Friday, May 4, 2012

Evil is Not Nice, Religious Freedom, and Other Radical Ideas

I don't see the point of believing something, without acting as if it matters. Certainly not for important beliefs, like whether or not it's okay to steal; or whether it's okay for me to kill someone if I'm really angry.

The answer is "no," in each case, by the way.1

Power Grab?

I hope I'm wrong about this, but America may be dealing with the biggest attempted power grab since Henry VIII of England decided to be a sort of mini-pope. Then there was England's Henry II, and I'm getting a bit off-topic.

I'm a practicing Catholic, so I have to be a good citizen. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2199, 1915, 2238-2243, 2255) But being a good American citizen does not extend to doing nothing while this country's ruler decides which religious beliefs are are approved, which aren't: and sets up administrative machinery to enforce those decisions. (March 16, 2012)

As I've said before, there's an election coming up in November, and I plan to vote.

News: Some Good; Some Not So Much

Meanwhile, I can write about how I see what's happening in my country. Including, each Friday, my take on the news.
  1. Religious Freedom: Beyond the Church Doors
  2. Political Responsibility: Online Resources
  3. Stealing from Churches, Assumptions, and Forgiveness

1. Religious Freedom: Beyond the Church Doors

"Religious freedom expert faults Obama's prayer proclamation"
Michelle Bauman, CNA/EWTN News (May 3, 2012)

"A legal expert in religious freedom believes that President Barack Obama's recent prayer proclamation reflects a wider problem of viewing constitutional protections for religious liberty as being limited to 'mere belief.'

" 'I don't know that the president intentionally wrote it in this fashion,' said Robert Tyler, general counsel for the non-profit legal group Advocates for Faith and Freedom.

"However, he explained to CNA on May 2, the wording of the proclamation 'reflects a real problem' in the understanding of religious freedom.

"On May 1, President Obama issued a proclamation declaring May 3 as a National Day of Prayer in the United States....

"...In his proclamation, Obama offered thanks for a 'democracy that respects the beliefs and protects the religious freedom of all people to pray, worship, or abstain according to the dictates of their conscience.'..."
That seems innocuous enough. I think I see what Robert Tyler means, though. That's a rather specific list. The American president arguably defined religious freedom as a government allowing subjects to:
  • Pray
  • Worship
  • Not pray
  • Not worship
As far as it goes, that list is okay. I'm a practicing Catholic, so I have to support religious freedom. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2104-2109)

That's religious freedom for everybody. (Catechism, 2106)

If being allowed to pray and worship is all that America's government thinks "religious freedom" means: that's a problem, and a big one.

(Back to the list of headings)

Acting as if God Matters

"...Religious freedom has become a hotly-debated issue after the Obama administration issued a mandate that will require employers to offer health insurance plans that cover contraception, sterilization and drugs that can cause early abortions, even if doing so violates their religious beliefs.

"Critics of the mandate argue that the Obama administration is failing to respect the right to religious freedom, treating it as though it is merely a right to worship, but not to live out one's beliefs.

"Tyler explained that the American founders 'absolutely' intended for the First Amendment's religion freedom protections to apply to actions as well as beliefs. This view was carried down throughout most of America's history, he said.

"However, in 1990, the Supreme Court held in Employment Division v. Smith that laws which burden religion are acceptable as long as they are 'neutral and generally applicable,' he said.

"This ruling 'has created quite a problem for the free exercise of religion in America today,' explained Tyler, observing that it has led to the idea that religious freedom merely means 'believing whatever you want to believe' and does not extend to cover conduct...."
(CNA/EWTN) [emphasis mine]
I think that, eventually, America's national government will do the right thing, and acknowledge that some folks are serious about their faith, and want to act as if God matters. I also think that this may take a while.

(Back to the list of headings)

America, Ethics, and a Reminder

On the whole, I like living in America. I think this country has a fairly good track record where it comes to freedom. Fairly good: but far from perfect:Sorting out whether it was okay for one person to own another took almost two centuries and a major war.

Today, America's government is trying to decide whether it's okay for folks who want to behave ethically to do so. I hope America can speed the process up a little this time: and get the job done less messily.

Just a reminder to those Americans who are allowed to vote: there's an election coming up in November.

(Back to the list of headings)

Catholic Bishops and Doing the Right Thing

America's bishops have decided that it's okay for them to tell people that evil isn't nice. Even if the nation's leader doesn't like it. I've posted a link list of resources, discussing the radical idea that ethics have a place in government, and what America's subjects are allowed to do about it:You may find more recent information, links, and opportunities to act, on the bishop's website:Telling people to love their neighbor, do good, and avoid evil, may not be legal in today's America. But it's the right thing to do.

