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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
Seditious Catholic Chaplains:
You can read their Medal of Honor Citations here.
The bigotry against Jews, and Catholics is an acceptable feature of the “intellectual class”, and it has a long history in the United States.
@dougwatt, just want to clarify. Are there so few awarded to priests because of discrimination against Catholics?
What was the precedent here for the use of ‘seditious Catholic chaplains’?
I don’t think that’s the case, as one Vietnam vet put it, the Catholic chaplains were always out in the boonies with us in Vietnam.
Holy smoke…Hirono really said that? Any chance a petition for a recall election could be started?
Are there enough people in Hawaii who would make that even feasible?
Yeah, that’s my thought as well. Islam scores pretty high in the Victim Olympics for the Left.
Sarcasm, Dems and their pursuit of Catholic hospitals, and the Little Sisters of the Poor, who are now being sued by the States of Pennsylvania, and California to provide birth control, and abortion inducing drugs in their health care plans has become a never ending battle.
I considered Obama an enemy of the Catholic Church, as are Democrat legislators.
It makes one wonder exactly what does taking the oath of office mean, if anything.
Remember that collectivists stand together until they don’t.
Pure, unadulterated bigotry by the left.
When the first Muslim Supreme Court nominee is under Senate scrutiny, would Maize “my first name is corn” Hirono ask, “Are you for or against female genital mutilation?”
I doubt it, because the left knows they could find themselves with knives at their throats . . .
Sure, that’s the purpose behind the intersectionality BS that started on college campi (campuses?) and is slowly becoming a core principal of the Democratic party.
If we are going to see an increase in religious attacks from Congress, I think we should hear more calling out against those who do it. Why isn’t that happening??
I think those videos of fetuses only a few weeks old are persuasive. It is clear that those fetuses are vital beings whose lives are being snuffed out by (murderous) abortionists.
White Christians are an easy target 1) because they’re white therefore, typically unsympathetic in the zeitgeist and 2) because they’re not supposed to fight back.
But their ideology is stopping progressivism from being the norm.
Once the white christians are out of the way, the other intersectional types will be more willing to cede their arcane beliefs.
In Los Angeles no one protested a black or hispanic church when the Prop 8 bruhaha was happening. Bad optics
The Senator from Hawaii is a disgrace. Among the things see has said, during the Kavanaugh hearing, was that men should either join her in condemning Kavanaugh or shut up. For this, she wasn’t condemned. Now, she has the effrontery to say that Ben Sasse, one of our best and brightest Senators, is parroting the alt-right?!!! A resolution should be introduced forthwith that, in no uncertain terms, condemns her, and if he doesn’t offer some sort of apology, she should be thrown out of the Senate.
I have to demur just a little bit. I am as appalled as anyone at the anti-Christian, anti-Catholic, and anti-Semitic bigotry of the left. But the Knights of Columbus is not a religion per se, and is not just a religious fraternity. It is, and has been, an activist in a variety of political causes.
In the context of Islam I have always said that freedom of religion does not apply when members of that religion enter the public square and take a position on political issues. Muslims should be free to worship as they see fit, and to pray as often as they wish facing in whatever direction they wish. But when they try to insert their ideology into the civil law I believe they are entitled to no more deference than any other actor in the public square. They are not, for example, entitled to “hate crime” legislation making it illegal to draw a cartoon of the Prophet.
So if I am not to be a blatant hypocrite, then I must admit that criticism of the Knights of Columbus for the political positions they have taken is not out of bounds either. Criticizing the KoC for being a Catholic organization is deplorable. Criticizing them for their political positions is no more an assault on religion than is criticizing the Sierra Club, or the NRA, or the AARP, or the Heritage Foundation.
I just read a thread here on Ricochet where a number of people called for the Catholic Church to take punitive action against politicians who voted for laws that violate Church doctrine. In my view, you can’t have it both ways. If we are to maintain the metaphorical wall between Church and State (which I firmly believe we should – Nancy Pelosi’s position on the morality of walls notwithstanding) then it runs both ways.
I agree with most of your comment, @larry3435. But I don’t think it’s any of the senators business what groups a person belongs to, unless it’s acting illegally. And I believe that one of the reasons they are criticizing them is because they are affiliated with Catholics. But they’d never admit it.
As I was typing a comment, I paused for a moment and read yours. No need for mine.
First, your understanding of religious freedom is far too constrained. The 1A does not protect the right to worship but to exercise your religion. That means you are free to live your faith in all parts of your life, including politics. That does not give you the ability to infringe on the rights of others (nor does any other right) but to advocate for positions in keeping with your faith.
The positions Senators Hirono and Harris characterized as “extreme” on the part of the Knights are not positions the Knights have taken apart from the Church but positions the Knights hold BECAUSE they are the positions of the Church. There is no separating membership in the Knights on these issues and being a faithful Catholic.
