Kamala Harris

In an interview on Tuesday with Hallie Jackson of NBC News, Kamala Harris answered a question about exemptions for health care workers and institutions that have moral reservations about performing, assisting in, or providing abortions. Jackson asked Harris about concessions she would be willing to make with Republicans on the abortion issue should they win a majority in Congress, as Harris desires to expand the right to abortion across the country. She asked, “So is a question of pragmatism then: what concessions would be on the table? Religious exemptions, for example, is that something that you would consider with a Republican controlled Congress?”

Harris replied: “I don’t think we should be making concessions when we’re talking about a fundamental freedom to make decisions about your own body.”

It is clear that in Harris’ mind, abortion is a “fundamental freedom” for women in America. Even though abortion is no where to be found in the U. S. Constitution, and religious freedom is literally the first freedom listed in the Bill of Rights, when it comes down to a healthcare worker or Catholic hospital refusing to assist in, perform, or provide an abortion, a woman’s “fundamental freedom” to receive that abortion trumps anyone’s religious freedom to live according to the dictates of his or her faith. If that is not “prohibiting the free exercise of” religion, someone please tell me what is.

There is a political movement in this country to define religious freedom as nothing more than the right to believe what you want in the chamber of your heart, and to attend whatever worshipping community you want to, or none at all, without the government interferring with your choice or your worship. Religious freedom, then, is defined down as nothing more than a freedom to worship.

Fr. Thomas Reese, in a 2016 article for America magazine, wrote: “The sad truth is that some states and societies tolerate religious minorities as long as they confine themselves to their places of worship and don’t go out into society. But if they try to convert someone, if anyone switches from the dominant religion to another, or if they speak out on public issues, they will feel the full force of the government and society down on their heads.” In his article, Fr. Reese was defending the Obama administration against what he felt were unjust accusations that Obama was shifting the meaning of the First Amendment from “freedom of religion” to “freedom of worship.” It’s hard to make that defense, in my mind, when the Obama administration was attempting to force Christian businesses, and even the Little Sisters of the Poor, to pay for contraceptions, including abortifacients, in their health insurance policies. Obama’s administration also came out against the Conscience Protection Act, designed to eliminate punishments against healthcare workers who refused to participate in abortions. Obama’s antagonism toward religious freedom was also on display in his administration’s support for the Equality Act, which would have stripped all conscience protections established by the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

The Biden administration has continued this assault on religious liberty by attempting to force Catholic and Christian hospitals and doctors to perform abortions, sex-change operations, steriliations, and euthenasia. Happily, the courts have so far sided with the Catholic and Christian hospitals. Given that Harris has said that she can’t think of anything she would do differently than Biden, it’s safe to assume that she would continue that effort.

As I noted in yesterday’s post on the Vatican-China Provisional Agreement, there is a long history of tension between the State and the Church, usually based on the State’s attempts to control the Church or to control her members. This typically comes in the form of mandates that require believers to take certain actions or avoid others, and of the State attempting to impose itself on the Church by controlling who can be named a bishop, what type of lands the Church can own or ministries she can engage in, or by enacting taxes the Church is required to pay. As I write this, Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Superior in Wisconsin is appealing to the U. S. Supreme Court a case it lost against the state of Wisconsin, in which the Supreme Court of Wisconsin said that Catholic Charities is required to participate in and contribute to the state’s unemployment benefit program. The diocese has its own unemployment benefits program that it thinks is better than Wisconsin’s, so they don’t want to have to pay for Wisconsin’s program, and requested a religious exemption. The Court justified it’s decision against Catholic Charities on the grounds that Catholic Charities is not a religious organization. Why? Because Catholic Charities’ services to those with developmental or mental health disabilities are “primarily charitable and secular.” The Court also reasoned that, since Catholic Charities doesn’t try to convert people to the Catholic faith, it doesn’t qualify as a religious organization.

I do not believe that the Catholic Church in the United States is suffering intense persecution at the hands of the Biden administration. I do believe that the Biden administration regards the Catholic Church and her teachings and practices as an obstacle to the full-throttled application of its agenda. Biden’s administration would rather see Catholic hospitals shut down – some of which are the only healthcare available to large swaths of the American countryside – rather than compromise its agenda on abortion and gender ideology. So, ideology wins and the people, especially the poor, lose. I also believe, based on the evidence of its actions, that the Biden administration is willing to allow the Church to suffer abuse at the hands of domestic terrorists, and use the Department of Justice as a weapon against peaceful protesters, in hopes of silencing those opposed to the Biden administration’s agenda. This has been demonstrated over and over again. There have been over 400 attacks on Catholic churches and pro-life pregnancy centers since Roe v. Wade was overturned and only three prosecutions so far, each with sentences of 30 days to one year, plus paying restitution. In the meantime, peaceful protesters who simply pray in front of abortion clinics are being arrested and sent to jail for years.

It is not the goal of the Catholic Church to impose a theocracy on the United States. It is the goal of the Church to worship God freely and to serve God freely in her service to others, especially those in need. It is the right of Catholic citizens to participate in the process of government, which means to protest, advise, recommend, and attempt to persuade their representatives to adopt legislation that corresponds to the values of the Catholic faith – just as it is the right of non-Catholics to do the opposite. When the government attempts to control people of faith by requiring that they engage in certain activities, or not engage in others, then the government is interferring with the free exercise of religion. We would never tolerate requiring an atheist teacher to lead her students in the Pledge of Allegiance (“… one nation, under God …”) before class. Why do we tolerate requiring a Catholic nurse to assist in an abortion? Does an atheist have the right to be an atheist and act like one in her profession, but a Catholic does not? According to our “devoutly Catholic” president and the Democrat nominee for president, it appears so.

Be Christ for all. Bring Christ to all. See Christ in all.