Posted on 10/27/2011 8:29:35 AM PDT by marshmallow
Catholic Church agencies are closing their doors under new laws, policies gutting conscience rights
Is America on track for a religious freedom crisis generated by secularists in and out of government bent on pushing churches around on a variety of fronts? Fresh evidence strongly suggests that the answer is yes.
Take what’s been happening lately in Peoria, Ill. In early October, the Diocese of Peoria announced it was discontinuing Catholic Charities foster care services in reaction to a new law requiring state-funded programs to place children with unmarried couples living in civil unions. The diocese said Charities also would withdraw from all its state contracts, said to total $23 million annually.
“I have a responsibility to assure that Catholic Charities operates consistently with the teaching and values of the Church,” explained Peoria Bishop Daniel Jenky.
Earlier, the Diocese of Rockford, Ill., also ended its foster care services. Three other Illinois dioceses — Belleville, Joliet and Springfield — are still fighting the new law in court.
National trend
The events in Illinois mirror a growing national trend. The ability of religious institutions to operate free from government pressure to violate their conscientious convictions has increasingly come under attack.
Repeatedly, the pressure has been brought to bear on churches on behalf of groups ranging from same-sex couples to federal officials backing coverage for contraception and sterilization in religious employers’ health plans. In the eyes of the secular militants, the First Amendment rights of religious institutions are of diminished importance.
In a Sept. 20 letter to President Barack Obama, Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York protested recent administration moves aimed at various Catholic Church programs. Archbishop Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, warned of an impending “national conflict between church and state of enormous proportions” which he said would harm both.......
(Excerpt) Read more at osv.com ...
One needs to recognize thatshalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach
this is largely self-inflicted.Members of the RCC have voted
overwhelmingly
for baby-killing Democrats.
Certainly Christian persecution, I don’t think religious persecution in general. And faux Christianity mixed with paganism and progressive philosophy is still ok. And Islam is “hands off” — protected religion.
Comment #3 really skewered you! Touche!!!
A Catholic charity that gets its funding from the government has to play by the government's rules however perverse.
Our government is no longer guided by Christian principles so any organization that gets funding from them will have to use the money in ways that are no longer guided by Christian principles.
If you lay down with dogs, etc.
Only the Atheists.
shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach
See #7shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach
pas de touché
About 70 million Catholics and 6 million Jews in the USA. Obama won by 10 million popular votes.
No realistic hypothesized Jewish votes switching from Obama to McCain would have changed the election’s outcome. Can the same claim be made about Catholic votes?
The title caught my attention. Christians have been persecuted in America for quite a while. My daughter's friend received a death threat for starting a bible club in high school, over 15 years ago. Christians have been unwelcome in universities and Hollywood for quite a while.
Here’s my theory:
The rise of militant Islam is a mere side show. The real problem is the rise of the secular worldview that is the the anti-biblical worldview ( ex. the normalization of Homosexuality). At some point the muslims (satan’s useful idiots) will no longer be compatible with New World Order and will have to conform or be disposed of.
Just ignore these STUPID laws. Refuse to cooperate at all. If fined, refuse to pay. What are they going to do arrest the priest? Move church funds to safe locations, out of reach of government.
Just as criminals have discovered that it is unlikely that they will be caught and if caught, unlikely to be convicted, and if convicted, likely to get parole or a light sentence.
We need to start disobeying unconstitutional laws and stupid government mandates. This happens all the time. Dumb laws that people just ignore. We need to do more of this. They (government) just can't enforce the laws if enough people rebel. There aren't enough cops, judges, or jails to do so. That is what revolutions are. Civil disobedience. Hell No, I won't go! or Hell No I won't do it! Stop bending to the will of corrupt government. Stop being Lemmings. Stop jumping off the cliff because they pass some dumb law telling you to do so.
They say, let's pass this law because if X were to happen, it would be devastating.
First question. Has X ever happened? How often does X happen?, compared to what? What adverse consequences will there be for passing X? Does the good out weigh the bad?
Since lawmakers are incapable of common sense, we have to make them irrelevant.
When you call something "CatholicCharities"
shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach
and it is government funded, it is disingenuous.
A law isn’t a law unless they can enforce it. Without enforcement, a law is meaningless.
Sorry for the spelling and capitalization errors today: this is not even a true smart phone I’m using and I just broke my glasses!
Hardly the beginning. Just a new change in relativistic social law.
The changes really began in the 1900s when Dewey began pushing for public schools that didn’t teach any one specific religion but just promoted common things from all of them. His goal was to have schools promote a secular humanist morality and get religion out of schools/education (ie society). They wanted to impart a humanist morality. And as all such types of moral systems are relative, they shift and change over time and what was once okay and good becomes bad, and vice versa, depending how the leaders of such institutions wnat ot move things via the Hegelian dialectic process.
Seek YHvH in His WORD.
shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach
Isa 55:6
Seek YHvH while He may be found;
Call upon Him while He is near.
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