Thursday, September 20, 2012

Religion in a Footnote

By Ashley McGuire, Real Clear Religion, Sept. 19, 2012
Remember the time that Barack Obama looked right into the camera and pledged his "unwavering" support for religious liberty while concurrently being sued by countless Americans whose religious liberty he is expressly violating?

That was Monday.
In a bizarre and befuddling new campaign video, President Obama makes himself to be the patron saint of American religious freedom. Forget how sappy and trite the video is, it's the most disingenuousness and dishonest thing he has done yet.
To President Obama:
You say, "Throughout our history, faith has been a powerful source for good in our communities and in our families."
I suppose that's why you on more than one occasion omitted "by their Creator" from public references to the Declaration of Independence and allowed your Party to remove a reference to God in their convention platform, a reference whose reinsertion was vehemently booed.
You say, "I'm always touched by the amazing stories of love, service, and compassion that take place in this country every single day."
Would that be why you are telling the country's largest non-governmental provider of low-income healthcare, education, and charitable services to the poor that it (the Catholic Church) must violate its core religious beliefs in order to continue operating legally?
You say, "This job is full of tough decisions."
Decisions like, whether or not the government can tell a church which ministers they can hire or fire? Because that was a decision the Supreme Court found pretty easy when it rejected your argument 9-0.
Then there is my favorite line:
"I know faith is often used as a wedge in our politics."
Er, did you mean to say, 'I have basically used faith as a nonstop wedge in our politics'?
You go on, "In a changing world, my commitment to protecting religious liberty, is, and always will be, unwavering."
Gosh, I guess I thought when you didn't fill the role of Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom for over a year, despite pressure from basically every single group that advocates for international religious liberty, that you just didn't care much about religious freedom in "this changing world."
Based a quick scan, you really haven't done much good protecting anything, anywhere in this changing world. But that's beside the point.
What's also beside the point is your weird interlude about the GM bailout. You want to talk about "shared moral obligations for future generations"?
How about the fundamental unfairness of strapping future generations with an outrageously reckless government credit card bill? My three-month old is frowning right now.
Finally, you say, "I'm standing on the side of human dignity and a belief in the inherent worth of all human beings."
Except, I suppose, for babies born alive of botched abortions?
I guess I am just confused. You say that, "Faith isn't just a footnote in our history." I was under the impression that a footnote was all you wanted religion in the country to be.

Ashley E. McGuire is the editor-in-chief of Altcatholicah.

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