It is wide
out in the open now – The Left has no intention of giving equal privileges to
people on the Right: Their criminals go
free (Paul Pelosi, Hunter Biden, etc.), while innocent conservatives get
persecuted by the IRS, censored by Facebook, perp-walked by the FBI, etc.
We can add
religion to this list as well. There are
numerous photos of Pres. Biden’s newly appointed monkey pox response
coordinator, Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, showing off his collection of pentagram
clothing and assorted satanic tattoos (you can get a sampling here). And you are not allowed to criticize him for
that because it would be hateful. But if
you are a committed Christian, you can be mocked, you can be forced to have a
covid shot made from aborted babies shoved into your arm, you can have your
pro-life church or pregnancy center vandalized or fire-bombed, and all the rest
of it.
Thus far,
the response of conservatives to this has been inadequate. It is typified in how Rep. Mike Johnson responded
to Little Demon:
The majority of the Founders, having
personally witnessed the abuses of the Church of England, were determined to prevent
the official establishment of any single national denomination or religion.
However, they very deliberately listed religious liberty (the free exercise of
religion) as the first freedom protected in the Bill of Rights **because they
wanted everyone to freely live out their faith–-as that would ensure a robust
presence of moral virtue in the public square and the free marketplace of
ideas.**
His telling
of the history is only partly correct. He
is right that there was discomfort with the idea of an established church at
the federal level, but the first amendment to the Philadelphia constitution was
not written to dismantle all established churches existing in the States in
order to implement an individualistic free market for religions. A number of them continued to have
State-established churches after the first amendment was adopted, and no one
pitched a fit over it. In other words,
it is up to each individual State to determine whether it wants to adopt Christianity
as her official religion, and support it accordingly, or not. The federal first amendment is not a blanket
ban on their doing so. Justice Thomas
has been insistent on this point in his opinions written for several important
religion cases that have gone before the federal Supreme Court.
This is
critical because of what Rep. Johnson says:
‘because they wanted everyone to freely live out their faith–-as that
would ensure a robust presence of moral virtue in the public square and the
free marketplace of ideas.’
A public
square open to all religions will not ensure morality in public or private
life. In fact, the vagaries of phrases
like the ‘free exercise of religion’ are being weaponized against traditional
Christians. We have pointed out some
examples of that in past essays, but here is yet another one, from
The Wall Street Journal:
As bans on abortion take effect in a number of states, faith
leaders with liberal views on the issue are taking a page out of the conservative legal playbook, arguing in new lawsuits
that the restrictions infringe on their religious beliefs.
Rabbis, Christian ministers, Buddhists and Quakers are among
legal challengers who say the bans are preventing them from exercising their
own religious views about when abortions are permissible. They also say the new
laws have made clergy afraid that if they counsel their parishioners on
abortion, they could face legal risk for aiding and abetting the procedure.
And here is
another claiming psychedelic
drug use deserves ‘religious freedom’ protections.
Conservatives
have to stop being passive in the face of Leftist assaults on traditional
Christianity; there is no fair play with Leftists in a free market; they have
no scruples about rigging the game. We
have to use the Left’s own methods against them: Gain control of the levers of power and use
them to protect and strengthen conservative ideas and institutions – the
family, small farmers and businessmen, unwoke schools, judges who will actually
jail hardened criminals, energy policies grounded in reality, and, yes, the
Church.
There are
any number of ways elected officials can strengthen Christianity in Louisiana
and the other States. . . .
The rest is
at https://thehayride.com/2022/09/garlington-if-leftist-officials-can-wear-pentagrams-folks-on-the-right-should-carry-the-cross/.
--
Holy Ælfred
the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!
Anathema to
the Union!
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