William Lori, the first chairman of the Catholic bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty.

Bishop Lori expressed concerns that the Obama administration has not only decided to ignore the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)  but that they are “filing briefs actively attacking DOMA’s constitutionality, claiming that supporters of the law could only have been motivated by bias and prejudice.”

For the record, DOMA was passed by overwhelming bi-partisan majorities. In the House, the vote was 342-67. In the Senate, the vote was 85-14. A Democratic president, Bill Clinton, signed the bill into law.

Were all of those Democrats biased and prejudiced? Of course not.

In this election cycle, a lot of voters are fixated on economics and government finances. These are vital issues. But nothing trumps our religious liberties.

There has never been an administration so willing to challenge this fundamental right as the Obama administration. As Bishop Lori said.

“Thus government has a perennial obligation to acknowledge and protect religious liberty as fundamental, no matter the moral and political trends of the moment.”

1 Comment

  1. Tom Maly on November 15, 2011 at 8:07 am

    What was an ebbing away of religious freedom has been become a torrent under the Obama administration.