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Anti-Religious Left is on a Roll
It’s not news to describe the Left as anti-religion. But they seem to be unabashedly attacking Christians and Jews more often with little criticism from their own members. Still, some people from the Right are not afraid to speak up. Although Ben Sasse is often criticized for his comments on Donald Trump, his call for the support of religious freedom was admirable.
Senator Ben Sasse called out his fellow Senators on blatantly using a religious test to interview Brian Buescher, nominee for U.S. District Judge for the District of Nebraska. Mr. Buescher was a member of the Knights of Columbus, and he was disparaged for his membership by Senators Kamala Harris and Maizie Hirono. Senator Sasse wasn’t going to stand for it, and called for a Senate resolution:
. . . to unanimously reaffirm our oath of office to a Constitution that rejects religious bigotry. It is useful to regularly remind ourselves that Americans are a First Amendment people. Each of the five freedoms in the First Amendment: speech, press, religion, assembly, protest, they define who we are.
He also said:
This isn’t a Republican belief; this isn’t a Democratic belief; this is an American belief. This is a super-basic point: no religious tests. If someone has a problem with this resolution, what other parts of the Constitution are you against? Freedom of the press? Women’s right to vote? Freedom of speech? This isn’t hard. No religious tests for serving on the federal bench. We should in this body rebuke these anti-Catholic attacks.
Maize Hirono felt called to respond:
If my colleague, the junior Senator from Nebraska, wants to embrace the alt-right’s position by offering this resolution, that is his business.
The March for Life was just one more excuse for attacking Christians.
Congress has also witnessed attacks on Jews from its own members, particularly from Ilhan Omar, who was challenged recently for her comments on the conspiracy of the Jews to hypnotize society.
Religious people are being condemned from all sides. When our own Congressional leaders fearlessly insist on religious tests and double down on their actions, we should be worried.
How do you see this situation?
Published in Religion & Philosophy
We already have too many on the federal bench who don’t defend the Constitution. Such attacks on the 1st and 2nd Amendments are not acceptable among any serving in federal elective office, those statements by Hirono are openly contemptuous of the U.S. Constitution.
To my knowledge, no one criticized her. To me, that makes them complicit. Both Hirono and Harris should have been called out formally for their behavior. Thanks, @bobthompson.
If Maize Hirono wants to embrace the Communist Party’s position on religion, that is her business.
Really? Why do members of Congress swear an oath to protect and defend the Constitution? Am I imagining that they take such an oath?
Edit: support and defend; sorry about that misstatement.
The left hates religion, and want to abolish it. Because it gives people a higher authority than the state. Which is why it is telling when people get so angry that Christians and Jews consider certain behaviors sinful. If you don’t believe in God, then why do you care that I believe what you are doing is sinful and will damage your relationship with God? Because to you God doesn’t exist and you can’t have a relationship with him. But it is obvious, they know deep down, what they are doing is wrong but don’t want to admit it, and would rather demonize the people who would be a reminder of their sin.
As an American citizen this is true, but as an elected U. S. legislator she is not allowed that.
It is incorrect to call the Left anti religion. They are anti-Christian, anti-Catholic, anti-Semite. They are perfectly happy with Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Paganism, spiritualism, secularism, etc.
What is clearly observable is elected representatives advocating against freedom of exercise of religious beliefs. Hirono and other Leftists in the Congress have shown a lack of support for Constitutional protections against federal government use of religious tests in judicial confirmations. This is wrong.
I guess I should have ended with a smiley face.
Thanks, @matede. I’m going to see if I can find any research on the Pro-life movement that says how many people in it are religious and how many are not. We have seen people move away from formal religion, and yet the number of pro-life supporters are increasing. It would be interesting to know if there are theories. Certainly part of that movement is that people are seeing the videos of fetuses and realizing they are human beings.
My point is you may expect the other non judeo-christian to use the Left to tear down the judeo-christian religions. I especially expect to see much Islam support for this method.
I guess I knew something was not quite right in your comment. It’s hard for me to inject any form of humor into these serious misdirections by people calling themselves Americans.
I get that point and I agree.
I see this situation as just about the most serious of all that we face within our approach to governing the nation going forward. I’m afraid we have allowed our educational process to deteriorate to the point of wholesale ignorance in our younger generation of the principles important to sustain individual freedom. Now we allow a complete abandonment of integrity in our elected officials who have the authority and willingness to send our young people into military conflicts to defend the Constitution while those very officials fail to match that commitment.
There should be, at the least, a joint Congressional Resolution condemning any manifestation of religious bias or testing in any form by federal officials acting in their federal role.
Yes.
Christianity is the enemy. Judaism is the the enemy. The foundations of Western Civilization are the enemy of the Left.
The law passed in New York to legalize late-term abortion shows that we must anticipate a collision between the Constitutionally protected freedom of religion and Roe vs. Wade, a SCOTUS ruling precedent. Christians are suffering from the weakness exhibited by Catholic Church authorities in defending right to life against abortionists.
I read that the resolution was adopted by unanimous consent, so I guess Crazie Mazie voted for the alt-right position.
The Left only pretends to embrace Islam as a weapon against Christians and Jews. Enemy of my enemy logic. It is failed thinking, but derangement is stronger than rationality. It is an obligation of religious peoples to stay united in defense of religious liberty.
Makes you wonder where are the elected Muslims on these pro-abortion and other positions against religious tolerance.
How did the First Amendment become “alt-right”? Is Hirono trying to climb to the top of “Stupidest Senator” hierarchy?
Does she expect that those to whom she is speaking know who she is referring to with the terminology ‘alt-right’? This technique of associating terms to people, e.g. Ben Sasse and the ‘alt-right’, without any specifics to clarify who is the ‘alt-right’ she is talking about is reprehensible, not to mention she is attacking the exercise of rights protected by the First Amendment.
@fakejohnjanegalt, Islam might support it, but I don’t think other non-Judeo-Christian religions have a dog in that fight.
In the minds of the lefty minions, “alt-right” means the same thing as “Nazi” or “White Supremacist” . . . and that’s how they’ll hear it: First Amendment = White Supremacist. And because our educational system fails at multiple levels, there are plenty of idiots out there who will accept this as fact.
Could someone possibly insist that the Constitution is White Supremacist? Oh, I suspect you’d have no problem finding prominent figures on the left promoting that notion.
I’ve never heard this theory, @dong. I think they defend Islam because they like to defend the underdog.
I think she’s already arrived @drewinwisconsin.
Here’s a link to an article talking about the pro-life movement working with pagan (seriously!) and secular folks:
http://www.theglobaldispatch.com/pro-life-movement-growing-with-pagans-and-secular-pro-life-members-27674/
Where have you been? This has little to nothing to do with underdogs. We’ve had many threads here where it has been forecast that if the Left/Islam coalition prevails against Western Civilization, that will then lead to Islam going after the anti-religious Left and they won’t be nice.
It is a crownded field, but she seems to be the frontrunner.
This is why even though I am an agnostic I value religious belief and practice. Without it we are constrained to man-made institutions that will not value individual autonomy even as it exalts mankind. It is also why I despair over any religious practice that denies individual autonomy.
A couple decades ago I remember having a conversation with a woman who described herself as being part of a “Wiccans for Life” group. It was an oddly encouraging discussion, and put me in mind of something I’d read in an analysis of C.S. Lewis’s Till We Have Faces. Okay, that’s quite a rabbit-trail. But basically, the idea is that belief in a supernatural realm is something that unites religious people of various beliefs, and so you can end up with some odd alliances against a secular worldview.
Belief in the sanctity of life would be one of those unifying things.