If I had one wish for 1A jurisprudence, it would be the end of the use of the term “separation of church and state” in any discussion. The phrase appears nowhere in the 1A and is used to convey an idea that is both ahistorical and anti-textual.
Thanks @klaatu. Very well explained. I agree with your comment especially on “separation of church and state” which has been stated primarily for political, not protection, purposes.
They defend Islam because Islam is anti American.
Everything the left does is anti American.
How hard is this to understand?
Of course religious people have the right to advocate for whatever political positions they want. But they get no special immunity from criticism just because they formed their political positions based on their faith. Their political positions are open to the same discussion, and same rough and tumble, as anyone else’s political positions. It is not religious bigotry to criticize someone for a position just because that position is in keeping with his or her faith. Or, if it is, then call me a bigot, because things I have said about Reverend Jeremiah Wright and his Black Liberation Theology are not fit to repeat within the CoC.
And no, you are not free to live your faith in all aspects of your life. You are not free to commit honor killings, even if your faith says it’s good to do so. You are not free to fly planes into buildings, or strap bombs to your children and send them into crowded places to martyr themselves for the glory of Allah. You are free to worship, and you are free to hold your beliefs, but you are not free to act on your beliefs except to the same extent as every other citizen is free to act on his or her beliefs. That’s how it has always been, and that’s how it must be unless we want to be a theocracy.
On the subject of “separation of Church and State,” it is a shorthand but it means something. I am well aware that the phrase does not appear in the Constitution. Neither does the phrase “innocent until proven guilty,” but you understand what it means nonetheless.
Well, if I was a Senator and was asked to confirm a nominee, I would pay attention if the nominee was a member of the Southern Poverty Law Center, or ANTIFA, or ACORN, or Onward Together, or MoveOn.org, or for that matter the Clinton Foundation. Can you honestly tell me that you would not?
No one is arguing anyone gets any special immunity.
If only I had said, “That doesn’t give you the ability to infringe on the rights of others…”
The problem with the phrase “separation of church and state” is that what many people understand it to mean is something with no basis in the text or history of the 1A.
Senators Maize Hirono and Kamala Harris showed their true colors during the Kavanaugh Judge hearings. They stood out as being particularly judgmental rather than asking questions respectfully. Note that the press was quick to throw up pictures of the Catholic boy next to Justice Kavanaugh, who was part of the group waiting for the bus when the native American walked up to him 6 inches from his face and beat a drum, while some obnoxious black Hebrew Israelite group (what??) hurled vitriol at these boys. Both Catholic, both white – so what? Is there a point? Hirono’s statements above show she does not represent The Freedom of Religion and I think disqualifies her to vote, based on the Constitution. I’m not sure what she bases a vote on.
Yes, I would pay attention. But none of them would justify my ruling them out, unless they pursue illegal activities. Since Antifa supports violence, they’d be out. Just because I find the others disgusting, I don’t know if it’s appropriate to rule them out.
Edit: I’m trying to make the point that you can’t throw people out because you don’t like them or because they affiliate with groups you don’t like. Isn’t that precisely why we dislike the Left? Is that the direction we should be going in?
Funny you brought that up. I’ve been seeing this pagan and Wiccan thing all over the place lately. I was behind a car that had Wiccan and witch stickers on it, so I looked up the sites. Alot of young women are being drawn to this. Instagram has millions of women who are linked up through social media promoting and sharing it. They may be pro-life, but there’s no life in these practices. It’s sad and I feel sorry for these women.
On this site, the headline says “tell your congressmen you will be watching them on the abortion issue”
http://www.priestsforlife.org/
Not good. I can’t believe what the Democratic Party has turned into. Who would have thought they would be anti-Christian and anti-Israel, which is an indirect way of being anti-Jewish. Islam seems to be the only religion they don’t attack. In fact there seems to be a coalition between the secular left and Muslims.
The attack on Jews and Christians seems to me to be an outgrowth of the anti-western civilization meme they have had since the sixties, or actually even before that. It used to be hidden among politicians, but now what used to be spoken only in hippie joints and left-wing college campuses is now in your face and spoken not by potheads but by the political class.
The gap between the left and right is now huge. It was big as far back as Nixon and Reagan but now it’s insurmountable. Look at the abortion demographics. Democrats are 75% pro-abortion; Republicans are 70% pro-life. If I didn’t think it far-fetched I would say we’re in civil war like emotions. Susan, you forgot to mention all the anti-religious freedom limits the Obama administration put into place and somewhat overturned by Trump.
This will not be good. If the left gains power, and at some point it will swing their way, I see trouble for religious groups and general white people. It’s amazing how this notion of “white privileged” just rolls off the lefty’s tongues. I also see trouble for Israel. If the left gains power, I suspect there will be a break with Israel. Obama went pretty far in that direction, allowing Israel’s top enemy, Iran, a path to being a nuclear power. The growing Muslim community will join in of course.
I’m repeating, but this will not be good.