"Freedom to Serve the Common Good"

I would like to pick up on a thought expressed by Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor in a recent talk: “I want to appeal …for the freedom to believe and the freedom to serve the common good according to the convictions of our faith. For it is in the nature of who we Christians are to serve society, to be recognized by the sign of love, and to discover for ourselves and lead others to discover the inviolable dignity of every human person.-- freedom to serve…according to the convictions of our faith.”

Why do some of our Christian politicians attempt to exclude religion from public life and call it neutral? The “separation of Church and state” is often espoused by courts and Secularists, with non-religious beliefs being given precedence over religious ones. It's OK to fund an atheist group and a transsexual group with tax dollars, but not religious groups! This is clear discrimination - and it has nothing to do with the First Amendment. The Founders didn't want a state church, but they encouraged freedom of practice.

Some of our Catholic politicians declare that they don’t want to “force their religious beliefs on others.” Logic should tell them that such positions only lead to non-religious beliefs being forced on others. The abortion issue is a case in point. The Catholic politician states his/her personal positon may be against it, but “considering the political leanings of my constituents. I have to vote for abortion.” --unconscionable, duplicitous, venal, and self-serving! Should not every politician vote his/her moral position on every social issue? Our California Assembly supports same-sex marriage. At least they are standing up for what they want to see changed, in spite of the vote of Californians to the contrary! Why cannot our Catholic politicians, if they honestly support the moral truths of the religion they profess, do the same? If all of our Catholic politicians voted for life, we would have no abortion.

A strange phenomenon is taking place in our political world: “the minority is ruling the majority.” The movement is cloaked in words like tolerance, diversity, open-mindedness etc. People are easily shamed into silence. At first they demand tolerance. Next comes the call for acceptance. The liberal position is quite illiberal! And then political correctness becomes just another form of totalitarianism, That’s why our California lawmakers can get away with their efforts to impose same sex marriage on Californians.

“They are free to believe what they like,” The Cardinal said, “because the state ‘has no beliefs’. What looks like liberality is in reality a radical exclusion of religion from the public sphere, and such an exclusion does deep harm to the tolerance and inclusivity which has worked so well for so long.”