Pastor George’s Pondering 
 

Pondering Another Attack on Religious Freedom

I have mentioned in my ponderings recently how our government is trying to restrict religious freedom, especially orthodox Christian faith and practice, by using the phrase “freedom of worship” rather than “freedom of religion.” Just this week the government took another shot at religious faith through its ruling concerning the new heath care law that is being called “ObamaCare.” The ruling was that religious institutions must provide employees with contraception services (some say that includes abortifacients – drugs that induce an abortion by killing the child in the womb) even when such services would be in violation of the religious institutions beliefs and practices. This ruling hits the Catholic Church very hard because of its stand against contraception. The only “religious” exemption to the ruling was so narrowly drawn that it would affect very few employees. This mandate concerning providing contraception services through health care arises out of the belief that contraception is “preventative care” on the level of screening for high cholesterol or high blood pressure; as if pregnancy was some sort of disease.

Bishop David Zubik of Pittsburgh wrote a very stinging editorial concerning this in which he said (his words not mine): “Kathleen Sebelius and through her, the Obama administration, have said ‘To Hell with You’ to the Catholic faithful of the United States.

• To Hell with your religious beliefs,
• To Hell with your religious liberty,
• To Hell with your freedom of conscience.

We’ll give you a year, they are saying, and then you have to knuckle under. As Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops responded, “in effect, the president is saying that we have a year to figure out how to violate our consciences.”

This ruling is just one more example of the hostility that has existed for years and is coming to the surface in our secular, post-modern society. Manifestations of this hostility abound in all levels of society from our schools, (especially our universities), and local governments, to our courts, and all the way to every level of our national government. The message is that if you hold to traditional, orthodox beliefs you are out of touch with reality, you are bigoted, and you must be eventually silenced.

This issue is not whether you agree or disagree with the Catholic Church’s stance on contraception; this is about the Catholic Church’s right to practice their faith through their related institutions in the public square without the interference of government. Just as with the movement to force the acceptance of homosexuality upon people of faith, the movers and shapers of our society are seeking to force those who believe in the conservative Christian faith into a mold of their own desires. The desire seems to be to push religious liberty into an ever shrinking corner until Christians no longer have a voice in shaping society.

If you think this is an overreaction, pay attention to the words of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who said this in response to the question of why ‘religious or cultural values’ cannot mean ‘criminalizing [gay] status or behavior.’ She said: “No practice or tradition trumps the human rights that belong to all of us.” The effect of that statement is that you cannot call homosexual behavior sinful even if the Bible, the Koran, or any other religious work describes it as such, simply because it is now deemed to be part of their humanity and hence a “human right.” Therefore, if you speak out against the practice, then you are denying someone their “human right.”

I have long held that it will become more and more difficult for conservative Christians to practice their faith in the coming years, and these recent events are just another confirmation of that belief. The question is whether we will quietly acquiesce in this denial of our basic religious liberty or will we stand up and be counted on the side of the truth of God’s Word – both the written truth and the living Truth. It is becoming increasingly imperative that we know what we believe and why we believe it, and to stand upon that truth. The veracity of the Scriptures is something that we must never compromise on. We teach and believe that God loves all people and desires that they come to know His Son, Jesus Christ, and find salvation from their sin, not a justification of their sin.