Locked Up

         “I expect to die in bed,” Cardinal Francis George of Chicago recently said, “My successor will die in prison, and his successor will be a martyr in the public square.”
         The Cardinal’s words are no exaggeration.
         Indeed, it may seem peculiar, even outrageous to us as typical, well-protected Christians who rest under the shade of a favorable suburban society. We are truly blessed with faithful families, abundant parishes, and the Catholic community to teach us and lead us in our faith. But, in reality, that assurance we have of the ability to exercise our faith and believe as we choose is swiftly deteriorating.
         The First Amendment to the Constitution grants us the freedom of religion in stating: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Adopted in 1791, the First Amendment for years has protected our rights in America to exercise our religion freely, and for it we are greatly thankful. But, as Bishop David Malloy of the Rockford, Illinois Diocese explains, we are being reduced to mere freedom of worship – that is, attending Sunday Mass and praying the Rosary – while we are resolutely denied our actual freedom of religion – which means to exercise our religion to its fullest extent.
         These boundaries placed upon us are especially evident in the President’s HHS Mandate, in which the government has imposed regulations forcing religious institutions to fund items such as contraception and abortion, which are unquestionably against our Catholic principles. Thankfully, to protect churches from this requirement, there is an exemption from the mandate, however its effect is severely minimized when considering the fact that it only applies to institutions that “overwhelmingly serve their own members”. In identifying “their own members”, it is implied that, to be exempt, the religious institutions must hire and serve members exclusively of their own faith, and also qualify as a religious order in the tax code. In fact, Catholic schools and hospitals are not exempt, since because they do not serve exclusively Catholic students and patients. Furthermore, Jesus and the Apostles would not even qualify for the exemption, because they went and served the entire community, not just their own followers. Indeed, as Bishop Malloy says, the government has essentially offered us an ultimatum: violate the beliefs of the Church, pay a fine, or go out of business. Religious liberty should not be limited to the freedom of worship – Jesus himself told us, “I will make you fishers of men”, and despite the government’s actions today, we have a right to be just that under the First Amendment.
         It’s unfortunate, but there truthfully is an anti-Christian air these days in the United States. Why else would the University of Illinois fire professor Ken Howell after he answered a student’s question in saying that he agreed with the Church? Why else would NBC’s Brian Williams only allot 17 seconds to the March for Life in Washington, which actually drew half a million people to the capital? Not to get too far ahead, but the conflict we are faced with today is beginning to resemble the early stages of the Cristero War in early 1900s Mexico, in which over 40 priests were murdered, and countless Catholics tortured and killed.
         There really is no justification for religious persecution in a country like America. In fact, the very reason many of the colonists came from England in the first place was to practice their faith freely. Religion dominated much of their lives, and with the King leading the Church in England; they were left without a way to legally exercise their religious beliefs. Christians, Puritans, and other religious groups that were intensely persecuted in England came to America, the supposed utopia, centered on the ideas of John Locke, in which religious freedom could rightfully endure.
         This dream of the colonists was fully supported by the Founding Fathers, in particular George Washington, who later wrote, “If I could have entertained the slightest apprehension, that the constitution framed in the convention, where I had the honor to preside, might possibly endanger the religious rights of any ecclesiastical society, certainly I would never have placed my signature to it.”
         In fact, many of the Founding Fathers were Christians themselves. The nation they established and influenced now has “In God We Trust” on its coins, in addition to “One Nation, Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance, and neither of those transpire by sheer chance. Additionally, Presidents customarily use a Bible for the swearing-in at the inauguration, a practice begun by Washington himself.
         Nonetheless, the Founding Fathers by no means tried to make Christianity the official religion of America. Instead, they fought fervently for religious justice for all – and given their own Christian faith they certainly would not allow the persecution that is emerging today. Dating back to 1752, the inscription on the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia quotes Leviticus 25:10: “Proclaim liberty throughout the land to all the inhabitants thereof”.
         Thanks to men like Washington, all Americans have been blessed with freedom of religion – including Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Muslims, and even the antireligious. But, that said, why in any case should views against religion gain favor with the government, such as removing God from our coins or from public buildings? If the antireligious are offered religious liberty too, shouldn’t they receive the same treatment as the rest?
         Religious persecution and inequality today is commonly ignored and considered trivial, yet hovers as an issue that will only escalate in the years to come. We need to take Cardinal George’s words into serious consideration – what will society be like a few generations from now? Will we still be free? Unless America is content with facing the turmoil Mexico did in the Cristero War, something needs to be done.
         This is only the beginning.