Tag Archive for religious freedom

The Dignity of the Office

July 4, 2015 General Interest No comments

In keeping with our theme of dignity: one of the things that bothered me most in the aftermath of the recent Supreme Court decision regarding marriage was the image of the White House adorned in rainbow colors in celebration of a decision that will, like Roe V. Wade, deeply divide our country. (See the image below, and the social media icon above…for what it’s worth, our president  apparently felt this was “pretty cool.”) This is a bit of a cop-out post — but since we’re celebrating Independence Day with family and since, in a brief article entitled “Rainbow White House,” First

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Endowed by Their Creator

July 3, 2015 General Interest No comments

In yesterday’s post Artemus shared a men’s group discussion regarding the recent Supreme Court decision, Obergefell v. Hodges, of the inevitable clash between those who follow the ‘dictatorship of relativism’ and those believing in objective moral truth. This came close to home yesterday when, during a phone call, my wife had a debate, at times heated, with her sister. At the heart of this exchange was the meaning of the word “dignity.” The uproar in media was about this word as well. After all of the celebrations, parades & euphoria subsided the media set its sights on Clarence Thomas and

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Come and Get Me

May 23, 2015 Security No comments

Scholar and author Brad Birzer has been sharing articles, links, and material this week on Sen. Rand Paul’s relatively lonely (it appears) opposition to the renewal of the so-called Patriot Act. Because I share Birzer’s affection for many things, including our Catholic faith, J.R.R. Tolkien, Russell Kirk, and the idea (at least) of this country, I tend to take notice of the things he is focused on, even when I am otherwise ignoring the news. This morning he shared this video from C-SPAN: … as well as this brief opinion piece from the New York Times on the necessity of Sen. Paul’s stand

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The Other Shoe Is On Your Throat

May 18, 2015 Moral Action, Obedience No comments

“It’s certainly going to be an issue. I don’t deny that. I don’t deny that, Justice Alito.”  Solicitor General Donald Verrilli The cat peeked out of the bag at the Supreme Court hearing on whether States can set their own marriage policy.  The Administration’s Solicitor General as much as said that if the Supreme Court finds for a constitutional right to so-called homosexual marriage, religious schools that do not accept it would probably lose their tax-exempt status.  Our nominally Christian president and his administration did not start this aggressive civil war against orthodox Christianity (there have been firefights for decades),

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Diminishing Freedom

April 2, 2015 Moral Action One comment

I have been following the unfolding events in Indiana and Arkansas regarding the Religious Freedom Restoration Act with increasing levels of dismay.  This Register article has a good synopsis of the situation. The level of hyperbole, hateful intolerance and outright lying by the radical agitators is sickening.  One really has to wonder where this will end up if those of goodwill won’t rise up in righteous response to defend the legislators that have authored the bills.  The enemy is inside the gate, senses victory and will show no mercy.

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‘An Immortal Contract’
— and a Challenge?

March 22, 2015 Intellectual Formation 2 comments

Now a conservative is a person who sees human society as an immortal contract between God and man, and between the generations that are dead, and the generation that is living now, and the generations which are yet to be born. — Russell Kirk, 1957 The quote above is taken from a post entitled “No Conservatism Without a Religious Foundation” on The Imaginative Conservative (TIC) website. The post itself is an excerpt, but stands neatly as its own essay or column, reminding us that, “A society which denies religious truth lacks faith, charity, justice and any sanction for its acts.”

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Catholic Preppers?

March 8, 2015 Security 4 comments

Two years ago, I wrote and shared an article entitled “Universal Manhood: Integrating Manly Proficiency and Catholic Self-Sufficiency.” If I’m honest, I was not-so-subtly hinting at something I couldn’t bring myself to say out loud quite yet: I have a latent prepper streak. There is a part of me that is increasingly convinced that, if not my bride and I, certainly my children and grandchildren will experience basic deprivations of many of the comforts and freedoms we enjoy today, and will have to make do or improvise to survive. This morning, for kicks, I googled “Catholic Prepper” and was surprised

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How About Some Sauce For The Gander?

February 2, 2015 Moral Action No comments

Can we take our President at his word?  On January 26th, during his trip to India, President Obama said that “Every person has a right to practice the faith that they choose and to practice no faith at all — and to do so free of persecution, fear or discrimination.”  If you are a religious business owner in this country who objects to paying for birth control, or a Christian baker or florist who objects to using your creative talents to celebrate homosexual non-marriage, you’re forgiven for doing a double-take.  The President’s operative phrase is “right to practice” – not

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Poland’s Place In Defeating the Soviet Empire

January 21, 2015 Moral Action, Security 3 comments

In the course of collecting material for a personal project, I’ve discovered the amazing and unique bulwark against atheistic communism that Poland represented during the Cold War.  Despite having been fought over (and through) for centuries, the Church and the Polish state were completely intertwined for the first one thousand years after its conversion in A.D. 966.  The post-WWI Polish constitution exerted religious freedom for all, but nonetheless proclaimed Catholicism as the favorite due to its demographic advantage.  During World War II, the Church was attacked and devastated by the Nazis.  Three million Polish Jews were killed in the six

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Religious Liberty and the Work of the Christian Law Association

September 22, 2013 Moral Action, Security No comments

I found a recent Eagle Forum Radio broadcast, entitled “State of Affairs:  Religious Liberty in America,” very interesting.  I think it’s worth a listen.  You can find it on the EFR website and download/listen (53 minutes), or subscribe via iTunes as a podcast. The guest is Dr. David Gibbs, an attorney who heads up the Christian Law Association.  They have been supporting the legal rights of Christians in America for decades.  I don’t know very much about the organization or Dr. Gibbs, but his knowledge and apparent involvement in many important legal issues regarding religious freedom is impressive. In the

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