3 Trends in the War on Religious Freedom

A couple of months ago, I gave a talk at the local Knights of Columbus on things to watch for in the war on religious freedom.  A number of people have asked that I summarize my talk, so here goes.

It’s important to realize that the war on religious freedom has been going on long before the current debate about the HHS mandate.  Radical secular humanists and atheists have been chipping away at the First Amendment’s Right to the Free Exercise of Religion for some time.  In particular, there are three trends we should all be aware of.  They are: 

1.       The re-branding of the First Amendment Right to Free Exercise
2.       The narrowing of the definition of what a religious institution is
3.       Attacks on religious institution’s tax exempt status and ability to get federal funding

Those of us who have been in the pro-life movement for some time will recall when the abortion industry chose to re-brand them self as “pro-choice”.  Prior to that time, it was difficult for people to say that they were not pro-life.  What was the alternative, pro-death?  Associating their position with the American ideal of “free choice,” enabled the abortion industry to re-cast their argument in a patriotic vein.  Similarly, President Obama and a number of other political leaders have been very vocal in their support of the “freedom of worship.”  The problem is that the Constitution does not mention a “free exercise of worship” it protects the “free exercise of religion.”  

In today’s vernacular, “freedom of worship” protects our rights to say what we want to say within the confines of the church in which we worship.  Once we enter into the world, the right to live our life in accordance with the conscience our faith dictates, vanishes.  In reality, the Constitution protects our right to live our faith through works of charity, without having to surrender our conscience.  That is a right that is under attack today with the HHS mandate and a number of other secular initiatives.  The re-branding of the First Amendment’s right to “the free exercise of religion” to the right of “freedom of worship” is the first step in the removal of our most fundamental right.

The second trend is a narrowing of the definition of religious organizations.  We see this in the HHS mandate which requires a religious organization to provide services primarily for members of its own faith.  This has a significant impact on faith based hospitals, religious schools, adoption agencies, homeless shelter and etc.  Unfortunately, this is not the first time the Obama administration has chosen this overly narrow definition of what constitutes a religious organization.  In this year’s Supreme Court Case of Hosanna Tabor vs EEOC, the Administration chose a similarly restrictive definition of religious organizations.  Thankfully the Supreme Court unanimously decided against the administration.  Never-the-less, it is disturbing to see two separate federal departments choose the same restrictive definition of what constitutes a religious organization and we must ask if this definition is in fact policy within the Obama administration. It should also be noted that under the Obama Administration's definition of religious organizations, Jesus and the Apostles would be defined as a secular organization because of their habit of providing services for the Gentiles.

The last trend to watch is the attack on the tax exempt status of religious organizations and their ability to compete for federal and state funds.  It is really hard to understand this line of attack as it appears to conflict not only the First Amendment Right to the free exercise of religion, but also the right to free speech.  The position seems to be rooted in an over emphasis of the establishment clause and Jefferson’s famous “wall between church and state” and a complete disregard of the free exercise clause.  There’s quite a bit we could talk about on this subject, but I will save it for now as it is getting late and I will be talking about this subject in a post tomorrow.  It has not taken long after the election for certain groups to start their attack on religious institutions for “violating their tax free status” by meddling in the elections.

At the end of the day, our right to freely exercise our religion is under attack by those who would force us to violate our conscience outside the doors of our houses of worship and those who would eliminate our ability to talk about our faith based principles in the public sphere the way secular organizations can talk about their non-faith based principles.  By re-branding “freedom of religion” to be equal to “freedom of worship” , opponents of religious liberty hope they will accomplish their aims while not violating the constitution.

The fight to protect our religious liberty will be long and tiring.  Be vigilant, stay strong, but above all, remember that love and faith is what separates us from those that wish to tear us down.