Imagine this after-inaugural litter as coming abortions...
Posted on 01/21/2009 4:46:45 AM PST by fabrizio
Washington DC, Jan 21, 2009 / 03:19 am (CNA).- Former Supreme Court nominee Judge Robert Bork has predicted that upcoming legal battles will have significant ramifications for religious freedom. He names as issues of major concern the continued freedom of Catholic hospitals to refuse to perform abortions and the likely “terrible conflict” resulting from the advancement of homosexual rights.
Speaking in an interview published Tuesday by Cybercast News Service, Judge Bork discussed the contentious nature of modern politics.
“Everything is up for debate these days. I can’t think of anything that isn’t,” he said.
“You are going to get Catholic hospitals that are going to be required as a matter of law to perform abortions,” he claimed.
“We are going to see in the near future a terrible conflict between claimed rights of homosexuals and religious freedom… You are going to get Catholic or other groups’ relief services that are going to be required to allow adoption of a child by homosexual couples. We are going to have a real conflict that goes right to the heart of the society.”
Asked whether there was a freedom of conscience clause anywhere in the Constitution that might prohibit the U.S. government from compelling a religious hospital to perform abortions, he replied:
“Well, the free exercise of religion clause might fulfill that role.”
He agreed with the CNS interviewer, Editor in Chief Terry Jeffrey, that such coercion forces someone to act against their religion and could be construed as a violation of the right to free exercise of religion.
However, Judge Bork was unsure about whether the U.S. Supreme Court would uphold such a right. He predicted the decision would rest with Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, who in some cases sides with liberals and at other times with “originalists,” those who profess to hold a more tradition-minded interpretation of the U.S. Constitution.
“It depends upon Anthony Kennedy,” Judge Bork told CNS. “Now, it’s a funny situation in which the moral life of a nation is in effect decided by one judge, because you have four solid liberal votes, four solid originalist votes, and one vote you can’t predict too accurately in advance.”
Though Justice Kennedy is a Catholic, he sided with the majority who upheld the pro-abortion rights Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade in the 1992 case Planned Parenthood v. Casey.
Judge Bork said that a decision involving the freedom of Catholic hospitals to refuse to perform abortions would split by a 5-4 vote.
“But I don’t know which way,” he added.
The Cybercast News interview with the jurist also touched upon the place of religion in public life.
“I don’t think the disputants talk much about God anymore,” Judge Bork commented. “That’s one of the things that I think is regrettable--and I know liberals have said the same thing, it is not a conservative position particularly--but it is regrettable that religion has dropped out of our public discourse. I think it impoverishes it and makes it more violent.”
He explained that he believed this violence was not armed conflict, but rather “violent language and propaganda.”
Judge Bork said he also thought that America is “now going down a path towards kind of a happy-go-lucky nihilism.”
“A lot of people are nihilists,” he continued. “They don’t think about religion. They don’t think about ultimate questions. They go along. They worry about consumer goods, comfort, and so forth.
“As a matter of fact, the abortion question is largely a question about convenience. If you look at the polls about why people have abortions, 90 percent of it has nothing to do with medical conditions. It’s convenience. And that’s I think an example of the secularization of an issue that ought to have a religious dimension.”
When asked whether a nihilistic society can remain “happy-go-lucky” for long, Judge Bork replied:
“I don’t know. I guess we are going to find out.”
> I fear that one day soon, just being a Christian will be
> labeled as a hate crime........
Revelation 6:9
Revelation 13:1-ff
> When asked whether a nihilistic society can remain “happy-
> go-lucky” for long, Judge Bork replied:
A nihilist society will be annihilated.
It just stands to reason.
In a nutshell kudos
I agree. On this one I believe you have a holy allience between we Baptist and the Catholics.
The DEMOCRAT Catholic voters elected Obama.
**It is an outrage the Justice Bork is not the deciding vote on the USSC.**
Ditto, and a severe price we will pay for at least another generation.
Last time the damn government tried pushing a Catholic Service, The Catholics CLOSED IT.. YO, BARRY ... you want HUNDREDS of HOSPITALS TO CLOSE.
To many, BARRY, OUR FAITH is more Important to US than ...YOUR GOVERNMENT, and many will die to PROVE IT
I agree and IMO this is the impetus behind the gay marriage issue.
And the Mormons.
Quite so.
There's a principle at stake. After 30-some years of Roe v Wade, the abortionists are distressed by the fact that there are still holdouts who refuse to go along. Pockets of resistance are still to be found and must be eliminated.
Absolutely right on.
And not just the Catholics, the evangelicals and the Mormons and the Orthodox Jews.
With Christianity under attack as it has not been for over 200 years you can count on the “leadership” of the so-called mainline denominations only to be concerned with advancing the homosexual agenda.
Does the Church own the buildings? and if so under what sort of arrangment does the board operate?
Sadly many Catholics disparage the Church's teachings on abortion as well as homosexuality otherwise this would not be an issue and Obama would not be President.
Mel
While I am not a Catholic, I am a part of the Body of Christ universal. And, our Heavenly Father told us there’d be days like this....
Imagine this after-inaugural litter as coming abortions...
Also a lot of other “Christians”
from other denominations (Not a thread to go into the true Church so RCCers bear with me) voted for Obama and against him as well.
Message, there are a lot of seriously screwed up supposed followers of Christ voting for poverty solutions that always fail due to the poor succumbing to perpetual dependency of the State than standing up to the most basic right of all, life and due process to life.
Yes, one might even call it TYRANNY.
It isn’t just the Catholic hospitals that are going to have a problem, it is also Catholic doctors. The Liberals want to force Catholic doctors to perform abortions or relinquish their licenses. These are sad times and Catholic Democrats are so blind and so brain washed that they don’t know nor care about what they have done by voting in another Democrat as President. They only remember “Kennedy.”
46% of Catholics who attend Mass regularly voted for Obama.
Too many leaders in our Christian churches ( Catholic and Protestant) preach the religion of Liberation Theology and worship Karl Marx instead of God. So?...When the Marxist Obama comes along is it any wonder that too many confuse him with God and voted for him?
I cannot see this occurring without the Catholics divesting themselves from these hospitals. If this were attempted it'd surely end up at the Supreme Court. If a public clash between the Obama White House and the Catholic Church came about what would this portend for the 2012 election? Papa Benedict XVI surely would not sit still for this, making his and the Vatican's viewpoint heard loudly.
On another point, can Obama be any more of a blatant hypocrite? He calls for inclusiveness and nondiscrimination yet wishes to dictate to private hospitals what their policies should be.
Remember that these are just words that liberals use as masks. When they say inclusiveness and nondiscrimination it means inclusion in their positions and nondiscrimination against individuals and groups they specify. Everything else is fair game for discrimination. It is not self-consistent and therefore patently illogical and absurd, but then again these are liberals we're talking about.
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