(Last week I ran
across a commentary on President Obama’s commencement address at Notre
Dame. I had not paid much attention to
it, so reading some of his comments, now, were shocking. His definition of faith was a false one. I had not heard one commentary disputing the
way he described faith. His definition certainly
lies at the foundation of what he is doing now.
The false definition of faith was so bad, I can but guess that whoever
wrote the speech had not bothered to look up the Catholic teaching on this
matter and was simply arguing from a false premise that faith is always riddled
with doubt. This made me think of Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr. I do not believe that
he would have tolerated this redefinition of faith. So, I began looking for something about his
position on religious freedom. The
thoughts written below are the fruits of that reflection.)
I would like to
consider this quotation on the Constitutional guarantee of religious freedom:
The First Amendment guarantees two interrelated aspects of religious
freedom: the freedom to believe and to practice one’s religion and the freedom
from government sponsorship of religion. … Because the First Amendment’s
religion clauses ensure we all have true freedom of conscience, we are not told
what to believe or prohibited from practicing religion. ...
The circumstance that makes this interesting is that this
quote is part of a larger commentary from a surprising source. It was not written by the nation’s founders,
or by politician, or by a legislator. It
was not written by Pope Benedict or Cardinal Dolan or any other bishop or
priest. It was published in January of
this year on the ACLU website, written by a lawyer, Tyler Ray, commemorating
the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King and the passage of the Virginia Statute
for Religious Liberty, 226 years ago.
The commentary reminds one of the great legacy of faith in our country.
Today, as we remember the birth of
that great figure of the New Testament, John the Baptist, we recall, at the
same time that we are in a battle for the soul of our nation. The right to the free exercise of religion is
fundamental to the make-up of our political system. We would not have a nation but for the
passion for the freedom to serve God as one’s conviction of faith demands. James Madison, often called the Father of the Constitution,
identified conscience as "the most sacred of all property." He wrote
that "the Religion then of every man must be left to the conviction and
conscience of every man; and it is the right of every man to exercise it as
these may dictate." George Washington wrote that "the establishment
of Civil and Religious Liberty was the Motive that induced me to the field of
battle." (USCCB, Religious Freedom;
educational materials).
Without freedom of
religion we would never be able to correct the moral wrongs which afflict us as
a people. As the commentary from the
ACLU stated, “ It was this religious
freedom that enabled black churches and houses of worship across the country to
participate in the civil rights movement and bring about societal change. ….
Obviously, this exercise of religious freedom was not always
welcomed. John the Baptist was not too popular among the authorities at his
time. Herodius had him killed for his
challenge to her immorality. He was, for
the rulers of his time, the unmistakable voice of conscience. Religious freedom is the source of the
protection for our equality as free citizens of a free nation. It is the means by which we, as a nation,
choose to hold ourselves accountable to God for our misdeeds as a free country
with a free people. If our nation loses
its conscience, we citizens cease to be free.
Allow me to quote again from that ACLU commentary. Now
remember, this is not Fox News! This is
the ACLU website blog:
…. True freedom of religion is the guarantee that all are free to
follow and practice their faith — or no faith at all — without governmental
influence or interference. Dr. King might have said it best, that the church
“is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of
the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its
tool." (I will reveal the author of
this text later).
The Church is not a tool of the state.
How can we carry out our social and charitable works freely if the government
has the power to determine what those works shall be or how we go about living
out our faith in those endeavors. The
Church is not the tool of the state in hospitals. It is not the tool of the state in schools.
It is not the tool of the state in charities.
The Church is not the tool of the state when the state needs to be
corrected and when the people need to be reminded that they are sinners who
need a savior.
For some years now, our nation has been slowly trying to recreate itself
after the vision of socialist Europe. But our nation’s
constitution, founded upon the inalienable and God given rights of life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, cannot withstand a schizophrenia where
justice is defined only by such political authority, where the individual is increasingly dependent
upon the all-consuming state, and our nation's conscience, our churches, have no voice in the social and political arena. Justice comes from God. If we surrender to the idea that the government is
the grantor of justice, we are not free.
Our nation was built with a conscience. That conscience is the church
and without the freedom to live out our religious and moral convictions without
government interference, our nation’s soul is extinguished.
And finally, back
to that commentary:
“Dr. King said,
‘legally, constitutionally, or otherwise, the state certainly has no such
right’ to interfere in an individual’s exercise of religion. This statement
held true 226 years ago, it held true when Martin Luther King Jr. said it, and
it holds true today…” http://www.aclu.org/blog/content/celebrating-martin-luther-king-jr-and-religious-freedom, Tyler Ray, June 23, 2012.
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