by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf
WDPRS.COM -
This week this is what he offered. You can find all his pages HERE at the site of the parish.
Pastor’s Page
By Fr. George Welzbacher
August 19, 2012
It would seem that, for the first time in the history of our republic, we are witnessing here in the U.S.A. the establishment of a state religion, a religion so crafted as to delight the heart of a secularist, a religion with clearly defined dogmas, compliance with whose demands is to be enforced with all of the coercive powers at the disposal of the federal government. Here are the dogmas of this new faith.
Dogma #1: A woman has the right, the unrestricted right, to make arrangements for the killing of her unborn child whenever such course of action is convenient. [I would add that abortion thereby becomes a sacrament. Shades of Moloch.]
Dogma #2: The chief purpose served by the institution of marriage is the securing of social recognition for romantic attraction, together with the panoply of benefits accruing to such recognition. The begetting of children, together with such subsequent upbringing as will equip them to contribute responsibly to the society in which they will spend their lives, can be dismissed as of marginal importance. Thus every man, should this be his bent, has the right to marry another man, just as every woman, should she be so disposed, has the right to marry a woman. To suggest otherwise, to imply, for example, that a man’s realigning of his reproductive powers to adapt to another man’s digestive tract is in any way abnormal is to be guilty of a hate crime, in exculpation of which no appeal to the rights of conscience shall be allowed, this being an intolerable crime, properly punishable with fines and/or imprisonment.
Dogma #3: The sovereign pontiff in this new state religion is the people’s hero, Barack Hussein, now reigning gloriously in the White House. [Anti-Catholic, pro-abortion, against the 1st and 2nd Amendments (to begin with): The First Gay President.]
Dogma #4: Enemy Number One of the new state religion is, by and large, the Christian faith and, with special intransigence, the Catholic Church. Measures must accordingly be taken to compel the recusant authorities of the Roman Catholic faith to genuflect at the new religion’s altar. (Thus the new Health and Human Services mandate).
* * * * *
All of this represents at least one way of looking at President Obama’s arrogant trampling upon the First Amendment, not to mention his repudiation of God’s Commandments. A formally different but compatible “take” was recently offered by the political commentator Yuval Levin in an essay published in that excellent journal of opinion, The National Review. In his analysis of Mr. Obama’s attack on traditional religion and freedom of conscience Mr. Levin begins by citing the early nineteenth century French political philosopher, Alexis de Tocqueville, whose Democracy in America remains to this day a much admired, much consulted and much quoted classic.
In explaining America’s unique vitality and strength, Tocqueville assigns special importance to the vast proliferation of VOLUNTARY ASSOCIATIONS of every imaginable type that channel human energy towards productive ends and stand as a kind of buffer, a PROTECTIVE SCREEN, between the individual citizen and the overreaching state. Mr. Levin argues that the grand aim of the Obama administration has been the systematic demolition of that buffer, that protective shield of free associations, among which first and foremost are the religious groups, America’s churches and synagogues and other God-centered associations.
Here (abridged to accommodate our restrictions of space) is what Mr. Levin has to say.
Due to the marvels of the interwebs, I don’t have to restrict anything. Instead I can simply link you to Yuval Levin’s original article, The Hollow Republic.
Dead on.
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