By Mark Pattison
WASHINGTON
(CNS) — A letter to President Barack Obama and congressional leaders asks them
to “renounce publicly” a contentious sentence in the U.S. Commission on Civil
Rights’ report that equates religious freedom with discrimination.
The
letter, dated Oct. 7 and released Oct. 12, was signed by 17 religious leaders, including two U.S.
Catholic bishops.
The sentence
was written by commission chairman Martin Castro and was incorporated into the 306-page
report issued Sept. 8. It said, “The phrases ‘religious liberty’ and ‘religious freedom’
will stand for nothing except hypocrisy so long as they remain code words for
discrimination, intolerance, racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia,
Christian supremacy or any form of intolerance.”
“We
understand that people of good faith can disagree about the relationship between
religious liberty and anti-discrimination laws in our country, and how that
relationship should best be structured,” said the letter, released in Washington by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. “These questions have to do with issues critical to the common good such as marriage, the family, contraception, abortion and the source of human dignity.
“At the
same time, we are one in demanding that no American citizen or institution be
labeled by their government as bigoted because of their religious views, and
dismissed from the political life of our nation for holding these views. And
yet that is precisely what the Civil Rights Commission report does.”
The
letter said, “There should be no place in our government for such a low view of
our First Freedom — the first of our civil rights — least of all from a body
dedicated to protecting them all.”
Among
the signatories were Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty, and Maronite
Bishop Gregory J. Mansour of the Eparchy of St. Maron of Brooklyn, N.Y. Also signing was Thomas
Farr, director of the Religious Freedom Project at Georgetown University in
Washington and president of the Religious Freedom Institute.
On
Sept. 13, Archbishop Lori issued his own statement criticizing Castro without
mentioning him by name. “Statements painting those who support religious
freedom with the broad brush of bigotry are reckless and reveal a profound
disregard for the religious foundations of his own work,” the archbishop
said.
Other
signatories of the letter included representatives from Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Mormon,
Southern Baptist, Baha’i, African Methodist Episcopal and evangelical leaders,
as well as leaders of nonreligious organizations.
The letter
was addressed to Obama, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, and Senate
President Pro Tem Orrin Hatch, R-Utah.
It said each of the letter’s signers “opposes hateful rhetoric and actions,” and believes in the equality of all Americans, no matter their creed or community. However, it said, they all “are determined and unafraid” to speak the truths about beliefs they “have held for millennia.”
“Slandering
ideas and arguments with which one disagrees as ‘racism’ or ‘phobia’ not only
cheapens the meaning of those words, but can have a chilling effect on healthy debate
over, or dissent from, the prevailing orthodoxy. Such attacks on dissent have
no place in the United States where all religious beliefs, the freedom to
express them, and the freedom to live by them are protected by the First
Amendment,” the letter said.
“We are
grateful particularly to President Obama for his willingness to recognize that
the religious and moral dimension of our laws is not only unavoidable, but has
long served the cause of civil rights,” it added.
One of
a series of talking points prepared by the USCCB in support of the religious leaders’ letter says: “The U.S. bishops have spoken
forcefully in defense of religious freedom in the U.S. and have also
highlighted the suffering of persecuted Christians around the world. We can
honor those who suffer persecution by robustly living our faith, but we need to
have the freedom to do so.”
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Follow Pattison on Twitter: @MeMarkPattison.
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