Religious Liberty Under Assault Reversing the Global War Against Faith
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RELIGIOUS LIBERTY UNDER ASSAULT Reversing the global war against faith A Special Report Prepared By The Washington Times Advocacy Department Addressing the worldwide crisis of religious freedom By Thomas F. Farr under the law for all religious individu- — who are suffering for their religious longer believes. als and groups. beliefs? In the short term, we must de- The stakes are high. Contemporary “They are raping and killing children This concept of religious freedom stroy the Islamic State, which threatens scholarship and common sense dem- in front of their parents. Then they are underlays the American founding, and them, the very existence of Christianity onstrate that religious freedom can killing the parents.” led to its labeling as “the first freedom,” and the possibility of stability in the over time help democracies stabilize, Amid their tears, the speakers were without which American democracy Middle East. increase economic growth, advance Joseph and Mariam (not their real would fail. Since then most Americans But the assault on religious liberty in the rights of women, and undermine names), an Iraqi Christian couple who have understood it as the birthright of America suggests that our nation is not religion-related violence and terrorism. came to Catholic University to relate every person, necessary to the success prepared to deal with this crisis over As it happens, a bill is moving the travail of Christians in Iraq and of any society that seeks to establish a the long term. When the Islamic State through Congress which could begin to Syria. Christianity, they told a stunned system of ordered liberty. and other causes of the crisis have been alleviate this problem, the Frank Wolf audience, will soon be eliminated in Such views, it seems, are fleeting. removed, we are ill-equipped to help International Religious Freedom Act. these two lands of the religion’s birth. Today, Americans who seek to exer- Christians, Muslims, Yazidis and others This bill would force the State Depart- Sarah Liu (in this case her real name) told of being tortured and sexu- ally abused for four months at a Chi- nese “Women’s Re-education Through Labor Prison.” A subsequent arrest sent Ms. Liu, a Christian, to forced labor camp for three years. Her escape from China allowed her to tell her story, which may surprise those who think religious freedom is progressing in the world’s largest nation. The terrible, largely unacknowl- edged reality is this: We are witnessing DEPARTMENT in the early 21st century an interna- y C tional crisis in religious freedom. It per- a vades the Middle East, South and East VOC Asia, Russia and sub-Saharan Africa. ad According to the Pew Research Center, three quarters of the world’s people live mes tI in countries where religious freedom is n O severely restricted. t G In many of these nations the symp- n toms include brutal torture, rape, unjust HI imprisonment, forced exile and murder. The primary causes of these horrors e Was tH are the religious beliefs and practices of the victims, those of their tormentors BY or a combination of both. The Pew studies also show that re- ligious freedom is on the decline in the mes I PREPARED t West, including in the United States. n RT In fact, social hostility to religion is O O t G much higher in Europe than the global n rep median. In the US, both social hostility pope Francis greets people as he is escorted by president barack Obama after arriving at andrews air Force base in md., tuesday, sept. HI L a AS and government restrictions have been 22, 2015. The pope is spending three days in Washington before heading to new york and philadelphia. This is the pope’s first visit to the CI W increasing. United states. (ap photo/susan Walsh) e spe H Why is this happening? And what a T | does it mean for America and the world? cise their citizenship with traditional return to their homes and develop their ment to get serious about advancing Religious freedom stands at the core religion-based moral arguments about own systems of ordered liberty. religious freedom around the world. If of what it means to be human. No per- the common good — on marriage, the In 1998 Congress passed the In- we do not act now, we will look back son can live a fully human life without sanctity of human life, and on religious ternational Religious Freedom Act, in shame — as we do when ponder- the right — protected in law and culture freedom itself — are labeled by their mandating the advancement of religious ing Munich (1939), Rwanda (1994) and — to seek God and to live in accord fellow citizens as bigots, motivated by freedom in US foreign policy. Notwith- Srebrenica (1995) — that we did so little with the truth as he or she understands “malice” and a “desire to humiliate.” standing the dedicated service of many to help avert disaster. eptember 23 • 2015 s it. This assault has been mounted by some diplomats since then, no administration Of course, a regime of religious free- on the left, but the leaders can be found has seriously supported that policy. The Thomas F. Farr is director of the Reli- dom imposes limits. It does not justify on the Supreme Court, inspired by the current ambassador is an extremely gious Freedom Project at Georgetown violence or a state-mandated religious words of Justice Anthony Kennedy in talented man, but he has little author- University. He was the first direc- monopoly. At its core, religious freedom his majority Windsor decision. ity and almost no resources to develop tor of the State Department’s office Wednesday • Wednesday means an immunity from coercion on What does this have to do with Jo- strategies that can address this problem. of international religious freedom. religious grounds by any human agent, seph, Mariam, Sarah, and the millions of Even he cannot sell a product in which 2 especially the state, and full equality others — Christian and non-Christian the American foreign policy elite no a spe CI a L rep O RT PREPARED BY T BY PREPARED RT ASSOCIATED PRESS The Church under attack By Ashley E. McGuire the free exercise of religion” and “will her institutions is not limited to legal welcome Pope Francis to the White he not long stand.” battles over Obamacare. In another House, a move that has drawn concern Wash As Pope Francis arrives for his Their fate will determine that of high-profile Supreme Court case, the and pushback from the Vatican. This first-ever visit to the United States, the countless other Catholic charities and Obama administration sought to over- brazen move essentially sums up the I ngt Catholic Church in America faces un- schools that cannot comply. One such turn longstanding legal precedent that state of affairs. Top government officials O certain times. For the past several years, school is the University of Notre Dame. protects the right of religious groups want photo ops with the pope and one- n the Church has been under a state of The self-insured Catholic school has like the Catholic Church to appoint liners to support their agenda, all while tI mes constant legal and cultural assault. been a battleground for religious liberty their own ministers. The adminis- using that very agenda to undermine ad Most notably, the Health and Human for years. It was in a commencement tration’s position in the case was so the Church at every turn. TIMES THE WASHINGTON Services mandate requiring that em- address at Notre Dame that Presi- extreme that justices, including one of The Catholic Church is the largest VOC ployers cover products and services like dent Obama made the promise heard President Obama’s own appointees to nongovernmental provider of health a C contraceptives, abortifacients and steril- around the Church, assuring Catholics the Court, expressed audible shock at care, education and charitable ser- Y DEPARTMENT ization implicates scores of Catholic his administration would “honor the the arguments. The Court’s decision vices to the poor. Orders like the Little business owners and Catholic charita- conscience of those that disagree with was 9-0 in favor of the religious groups. Sisters of the Poor and institutions like ble institutions, many of whom are still abortion and draft a sensible con- Suffering countless losses in the Catholic Charities are living out Pope fighting in court for a basic exemption. science clause.” This was a promise that courts, the government has turned to Francis’ call to serve the least of these, While the Supreme Court has ruled that he reiterated in a personal meeting with other tactics. When the United States and they are paying a political price | religious owners of closely held compa- Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the arch- Conference of Catholic Bishops refused for seeking to do so in accordance with Wednesday nies with objections to the mandate do bishop of New York. to send victims of crimes like human their most basic beliefs. As Pope Francis not have to comply, the fate of religious The passage of the Affordable Care slavery and sex trafficking to abortion enthralls millions this week, it’s worth charities is uncertain. Act relied on other empty promises, clinics, it was stripped of all federal reflecting on the reality of things here. The Little Sisters of the Poor have including the assurance that health care funding. Countless Catholic adop- The current administration is system- • become the face of the nonprofit op- exchanges would not be used to fund tion agencies around the country have atically turning American Catholics into s eptember position to the mandate.