DEFAMING RELIGIOUS FREEDOM 1 REFORMATION ACHIEVED P EDITORIAL
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
A MAGAZINE OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM SAME FAITH OR NOT! DEFAMING RELIGIOUS FREEDOM 1 REFORMATION ACHIEVED p EDITORIAL hat image do you put on new gay entitlement for a later issue. or other faiths—yet. There is very the cover of a magazine like Enough to say that it should not come nearly the same freedom given religion WLiberty? We do put a lot of down to the stark choice between gay as the practices of irreligion! Oh, well, in thought into what article to feature and rights and religious rights, so long as general the same freedom! what artist to assign the illustration both gay rights activists and religious But things are not quite as they NOT A to. Sometimes we aim to startle you a alarmists don't set it out that way. seem. bit. Other times we want the image to But we are headed into a very socially For at least a decade or more we PRETTY resonate with some current issue. And adventurous time, and the stakes for have seen in the United States an sometimes we want the cover to look civil liberty itself are very high. unseemly hunger for direct political PICTURE "classic:' Perhaps it was inevitable that my power for certain religious factions. And sometimes we just change mind wandered to a short story that So far their efforts have mostly been our mind. The royal "we" might be we had to read back in high school. directed toward plunder of the public misleading—sometimes I change my The Picture of Dorian Gray is the most treasury—that is, state funding for mind. Like this issue: the rather somber understated of horror stories, but its religious activity—the Office of Faith- cover picture of a somewhat Catholic ending is the most horrible moral Based and Community Initiatives being Paul Revere is attention-getting and meltdown. the most constitutionally egregious of well executed. But I had originally Written by literary legend Oscar this type. But the nature of such things We are simultaneously wanted the toppling statue of religion, Wilde, the story tells of a handsome means that eventually financial support in the "best of times" now only on page 17, to be our cover. It and popular young man who attacks for church institutions will tend to give too is effective! Perhaps too effective! life with a gusto that seems to escape way to a clamor for decrees on religious and "the worst of times." In its final form I thought the image consequences. It is not till the end of behavior. too stark and perhaps with overtones the narrative that we discover his dark For some time the establishment of fascist art to carry a cover without side: a hidden portrait that changes clause of the U.S. Constitution has been explanation. And, yes, I did expect into the misshapen immoral monster under attack, even as the free exercise our readers to get the analogy to the he has become, even as he seems clause has been administered in ever Saddam pull-down during the Iraq war. immune to the ravages of time and generous ways. I have often pointed How to put an image to our current debauchery. this out to lecture audiences as an religious liberty scene is of course more Writing and speaking on the state explanation of why there is not more than a cover challenge for Liberty. It of religious liberty, particularly in the obvious restriction of liberties. After goes to the heart of where we are in West, particularly in the United States, all, when certain religious factions are the whole church-state/civil liberty I am often struck with the dichotomy anxious to become synonymous with construct. between where we are in everyday the state and gain preferential funding Times change, and that change can assumptions and where we have they are hardly likely to try to restrict be startling. Yesterday as I lay helpless traveled behind the obvious. Call it other religious activity—not till the in a dentist's chair, and just before he the Dorian Gray effect. Or, to borrow establishment issue is settled, at least. lowered the drill with a grinder bit another literary analogy, and to quote I am now rethinking part of that onto the tooth that had fallen apart, from Charles Dickens and his Tale of model. the monitor above my head flashed a Two Cities, we are simultaneously in the It appears that we will not have to picture of the president and I heard him "best of times"and "the worst of times." wait till funded and favored religious announce that June is to be LGBT Pride One would be hard-pressed to entities seek to restrict the free exercise Month—actually it was said in full suggest that there is open religious of religion for others. It is now obvious as "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Trans- persecution in the United States. that the other party of the "culture war" gender Pride Month:' "It's a different Televangelists still roam the fruited is quite ready to do that now! world from when I was young,"said the plains of TV-land unopposed and well We can look to Canada as a caution- dentist as he switched on the grinder. funded. Megachurches are being built ary model of how easily the new social Little joy in the moment. faster than shopping centers. No secret model of gay entitlement can actually I'll save a full discussion of the police snatch religious faithful or dis- criminalize Christian statements on religious liberty ramifications of the senters from their homes at midnight. morality—even direct quotes from the We have no show trials—of Christians 2 LIBERTY° JULY/AUGUST 2009 President Obama has a fresh opportunity to implement reforms that create and main- tain meaningful boundaries that protect church and state while enlisting all Americans to address the most pressing social problems we face. I p8 SAME FAITH OR NOT! DEFAMING REFORMATION 9 I BLEACHED FAITH RELIGIOUS FREEDOM ACHIEVED 16 1 CHANGING VIEWS The Office of Faith-Based Initiatives A UN resolution may signal The reign of Queen Elizabeth I ended is now the"Office of Faith-Based and a dangerous model of with England securely Protestant. Neighborhood Partnerships". religious inhibition. Bible. Of course, Christians and those meet in a private residence—but they to religious harassment. It has long of other faiths such as Muslims must are seldom enforced in such a case been a position of my own Seventh-day DE LARATION recognize that they have no right to because the original intent was not to Adventist Church that past difficulties compel to any view, moral or doctrinal. restrict religious worship. But feed in with religious accommodation and But a healthy civil rights model must community or country prejudice and union agitation will be repeated. The God-given right of religious liberty is best In fact, the political shifts of late, grant them the right to project their you will get the recent case of a San exercised when church and state are separate. religious opinion. I see signs that this Diego pastor and his 15-member Bible the morphing of religious power cen- right is being challenged. study group faced with escalating fines ters into more populist religious action Government is God's agency to protect indi- Zoning models have long been and a threat of things getting ugly groups, the economic collapse, the vidual rights and to conduct civil affairs; in used to restrict religious meetings. if they did not desist. Eventually the ongoing war on terror, the unfinished exercising these responsibilities, officials are In fact, the Chinese government situation defused; but it is a vanish- experiment with what used to be called entitled to respect and cooperation. continues to battle the home-church ingly short line between this and overt torture, the economic realignment Religious liberty entails freedom of movement there on an argument religious persecution. of power, the unmuzzled calls for a conscience: to worship or not to worship; to that these are improper gatherings In a time of economic meltdown, religious solution to the world's ills: all profess, practice, and promulgate religious apart from the publically authorized auto company bankruptcies, and labor augur a true paradigm shift. The fair beliefs, or to change them. In exercising Three-Self religious model. Unless layoffs, one might easily overlook the face of freedom may be something else these rights, however, one must respect you factor in the animus to religious bold moves to strengthen the ability of beyond the shadows. the equivalent rights of all others. expression it can easily pass for a unions to co-opt workers who might Attempts to unite church and state are public order question. Now we seem to have religious compunctions against opposed to the interests of each, subversive be seeing a resurgence of challenges joining. Card check sign-ups might of human rights, and potentially persecuting to home-held religious gatherings in be passed off as a convenient new in character; to oppose union, lawfully and the United States. As longtime Liberty model—but with public antipathy to Lincoln E. Steed, Editor honorably, is not only the citizen's duty but readers know, we have often featured marginal religious beliefs and a sense Liberty Magazine the essence of the golden rule--to treat others this throughout the years. Many local of a need to cooperate economically for as one wishes to be treated. ordinances restrict the ability of, say, the public good, it is likely it will lead Please address letters to the editor to a Tuesday night Bible study group to [email protected] COVER ILLUSTRATION 0 ROBERT HUNT LIBERTY° JULY/AUGUST 2009 3 Same Faith or Not! BY K.