I put a longer excerpt from that CNA/EWTN News article at the end of this post.2

(Back to the list of headings)

2. Political Responsibility: Online Resources

"Bishops Promote Political Responsibility With Online Resources"
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) News Release (April 25, 2012)

"WASHINGTON - Blog posts, YouTube videos, an online quiz and resources on Facebook are among the ways U.S. Catholics can learn about the Church's teaching on issues and involvement in the political process, as part of an initiative of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). These resources promote the document, Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, the call to political responsibility issued by the U.S. bishops in 2007 and reissued last fall.

" 'Christians have a responsibility to live out their faith in the public square, and today that also means online,' said Bishop John Wester of Salt Lake City, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Communications. 'People donate, speak out on numerous issues, get their news and participate in campaigns through the Internet and social media. The Church also needs to reach people through these media.'..."
I put the entire news release at the end of this post.3 I also broke out a link list from the article.

(Back to the list of headings)

Voting Smart: Here's Help

Some of the links display as URLs, some are more conventional titles. I decided to stick with the title/URL choice taken by the bishops' website administrator:(Back to the list of headings)

3. Stealing from Churches, Assumptions, and Forgiveness

"Churches no longer a sanctuary from crime as burglaries rise"
FoxNews.com (April 30, 2012)

"There's no honor among thieves -- even when it comes to stealing from churches.

"A growing tide of burglaries at houses of worship are signs of both a reeling economy and the end of a social taboo that once protected the money collected to help the poor and the valuables displayed to honor a higher power....

"...'From a historical standpoint, the sacredness of the church has changed, so to speak, in our society,' Jeffrey Hawkins, a security consultant who works with churches. told FoxNews.com.

"Hawkins, founder and executive director of the now-defunct Christian Security Network, said churches are also more of a potentially lucrative target nowadays. The majority of churches today feature expensive multimedia components like digital soundboards, flat-screen televisions, projectors, computers and more, he said...."
The second paragraph contains an assumption, something that 'everybody knows.' The assumptions is what's implied by "a reeling economy" as being a cause for folks deciding to steal from churches.

Poverty, 'as everybody knows,' causes crime. I've been over this before: (March 8, 2011)
I don't doubt that some individuals steal because they'll either steal or starve. But if there was a tight connection between poverty and crime, America would have experienced a mammoth crime wave during the Great Depression.

Moving on.

I'm a little more inclined to think that American culture has changed over the last half-century.

(Back to the list of headings)

Digital Soundboards, Flat-Screen Televisions, and Faith in the Information Age

Oh, my. Churches being a "lucrative target?" I've ranted about wealth, poverty, stereotypes, and assumptions before. Fairly often. Including this:
Basically, I know that many churches have equipment that might seem to be worth stealing. Some don't. I don't think either poverty or wealth are virtues. (September 27, 2010) And I'm a bit weary of folks who assume that earning a living in a faith-related business is wicked. I've been over this before, too:
Happily, this article presents the comparative value of some church inventories as a fact: not as a springboard for conventional moralizing.

Place of worship with high-tech media equipment is nothing new. Gothic cathedrals, whose walls were mostly murals of colored glass, were very high-tech in their day, and - good grief, I've been over that before, too.
(Back to the list of headings)

Crime Rate Down: Except for Stealing from Churches

"...The trend of breaking into churches comes as overall crime is actually decreasing.

"There were 1,237 incidents of burglaries and thefts of churches in 2009, compared to 1,783 in 2010, an increase of nearly 50 percent, according to statistics compiled by Hawkins' former organization. The total cost to churches as a result of theft, burglary, robbery, vandalism and arson in 2009 exceeded $6.3 million, Hawkins said.

"The FBI's Uniform Crime Report for January-June of 2011 - the most recent statistics available -- indicate that violent crime declined nationally by 6.4 percent, while burglary dropped 2.2 percent. Property crime and theft also declined by 3.7 percent and 4 percent, respectively...."
(April 30, 2012)
I wish I could be more surprised about burglaries and thefts of churches on the rise as America's crime rate as a whole goes down.

My guess is that the rise in crimes against churches is not due to fluoridated water, the prevalence of jazz, Satanic lyrics in rock songs, or Mr Ed.

Mr. Ed?! Back in the mid-80s, Jim Brown and Greg Hudson, Ohio evangelists, got national recognition for 'discovering' that the "Mr Ed" television show's them song has Satanic message, when - what else? - played backward. Wackadoo religious folks is hardly a new phenomenon:
(Back to the list of headings)

No Opinion, but Lots of Guesses

I don't have an opinion about why thieves are targeting churches more now, than when I was growing up. I've got a few guesses, though, which may or may not be accurate:
  • Folks raised by parents who grew up with fads like
    • Self-actualization
      • The pop psychology version
    • Telling kids they can decide to a boy or a girl
    • Variations on the current indigo children approach
      • 'Johnny/Janie isn't bad: Johnny/Janie is superior'
      • Basically, the old notion that kids who don't like rules shouldn't have to learn them
  • America's self-described best and brightest declaring that
    • Religion
      • Kills people
      • Is bad for people
      • Keeps people from having fun
      • Is icky
  • Religious whack jobs who conform to the 'best and brightest's' expectations
There were crazy ideas about parenting before my day, too: including physical abuse as character development. And that's a can of worms I don't intend to open today.

