Establishing Atheism
By Michael R. Bowen (12/02/03)
Remember how, back in the days of the Moral Majority, Christian conservatives were always accused of wanting to "legislate morality"? The same accusation was raised during the recent Supreme Court case covering sodomy laws. It's raised, in fact, every time Christians stand up for their beliefs.
It's a smokescreen. A dodge. A lie.
Not only is morality not being legislated; the program today is to legislate immorality. Two cases bring this into focus: a case a few years ago in which state government tried to force Catholic teaching hospitals to provide training in abortion, and a recent case in California requiring Catholic organizations to provide contraceptives as part of the health benefits of their employees.
Imagine the NAACP being forced to hire Klansmen. Jewish schools required to teach Mein Kampf. Muslim schools ordered to distribute condoms. The affront would be the same, the public outcry would be loud, and the ACLU would be all over the case like white on rice. But these are Christian beliefs under fire. So there is no outcry, and there are no demonstrations. And the ACLU is on the side of the government, arguing that to permit Catholics to be true to their faith is to impose Church doctrine on non-Catholic women.
"The church's claim that it is coerced into violating its religious beliefs by state law requiring health insurance plans and disability policies to include prescription contraceptive coverage is nonsense", says California Deputy Attorney General Meg Hollaran.
In other words, Christians are free to believe what they wish, just so long as they don't act as if they really believe it. And they're required by law not just to tolerate what they regard as sin; they're being required to bankroll it. For the Left, it's not good enough anymore for Christians to just shut up. It's not enough to bar people from judgeships because they are Catholic. It's not good enough to erase all signs of Christian faith from the public sphere. Christians must also be forced to violate their faith. They must pay for contraception. They will not be allowed to adopt children if they teach them that homosexuality is wrong. (I'm not making that last one up: a mother was recently forbidden to do just that.) Far from establishing religion, our government is now in the business of establishing atheism.
Remember when Pat Buchanan was laughed out of the convention hall for saying there was a cultural war going on in America? Do you doubt him now? The Left long ago erased from the Constitution that part of the First Amendment forbidding the state from "prohibiting the free exercise" of religion; now they've taken the next step, and turned the First Amendment completely around: for the ACLU, it now reads "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or permitting the free exercise thereof."
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