| | In the past several weeks, I have become increasingly concerned about the fate of faith in America. Not because I think Christians are off-track, or because I think the church is flawed. Rather, I have been concerned because I see our culture becoming increasingly intolerant of our beliefs, and I fear before my children are grown our faith may be culturally unacceptable, or even illegal.
A few days ago, I was watching Dr. Phil. Apparently he is the bravest man in the world, because his topic that afternoon was "Gay Marriage: Right or Wrong?" He had a panel of six experts, three representing each side of the argument, and he strove throughout the show to provide an open forum for discussion and to keep tempers under control. But one question was raised that concerned me, and nobody addressed it; one of the anti-Gay Marriage representatives raised the concern that, if gay marriage is legalized throughout the country, churches will be required to perform ceremonies uniting gay couples regardless of their stance on the subject. Doctors will be required to perform in vitro fertilization for gay couples regardless of their personal beliefs. Psychologists will be required to counsel patients whose sexual orientation they believe to be sinful. Christian organizations of all kinds will be stripped of their right to practice their religion freely. This is not an extremist or unlikely prediction: these things are actually currently happening. For reference, check out this article in The Washington Post.
The argument against Christians is this: once people enter the marketplace, they are providers of a service who must provide it without discrimination. This argument, which had been upheld in courts, is not Constitutionally defensible. In a free country, anyone who is not qualified or comfortable providing a voluntary service within a private organization should be permitted to respectfully refer a potential client to another provider for service. In the same way that a doctor may refuse to treat a relative because of an emotional compromise, a doctor should be allowed to decline to provide a service due to being religiously compromised. But that does not satisfy the homosexual community. Although the doctors and psychiatrists in the aforementioned cases referred their homosexual patients to other qualified practitioners who would be happy to serve them, the gay community sued and won. This battle is not about homosexuals getting the same treatment as everyone else; it is about forcing people to renounce their religious views via litigation.
This attack on religious freedom is visible in other areas as well. The one that particularly caught my attention recently (due to the murder of late-term abortion provider Dr. George Tiller), was the question of abortion. I read this great blog on the subject, which got me thinking and doing research. It turns out that the Freedom of Choice Act, which is supported by Obama, will actually make it illegal for Catholic and other religiously affiliated medical institutions to be protected from being required to perform abortions. Read about it here, at the Americans United for Life website.
I have heard people say that this issue is nonexistent, because gay couples wouldn't want to get married in a church that didn't support their lifestyle, and women wouldn't ask Catholic doctors to abort their babies. The evidence shows otherwise. These things are actually happening. This is not hypothetical; it is real.
These issues of growing importance have one frightening similarity: they strip Americans of faith from the right to live in a way that is religiously acceptable to them. If these issues continue to develop along the same lines, I believe that before I die I will witness the outlawing of morality based on faith. I believe we will witness the revocation of freedom of religion.
Is that right less viable than a woman's right to choose whether to bear children? Is it less essential than a person's right to sleep with the partner of his choice? God forbid! This is the foundational ideal of our country, the primary right upon which our nation was founded. I reserve the right to freely practice my religion in any way that does not infringe upon the foundational Constitutional rights of others. I reserve the right to attend a church that does not marry or ordain homosexuals and to teach my daughters that abortion is morally unacceptable. I reserve the right to petition my governmental representatives to oppose laws that ratify such behaviors. After all, this, like so much else, is a very slippery slope. If we start mandating the actions of religious groups in these areas, where does it stop? Where does governmental interference in organized religion end?
If you care about freedom of religion, join the opposition. It doesn't matter what you believe about homosexuality or abortion or any other hot-button issue; if you believe that every American has to right to practice his religion without fear of litigation, lend your support to the religious institutions endangered by this trend. Protect our freedom of religion. Write your representative. Sign petitions. And most of all, urgently petition God to intervene on behalf of religious America. Pray without ceasing that our right to practice our faith in any way we see fit will not be taken away, now or ever. Through the prayers of the faithful, God works miracles, and he will protect our right to worship him.
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| | Posted 6/1/2009 11:18 PM - 14 Views - 4 eProps - 4 comments
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