We've heard a lot in the past week or so about how the Obama administration is waging an aggressive war against religion and the religious. We're being told that making birth control available to anyone who wants it regardless of their employer's beliefs is tantamount to sending believers to the guillotine.
The trouble is, what they're talking about is not freedom of religion.
If it were, they'd be defending the right of Muslims to build mosques on any property they own. They're not.
They'd be defending the right of atheists to refuse to participate in any religious activity. They're not.
They'd be advocating to offer Kosher and Halal free lunches in public schools. They're not.
They're not even talking about freedom of Christianity. If they were, they'd understand that most protestant denominations have no problem with birth control.
They're not even arguing for freedom of Catholicism, because if they were, they'd be advocating public funds for caring for the poor.
When I was in elementary school -- sometime between the Jurassic period and when Hector was a pup ... OK it was the 1950s -- we had to recite the Lord's Prayer, along with the Pledge of Allegiance, every morning before we started class.
You know the Lord's Prayer:
Our Father who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done,
on earth, as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive those
Who trespass against us.
Lead us not into temptation,
For thine is the kingdom, the power,
And the glory forever. Amen
A lot of people probably think I got a couple of lines wrong up there. I am, after all, reciting from memory a prayer I learned about 55 years ago, and haven't had to repeat back for more than 30 years.
Thing is, there were plenty of disputes over the exact words even back then. The Catholic kids at my school had a different ending. Some of my friends used to say "Forgive us our debts," rather than "trespasses." (Side note: At 6 years old, I had no idea what the word "trespass" meant. I figured it had something to do with bread. I was in favor of bread.)
There was no precise, approved set of words for everyone.
I remember clearly looking around to see which kids sat down before the last stanza (as they were allowed to do at my school). Those were the (hushed voice) Catholics. Those kids were different from us protestants.
After school, to a large extent, we didn't play with the Catholic kids. They played with the kids in the plaid uniforms, who didn't go to our school.
I don't remember any kids who sat through the whole prayer -- atheist kids -- though I would be surprised if there weren't any.
Off the top of my head, I'm not sure when teacher mandated praying in public schools was outlawed. But whenever it was, it should have been earlier.
That simple prayer, that was supposed to put us in the frame of mind to settle down and listen to the teacher, divided us. It told us who it was OK to associate with and who it wasn't OK to associate with.
My point is that religion is an entirely impractical thing for the government to mess with in a free society. No matter what the government does when it comes to religion, it's going to be repressive to someone.
That's why our founding fathers were so wise to build the First Amendment the way they did. Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Religion, Freedom of the Press, Freedom of Assembly. If you told me I could only keep one of the amendments in the Bill of Rights, that's the one I'd go for. It covers most of what "freedom" means to me.
But lets face it. The Bill of Rights is under attack in 21st Century America. Those pesky amendments about rights to a trial by jury, no excessive bail, no detention without charges, being able to confront your accuser, have been thoroughly trampled in Post-911 America.
Now we get to see Rick Santorum (and the other GOP candidates, because they figure they have to go where he goes to beat him) mounting an assault on the First Amendment under the guise of "freedom of religion."
It's the Bizarro initiative, escaped into this universe from another dimension where black is white, freedom is slavery and Mallard Fillmore is funny.
The Founding Fathers figured someday, someone like Santorum was going to come along and try to make everyone adhere to HIS faith by legislation.
He (seemingly sincerely) believes he knows what God wants and was put here to get the rest of us in line. I have a deep distrust of anyone who thinks they know what God wants. It always seems to sound a lot like what the speaker wants -- funny how God always agrees.
With the help of the likes of Darryl Issa, (who doesn't think women should have any say when it comes to contraception), Sean Hannity and the other usual suspects there is a move on to take us back to the 1950s when school children had to demonstrate their Christianity at the beginning of each public school day.
In their Bizarro vision for America, any attempt to give people a choice about what and whether to believe is repression and an attack on religion.
They seem to believe that if people aren't compelled to believe, they won't believe. That's not a very ringing endorsement of faith.
If these people really believe that God is almighty, why do they need laws to protect their faith? God should be able to do that all on his own. Why do they think a law that makes contraception available to everyone somehow compels anyone to use it?
If contraception is free and available to everyone, there will be fewer abortions. They should be happy about that. There will be fewer unwanted children. Parents will be able to plan the size of their families to the benefit of the children they do decide to have.
"Free and available to everyone" doesn't compel anyone to use it. It's a matter of "can," not "must."
No Catholic is compelled to use contraception. No Muslim or Jew is compelled to eat pork. No Jehovah's Witness will be compelled to celebrate Christmas.
But they can if they want to.
And that's what Freedom of Religion really means.