I don't think those are the only possible explanations. Trying to sort out one person's motivation is tricky enough. Multiply that by America's population (upwards of 300,000,000), in a global society of around 7,000,000,000: including interactions between all of the above? 'Simple' this isn't.

(Back to the list of headings)

One - Sad - Example

"...Investigators in Mississippi's Marshall County also probed a rash of four church burglaries within a two-week period in early in March, including one instance where thieves tried to drill open a safe in the church sanctuary.

" 'These [are] just working people, putting their money into this, not expecting nothing in return,' Pastor Wesley Newby of Apostolic Lighthouse Church told MyFoxMempis.com.

"Money the church had saved up for 9 years -- hoping to send local youth on a trip -- was stolen in the March 11 heist. Newby is now debating the cost of installing video surveillance, but said the lord forgives -- even thieves.

" 'He loves them, we love them,' Newby told MyFoxMemphis.com. 'We reach out to people like this, this is [who] we reach out [to] and people need change in their lives and God's the only one that can change it...."
(April 30, 2012)
Pastor Wesley Newby 'gets it.' Maybe if we heard and read more about folks like Pastor Wesley Newby: maybe that would make a difference.

(Back to the list of headings)

"Forgiveness" isn't "Stupidity"

As a practicing Catholic, I'm expected to not judging other people. But I'm also expected to judge whether what people - including myself - do is right or wrong.

That isn't as crazy as it may seem.

The 'don't judge people' thing is from Jesus:
" 1 2 Stop judging, that you may not be judged.

"For as you judge, so will you be judged, and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you.

"Why do you notice the splinter in your brother's eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye?

"How can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove that splinter from your eye,' while the wooden beam is in your eye?

"You hypocrite, 3 remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter from your brother's eye...."
(Matthew 7:1-5)
One of the footnotes has a pretty good discussion of what's going on here:
"This is not a prohibition against recognizing the faults of others, which would be hardly compatible with ⇒ Matthew 7:5, 6 but against passing judgment in a spirit of arrogance, forgetful of one's own faults."
(Footnote 2, Matthew 7, New American Bible)
It's the old 'love the sinner, hate the sin' thing:
"although we can judge that an act is in itself a grave offense, we must entrust judgment of persons to the justice and mercy of God."
(Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1861)
I am not a man who finds forgiveness easy. Not when my sense of right and wrong is offended. Or my vanity, for that matter.

But 'easy' isn't necessarily 'right,' so I've been trying to learn forgiveness. And unlearn vanity. Let's face it, I've got quite a bit on my plate that I'd better deal with before my particular judgment. And that's another topic.

(Back to the list of headings)

"Love Your Enemies:" Still a Radical Idea

About two thousand years back, my Lord made some radical statements. Including this:
"27 'You have heard that it was said, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy."

"But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you,

"that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust."
(Matthew 5:43-45)
I'm a practicing Catholic, so I have to love my enemies. But that doesn't mean I have to be a strict pacifist. I've been over this before, too:Some folks who are 'Christian' at the top of their lungs, don't seem to have gotten the memo about Matthew 5:43. Or Matthew 7:1, for that matter.


(Reuters photo, via FoxNews.com, used w/o permission)

I do not know what's going on inside the heads of folks who seem convinced that God shares their personal loathings. I'm pretty sure, though, that they're not making many friends for the Christendom. More of 'I've posted about this before:'There's a little background on the "love your enemy" thing in one of the footnotes:
"See ⇒ Lev 19:18. There is no Old Testament commandment demanding hatred of one's enemy, but the 'neighbor' of the love commandment was understood as one's fellow countryman. Both in the Old Testament (⇒ Psalm 139:19-22) and at Qumran (1QS 9:21) hatred of evil persons is assumed to be right. Jesus extends the love commandment to the enemy and the persecutor. His disciples, as children of God, must imitate the example of their Father, who grants his gifts of sun and rain to both the good and the bad."
(Footnote 27, Matthew 5, New American Bible)
Coming from just about anyone else, I'd take that "love your enemy" instruction as - interesting - and quite possibly file it under 'odd ideas.' But my Lord said "before Abraham came to be, I AM." (John 8:58) Which, by itself, isn't all that remarkable. When Jesus stopped being dead, claiming to be God made sense. (March 11, 2012)

As far as I'm concerned, if God says I should love my enemies: I think I should love my enemies. Even if it 'feels funny.'
More posts about forcing Catholics to violate our conscience:
The Department of Health and Human Services vs. Conscience
Related posts:
1 Rules against murder and theft have been on the books for a long time:The Church explains why stealing is a poor career choice; and why it's a bad idea to murder people:That's just a start on what the Church has said about implications of love God, love your neighbor.' (Matthew 22:36-40, Mark 12:28-31) (September 4, 2011) The 'office archives' alone run to about 85 kilometers of shelving at last count.

