ENDEAVOUR FORUM AD2000 ARTICLES - BABETTE FRANCIS
Freedom of religion American style
Babette Francis, February, 2012
President Obama, during his
speech to the Australian Parliament
last November, welcomed
the rise of a peaceful
China while rejecting that country’s
one-party political system: “History
is on the side of the free; prosperity
without freedom is another form of
poverty.”
His statement is ironic because
although the US is a democracy the
Obama Administration has been attacking
religious freedom. And the US
situation will become relevant to
Australia if same-sex “marriage” is legalised
with homosexuals encouraged
to pursue anti-discrimination legal actions
aided by Equal Opportunity
Commissioners, while their hapless
targets are left to fend for themselves.
The US Catholic bishops have
pointed out that attacks on religious
liberty are a serious matter for all
Christians as meanwhile the Church
in the US continues to expend increasing
time and money battling attacks
on religious liberty, as the programs
the Church runs are sued for not
complying with secular and neopagan
norms. These demand the provision
of abortion services and contraception
in hospitals and health
plans, and the facilitating of homosexual
adoptions.
Here the Church
wins some suits and loses others.
Msgr Charles Pope of the Archdiocese
of Washington, DC, writes:
“Religious exemptions are taken away
or interpreted so narrowly no one can
comply. This ... will have a large effect
on our ability to evangelise as well as
care for the poor, run schools, hospitals
and even staff parishes.”
Bishops in three Illinois dioceses
announced in November that
they had dropped their lawsuit
against the state and would shut
down their adoption and foster care
programs, after a civil union law required
them to provide their services
to homosexual couples: “Laws are
making it very difficult for faithbased
agencies that believe marriage
is between one man and one woman.”
The conscience protections of
Catholics are under assault, particularly
by the Department of Health
and Human Services (HHS).
In 2008
the American Civil Liberties Union of
Massachusetts brought suit against
the US Conference of Catholic Bishops
to eliminate a grant to programs that aid victims of human
trafficking. Because Catholic programs
don’t refer for abortions, the
ACLU alleged that public support
amounts to the establishment of religion.
The Obama Justice Department
defended the grant in court, but in
October 2011 HHS abruptly ended
the funding.
The main victims of Obama’s
policies are not bishops but the poor
and vulnerable.
USCCB-sponsored anti-trafficking
programs provide employment
assistance, legal services, child care
and medical screening. But because
case managers won’t refer for abortions,
HHS would rather see these
programs closed in favour of less
effective alternatives. It is now
standard procedure by the Obama
administration to deny funding to
Catholic programs solely because of
their pro-life beliefs.
HHS has drawn conscience
protections so narrowly that Catholic
colleges, universities, hospitals or any
Catholic institution that employs and
serves non-Catholics will be required
to offer health coverage that includes
contraception and drugs that cause
abortion.
Public square
Msgr Pope comments: “The
pro-abortion lobby, the homosexual
rights activists and the secularists in
general had all marched into town
under the banner of tolerance,
freedom of conscience, and ‘choice.’
It is clear they and their advocates in
Government have no interest in any
of these supposed values, and the lie
of their ‘tolerance’ is on full display.
“The message is: Comply or
leave the public square. And if we do
not succeed in forcing you to comply
the first time, we will continue to sue
you and haul you into court with our
well funded legal teams, and make
you spend all your money and time
defending our attacks until you have
to leave, from financial exhaustion.”
Churches may get exemptions
in Australia from having to perform
same-sex ceremonies, but what about
the “butcher, the baker and candlestick
maker”?
An Iowa baker who, because of
her Christian values, politely declined
to provide a wedding cake for two
lesbians may face legal action. Samesex
“marriage” was legalised in Iowa in 2009 by the state Supreme Court.
Victoria Childress said, “I didn’t
do the cake because of my convictions
about their lifestyle ... It’s not so
much to do with them, as it’s to do
with me, and my walk with God and
what I will answer to Him for. They
thanked me for being honest with
them. They were very pleasant. I did
not belittle them. There were no
condescending remarks made, nothing.”
However, the couple later released
a statement calling Childress a
“bigot,” and are considering suing.
Christian businesses in America,
including reception owners and
photographers declining to service
homosexual couples, have routinely
been targeted for lawsuits and
harassment in states that have legalised
same-sex “marriage” or civil unions.
The complaints are spread
through homosexual blogs, with homosexual
activists encouraged to
keep pressure on the “offenders”.
The Maryland Bishops’ Catholic
Conference document, “The Most Sacred
of All Property: Religious Freedom
and the People of Maryland”,
merits study by all those concerned
with religious freedom in Australia:
“Religious freedom is not
merely a civil right afforded us by our
government, but, more fundamentally,
it is a natural right due each
person because of his or her human
dignity. ... Individuals who are free to
exercise religious liberty are free to
live out their faith in service to others
and to build up the common good. ...
“Everyone has the right to
freedom of thought, conscience, and
religious belief. No one should be
subject to coercion because of those
beliefs …
Society as a whole benefits
when all citizens in our pluralistic democracy
… remain free to participate
in public life and to do so in accordance
with their sincerely held beliefs.”
Babette Francis is National and Overseas
Coordinator of Endeavour Forum Inc.
Member Organisation, World Council for Life and Family
NGO in Special Consultative Status with ECOSOC of the UN