In my first post, written September 22nd, 2007, I quoted Abraham Lincoln who had written:
Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation we began by declaring that "all men are created equal." When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read "all men are created equal, except Negroes and foreigners and Catholics." When it comes to this, I shall prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty — to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy hypocrisy.
In that post I had written about my concerns that America was in danger of passing unjust laws in which "the just who are constrained and the unjust are free."
Fast forwarding five years to today, September 22nd, 2012, it is no longer a theoretical question about the danger of passing unjust laws. They are now passed, and the fate of the First Amendment is much more dubious than it was when I first wrote. The propaganda of the current presidency and his supporters are in fact blaming people who are trying to defend their religious freedom for "imposing their views on others."
I find that curious.
The Catholic who believes abortion is wrong and uses his or her rights as an American citizen (freedom of speech, the right to vote etc.) regarding this moral conviction is told he or she is "imposing views on others." The atheist who believes abortion is a right and uses his or her rights as an American citizen to expand the legality and reach of abortion is praised for "protecting freedom."
Both the Catholic and the atheist in this case are acting according to what they believe. But one is vilified for doing so and the other is praised. One is harassed when speaking while the other is protected. This is an arbitrary application of law, of media reporting calculated to favor one group and denigrate another.
I believe Lincoln was right. America is a nation where there is a pretense of loving liberty, but no longer an actual love of liberty. It is the alloy of hypocrisy to praise freedom when the HHS mandate is telling religious institutions that their schools and hospitals must choose between going against what they believe God commands them to do and being fined/taxed out of existence.
People of good will should think about that. On one hand we have the the First Amendment to the Constitution:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
On the other hand, we have a government prohibiting the free exercise of religion by telling religious hospitals and schools that they must pay for insurance coverage for abortifacients and contraception – even if these hospitals and schools think it wrong and refusing to consider the petitions for the redress of grievances.
When the Church (and other denominations) speak out on this, it draws the accusation of "violating the separation of Church and State" and potential legal sanctions.
So we see again Lincoln's point. America claims to love liberty, but is willing to set it aside when seeking to suppress someone who takes a stand and says "What America is doing is wrong here." That is "the practice of claiming to have higher standards or more laudable beliefs than is the case" as the Oxford English Dictionary defines hypocrisy.
The sad thing is, once the principle is accepted (which at this time seems to depend somewhat on the results of the November 2012 elections and the Supreme Court challenges), it becomes easy for any future government to use this to their own ends. It doesn't have to even be the scenario of Obama who makes the United States into a dictatorship. A future presidency could take the premise Obama established and use it to further his or her own ends, using the force of government to silence opponents.
So with this in mind, what are we to do? The individual Christians seems weak. The Church is attacked in a way that seeks to silence her. The courts seem indifferent to these violations. The government is actively involved in promoting this violation. Are we doomed to suffer the violation of religious freedom?
At a time like this, I am reminded of the words of St. Augustine:
God therefore does not command impossibilities; but in His command He counsels you both to do what you can for yourself, and to ask His aid in what you cannot do.
Augustine of Hippo. (1887). A Treatise on Nature and Grace (P. Holmes, Trans.). In P. Schaff (Ed.), A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, First Series, Volume V: Saint Augustin: Anti-Pelagian Writings (P. Schaff, Ed.) (138). New York: Christian Literature Company.
We need to both pray concerning what is outside of our control, and do what God wants us to do. We can't hide in a bunker and complain loudly about bishops being at fault because we're still under fire. All of us who profess to be Catholics have a role to play. It might be something like informing people on a national scale, but it also might be a matter of informing a co-worker who speaks about the so-called "war on women" how things really are.
God does have a role for each one of us to play. We do have the free will to cooperate with God or to ignore that role He calls us for. However, we must remember that God doesn't always use spectacular miracles to make His will known. Sometimes he calls on the little people – like how he called a collection of tax collectors, fishermen and the like to bring His message to the whole world.
How far would those twelve men had gotten if everyone else in the Church had, instead of taking part in the mission of the Church, instead sat around and complained about how terrible these Apostles were for not getting more done?
In 2007, I don't think anyone foresaw this coming. Now that it is here, we have to remember that all of us: Catholics, Protestants, non-Christians, non-believers – all people seeking to do right – need to make a stand against a government which is choosing to do wrong.
If we don't, the words Cardinal George uttered in 2010 will be prophetic:
"I expect to die in bed, my successor will die in prison and his successor will die a martyr"
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