2 From the news:
"Religious freedom expert faults Obama's prayer proclamation"
Michelle Bauman, CNA/EWTN News (May 3, 2012)

"A legal expert in religious freedom believes that President Barack Obama's recent prayer proclamation reflects a wider problem of viewing constitutional protections for religious liberty as being limited to 'mere belief.'

" 'I don't know that the president intentionally wrote it in this fashion,' said Robert Tyler, general counsel for the non-profit legal group Advocates for Faith and Freedom.

"However, he explained to CNA on May 2, the wording of the proclamation 'reflects a real problem' in the understanding of religious freedom.

"On May 1, President Obama issued a proclamation declaring May 3 as a National Day of Prayer in the United States.

"Since 1952, every U.S. president has signed a National Day of Prayer proclamation calling on Americans to give thanks for their blessings and seek divine guidance for the future.

"In his proclamation, Obama offered thanks for a 'democracy that respects the beliefs and protects the religious freedom of all people to pray, worship, or abstain according to the dictates of their conscience.'

"Religious freedom has become a hotly-debated issue after the Obama administration issued a mandate that will require employers to offer health insurance plans that cover contraception, sterilization and drugs that can cause early abortions, even if doing so violates their religious beliefs.

"Critics of the mandate argue that the Obama administration is failing to respect the right to religious freedom, treating it as though it is merely a right to worship, but not to live out one's beliefs.

"Tyler explained that the American founders 'absolutely' intended for the First Amendment's religion freedom protections to apply to actions as well as beliefs. This view was carried down throughout most of America's history, he said.

"However, in 1990, the Supreme Court held in Employment Division v. Smith that laws which burden religion are acceptable as long as they are 'neutral and generally applicable,' he said.

"This ruling 'has created quite a problem for the free exercise of religion in America today,' explained Tyler, observing that it has led to the idea that religious freedom merely means 'believing whatever you want to believe' and does not extend to cover conduct...."
3 News release from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops:
"Bishops Promote Political Responsibility With Online Resources"
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) News Release (April 25, 2012)

"WASHINGTON - Blog posts, YouTube videos, an online quiz and resources on Facebook are among the ways U.S. Catholics can learn about the Church's teaching on issues and involvement in the political process, as part of an initiative of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). These resources promote the document, Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, the call to political responsibility issued by the U.S. bishops in 2007 and reissued last fall.

" 'Christians have a responsibility to live out their faith in the public square, and today that also means online,' said Bishop John Wester of Salt Lake City, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Communications. 'People donate, speak out on numerous issues, get their news and participate in campaigns through the Internet and social media. The Church also needs to reach people through these media.'

"Resources include:

"· An issues quiz, which will help Catholics form their consciences through statistics and facts related to key moral issues including abortion, poverty, embryonic stem cell research and immigration. One quiz question will be posted every Tuesday and Thursday starting April 24 at www.facebook.com/usccb.

"· Video reflections by bishops, including Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles, Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami and Archbishop-designate William Lori of Baltimore, discussing different issues of importance for Catholic voters: www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/faithful-citizenship/videos-for-faithful-citizenship.cfm.

"· A 'Catholics Care. Catholics Vote.' blog series, which explores different aspects of the bishops' document, including its assertion that political involvement is a moral duty for Catholics, the questions of conscience formation and a range of issues highlighted by the bishops ahead of the 2012 Elections: http://usccbmedia.blogspot.com/2012/04/catholics-care-catholic-vote-series.html.

"· A tab on USCCB's page on Facebook called 'Catholics Care. Catholics Vote.' This web portal aggregates all of these resources at www.facebook.com/usccb/app_189116767802011."
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Marian Apparition: Champion, Wisconsin

Background:Posts in this blog: In the news:

What's That Doing in a Nice Catholic Blog?

From time to time, a service that I use will display links to - odd - services and retailers.

I block a few of the more obvious dubious advertisers.

For example: psychic anything, numerology, mediums, and related practices are on the no-no list for Catholics. It has to do with the Church's stand on divination. I try to block those ads.

Sometime regrettable advertisements get through, anyway.

Bottom line? What that service displays reflects the local culture's norms, - not Catholic teaching.