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The cries about “attacks on religious liberty” says a lot more about those making the charges than the parties accused of such offenses.
On the surface, the claims evokes images of ugly persecution, including the rounding up of people into camps where they will be the victims of all sorts of evil.
Now while there may be anecdotal examples of people and companies being too zealous to not show religious favoritism, such an image is a serious flight of fancy.
This is not to say that there weren’t cases of religious persecution in the past. The Romans accused Christians of cannibalism and starting the Great Fire, thereby justifying their feeding them to the lions and other brutal acts.
Mary I of England – a Catholic stalwart – burned over 300 of her subjects at the stake for practicing the so-called wrong religion of Protestantism.
Even as we speak, Christians are being persecuted in foreign countries.
But the argument of “attacks on religious liberties” cries out for a degree of levity
Being fed to ravenous lions by vindictive Romans in no way compares to Catholic Charities not being able to take gay taxpayers’ money for the adoption of children while declaring these gays unfit under the guise of religion.
Nor does being burned at the stake by a zealot queen compare to not being able to interfere with women receiving vital contraception.
To even imply so is the flight of fancy of an entity with a martyr complex. And more to the point, it is an indictment on the faith of those who would push such bogus images.
I come from the black worship experience, which was very vital to the survival of the African-American community in this country.
Before the days of the mega-churches and the sold out arenas, my people clung to their songs, wooden churches, and faith even in the face of ugly oppression. Down south, we sang and worshipped with vigor even though we were aware that at any moment, any racist with a bad attitude would and could snuff out our very lives and get away with these wanton acts of violence.
So why did we do it? Simply because of our faith in God. We knew that in spite of all that we faced, God would see us through our trials and tribulations and into better days.
And to a degree, we were right.
So to those crying about “attacks on religious liberty,” many of whom have it better than any of my black ancestors, I say where is your faith?
If you truly believe in God, then you have nothing to worry about. The Bible which you claim to follow says that no weapon formed against you will prosper.
If there is some type of conspiracy to beat down your “religious liberty,” wouldn’t it be doomed to fail?
What are you scared about?
Or could it be that these cries about “attacks on religious liberty” are nothing more than cynical ploys to either scare your followers or appeal to your own egos?
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Pure politics — that’s all it is. It has nothing to do with faith or religious freedom. Fear and ego are, I’m sure, part of it, but the fear is a tactic, the ego is a gimme, while the operative motivations are money and power.
Do I question the sincerity of the likes of Tony Perkins, Brian Brown, Mat Staver, Matt Barber, and the Catholic bishops? You bet your sweet bippy I do.
This is just like their famous annual “War on Christmas”. There is no war. But, their beliefs are apparently so weak that they require the affirmation of everyone in the public square in order to buttress their fragile faith.
There are a fair number of Christians for which I’d love to revive the practice of using felidae pantherinae to solve that problem.
I am reminded of those who seek the power of the State to buttress their belief in the Biblical Creation and opposition to the teaching of evolution.
If they truly believe the truth is on their side, then surely they will ultimately prevail. They seem to lack faith, or at least patience.
Listening to the arguments of Creationists, it’s evident that what bothers them most is the concept of abiogenesis: i.e. life emerging out of chemical reactions on the early Earth, transforming chains of proteins in the “primordial soup.” If the primary target of their attacks is this theory–one less well-settled than what grew from Darwin’s work, admittedly–then evidently they’re uncertain what evolution is.
Some interpretations of evolution can easily be cited to support the notion that humans are uniquely poised at the top of a hierarchy. Evolution doesn’t undermine Genesis; in that context, it’s simply irrelevant.
These whiners never seem to care about the religious liberties of the thousands of churches and clergy who support same-sex marriage. I guess “religious liberty” is only for people who belong to their religion.