The War Against Christianity

Today I read two articles about the continuing legal war by secular society to abolish Christianity.

Christianity Today has an article about the 5-4 U.S. Supreme Court decision which upholds the decision of Hastings Law School to ban the Christian Legal Society from campus because of its "discriminatory policies" of only allowing members that share its statement of faith.

"In his dissent, Justice Samuel Alito castigated the majority opinion as political correctness run amok.

'The proudest boast of our free speech jurisprudence is that we protect the freedom to express 'the thought that we hate,' he wrote. 'Today's decision rests on a very different principle: no freedom for expression that offends prevailing standards of political correctness in our country's institution's of higher learning. . . . Brushing aside inconvenient precedent, the Court arms public educational institutions with a handy weapon for suppressing the speech of unpopular groups - groups to which, as Hastings candidly puts it, these institutions 'do not wish to . . . lend their names(s).' . . . I do not think it is an exaggeration to say that today's decision is a serious setback for freedom of expression in this country."

Justice John Paul Stevens' concurring opinion leaves no doubt where the secular left categorizes those of us holding orthodox Christian beliefs on sin: "The harshest criticism came from Stevens, who compared CLS's requirements - which include a bar against 'unrepentant homosexual conduct' - with groups that 'may exclude or mistreat Jews, blacks, and women - or those who do not share their contempt for Jews, blacks, and women. A free society must tolerate such groups. It need not subsidize them, give them its official imprimatur, or grant them equal access to law school facilities."

The Bad Catholic can only assume that Justice Stevens, Ginsberg, Kennedy, et. al., would characterize the Roman Catholic Church, the Southern Baptist Convention, the Eastern Orthodox Churches, the Mormon Church and other religious groups that believe that homosexual acts are sinful are "hate groups" that society must "tolerate." Obviously, such people should be ostracized from society. People who hold beliefs like this should not be allowed to hold law licenses anyway. They definitely should be banned from the law schools.

The other article of interest was in L'Osservatore Romano and concerned the case of Lautsi v. Italy in which the European Union's Court of Human Rights ruled that the display of the crucifix in Italian schools violated human rights.

The Vatican's official paper has no illusions as to the ultimate goal of the secularists:

" . . . in reality, religious liberty is gradually being reduced to merely freedom of faith, that is, the freedom to believe in something or not and this only in your own personal life. It is a mistake, however, to believe that faith is independent of religion. One is internal and the other is external, making the two complementary. To limit religious freedom (because religion would have no social legitimacy) in order to protect freedom of faith (as pure expression of human transcendence) would mean, for example, that prayers and family catechism would be forbidden within the family unit itself because of the invasion on the autonomy of the religious conscience of the child. If this were the standard, parents would have very few chances to transmit their faith to their own children. The same goes for society. If religion is removed from society, faith will be removed from the hearts of generations."

The article quotes Russian Orthodox Bishop Hilarion who minces no words:

"Militant secularism, quickly gaining in numbers in modern Europe, is also a pseudo-religion with its own solid doctrinal tenants and moral norms, its own cult and symbols. As with 2oth century Russian Communism, it also lays claims to a monopoly on world views and remains intolerant of competition. This is why leaders of contemporary secularism react uncomfortably to religious symbols and wince when God is mentioned. . . . Contemporary militant secularism, like Russian Bolshevism, views itself as a Weltanschauung destined to replace Christianity. Hence, it is neither neutral nor indifferent toward Christianity; rather it is openly hostile to it."

We must pray deeply.
IT'S LATER THAN WE THINK!