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This is how protected beliefs become prosecuted "bigotry"
Insight Scoop ^ | September 25, 2011 | Carl Olson

Posted on 09/25/2011 3:59:09 PM PDT by NYer

Sister Mary Ann Walsh, director of media relations for the USCCB, wonders if "late night comics who mock the church ... have set the tone of the government's current salvos against religious freedom", and then warns:

In the effort to redefine marriage, we see the government threatening religious discrimination in the name of--you guessed it--preventing discrimination. The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), passed by Congress and signed by President Clinton, declares that marriage is between one man and one woman. But the Department of Justice, which is charged with defending Acts of Congress like DOMA against constitutional challenge, declared in March that it would stop doing so. In July, Justice went further and started filing briefs that attack DOMA's constitutionality. Most disturbing in this flip-flop is its rationale: DOMA's definition of marriage must be abandoned and then attacked because it is motivated by bias and prejudice, comparable to racism. That is, the Justice Department simply writes off as bigots those with longstanding support for traditional marriage. And if the Justice Department gets its way in court, those considered bigots by the federal government will be marginalized with the full moral, economic and coercive power of the state.

For example, an employer who provides unique employment benefits to the actually married risks being disqualified from government funding - and most other government cooperation - and likely being sued for "discrimination." A government clerk who expresses a conscientious objection to cooperating with same-sex civil union ceremonies risks a pink slip.

In short, this is what happens when the view that marriage is between a man and a woman becomes a violation of the U.S. Constitution. And this is what the Justice Department urges--apparently forgetting that imposing special disabilities on people and groups because of their religious beliefs offends the First Amendment at its core.

Read her entire post, "Looks Like Leno, Letterman Setting Tone at HHS, Justice Department" (Sept. 22, 2011). What was it that Benedict XVI said, quoting St. Augustine, in his first address on his visit to Germany?

"Without justice – what else is the State but a great band of robbers?", as Saint Augustine once said (1). We Germans know from our own experience that these words are no empty spectre. We have seen how power became divorced from right, how power opposed right and crushed it, so that the State became an instrument for destroying right – a highly organized band of robbers, capable of threatening the whole world and driving it to the edge of the abyss.

It's an very bad thing to have your money and property stolen. It's even worse to have your rights stripped away in the name of "tolerance" and under the false pretense of "discrimination". Alas, it seems that the cynical promises of hope and change are proving to be half right and completely wrong.


TOPICS: Apologetics; Catholic; Moral Issues; Religion & Politics
KEYWORDS: carlolson; catholic; doma; homonaziagenda; homopsychoagenda; homosexualagenda; olson; religiousliberty; religiouspersecution; saintaugustine; sisterwalsh

1 posted on 09/25/2011 3:59:11 PM PDT by NYer
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To: netmilsmom; thefrankbaum; Tax-chick; GregB; saradippity; Berlin_Freeper; Litany; SumProVita; ...

Ping!


2 posted on 09/25/2011 3:59:55 PM PDT by NYer ("Be kind to every person you meet. For every person is fighting a great battle." St. Ephraim)
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To: NYer

Government malfeasance.


3 posted on 09/25/2011 4:06:18 PM PDT by DownInFlames
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To: NYer

The comedians are just repeating jokes prepared by their writers who know they must reflect the views of the leftists who have infiltrated the government and the entertainment industry. The views they promote date back to Josef Stalin and all totalitarians since.

“America is like a healthy body and its resistance is threefold: its patriotism, its morality and its spiritual life. If we can undermine these three areas, America will collapse from within.” – Joseph Stalin

The people who are continually attacked and ridiculed by the MSM, by the entertainment industry and by government are:

1. The moral.
2. The spiritual.
3. The patriotic.

It is really that simple.


4 posted on 09/25/2011 4:20:49 PM PDT by detective
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To: NYer

Sister Mary Ann Walsh wrote:

It is clear that we need immigration reform, but we need a reform that acknowledges the reality we face. There are millions of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. workforce now. We need them. There are young students with potential and drive. We need them, too. As a nation where immigrants historically have had a fair chance and been treated humanely, we need to give up Whac-a-Mole and devise one comprehensive policy, including a legalization plan, born of our current reality and sense of decency.

The USCCB is complicit with the Obama administration and the Democrat party in attacking Christian values and beliefs. The USCCB is proof of the truth of the adage, “You sleep with dogs and you wake up with fleas.”

It is not late night comedians but the USCCB and its running dog Democrats that are contributing to the attack on all Christians.


5 posted on 09/25/2011 6:05:37 PM PDT by dominic flandry
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To: dominic flandry
The USCCB is complicit with the Obama administration and the Democrat party in attacking Christian values and beliefs. The USCCB is proof of the truth of the adage, “You sleep with dogs and you wake up with fleas.”

It is not late night comedians but the USCCB and its running dog Democrats that are contributing to the attack on all Christians.

Oh, don't go being all "anti-Catholic bigot" about it. A good Catholic supports her local bishop! /s>

6 posted on 09/25/2011 8:21:16 PM PDT by Alex Murphy (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/2703506/posts?page=518#518)
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To: Alex Murphy
A good Catholic supports her local bishop!

The USCCB is nobody's local bishop.

7 posted on 09/26/2011 9:58:18 AM PDT by Campion ("Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies when they become fashions." -- GKC)
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To: NYer
In July, Justice went further and started filing briefs that attack DOMA's constitutionality.

If that isn't an offense requiring removal from office and even criminal prosecution, it should be. DOJ has no business declaring an act of Congress unconstitutional. That's the purview of the courts. DOJ's job is to uphold the law, not undermine it.

8 posted on 09/26/2011 10:01:21 AM PDT by Campion ("Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies when they become fashions." -- GKC)
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To: Campion
The USCCB is nobody's local bishop.

The USCCB is everybody's local bishop. That's where the "conference" part comes in.

9 posted on 09/26/2011 9:05:19 PM PDT by Alex Murphy (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/2703506/posts?page=518#518)
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