MaggieOH:
I am not a citizen of the USA, but I am Catholic. I take exception to your comments because I believe that you are misrepresenting the constitutional rights of a group of people when it comes to determining their own self-governance.
Maybe its an American thing. We have a set of Amendments to our Constitution, the first of which is that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”
It simply isn’t permitted to impose ANY form of religion using the force of law. Period. Not at the Federal level, not at the state level, not at the county level, not at the township level.
On the other hand, Mr. Monaghan’s people are free to practice whatever religion they wish, in whatever way they wish. What they can’t do is pass laws requiring other people to observe follow their religious practices.
MaggieOH:
It is the ACLU that is so dysfunctional that they are in fact a blight upon the Constitution of the USA. They are the ones who have been sponsoring every effort to destroy the Christian religion.
This is a serious mischaracterization of the ACLU, you should take some time to educate yourself on the organization and what it stands for. I’ve been a card carrying member for several years and fully support their work. They have never to my knowledge filed suit or attempted to interfere with any **individual’s ** right to practice his religion. They have filed innumerable law suits to prevent violations of the 1st Amendment by governments, mostly state and local governments who haven’t quite got the word yet. A recent example here in Georgia. In the 1970’s Ga passed a law excempting the sales of the Holy Bible from sales tax. Nobody really cared all that much. This year a group of non-Christian clergy asked the State legislature to extend that tax break to ALL religious scripture, e.g. the Quran and the Bhagavad Gita. The state legislature refused and the ACLU filed suit, as they should have.
When the government reats one religion preferentially oppression and tyranny result. Look at the 30 Years War, the Inquisition (don’t tell me that wasn’t the Church or that only a few people died, I don’t care. fact is people were killed because they wouldn’t abjure their religion. One is too many), the Salem Witch trials, the anti-Catholic Penal Laws in Great Britain. Even the early Christian martyrs killed by the Roman’s for not practicing the official state religion. I’ll tell you what
MaggieOH:
Catholic Taliban? I think not. What about the Fundamentalist colleges where the young men and women are not allowed to date together without a chaperone? Care to comment, or is the hostility just reserved for the Catholic population alone?
Read the message above. I am a Catholci. My “hostility” is reserved for
ANYONE using the
force of law to impose their religious beliefs on another person. Period.
Does your fundamentalist college have the force of law? No? Then I don’t care what they do they have the right to act however they wish. Are they Govrnemnt supported? Then we might have a problem. As I recall Bob Jones University didn’t get in trouble for their chaperone requirement, but for their prohibition on inter-racial dating.
MaggieOH:
Pharmacies should have the right not to stock the “bill”, the “morning after pill” and other forms of artificial contraception if that is their choice.
I’ll freely concede that the pharmacy has the right to decide not to stock these items. In fact that is Mr. Monaghan’s “clarified” position. They are going to “ask” or “suggest” that pharmacies not stock the products.
What I have an issue with is passing a law that says they can’t stock them. Which was the fiorst thing Mr. Monaghan said, before he started back-tracking.
Cont’d
