This article was provided to the New York Analysis of Policy and Government by Judge John H. Wilson (ret.)
Attacks on religion from within those of the same faith are growing. Amy Klein, the former editor of the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, writes in the New York Post “I want to drive through Brooklyn, shouting out my car window in Yiddish, ‘Gey trog a farsholtene maske!’ Wear. A. Damn. Mask…As a Jew who has much appreciation for my more religious brothers and sisters (and who has no clue why they or anyone else flouts the medical recommendations), I urge (Governor Cuomo) to stay strong and enforce the synagogue restrictions.” In fact, Klein goes so far as to demand that “Cuomo should also make sure…celebrations (of the holiest of days) are prohibited this year. Dancing with the Torah and other mass gatherings like it should not be allowed to happen “
There may have been a time when such restrictions could be justified. But in a time when statistical data no longer support the need for such draconian measures, the impulse to censor the religious by the admittedly more secular members of the faith amounts to a violation of the freedom of religion guaranteed by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.
The Jewish faith is not the only religion to suffer internal attack. Recently, Pope Francis made the following statement during the filming of a documentary regarding the LGBT community; “Homosexuals have a right to be a part of the family. They’re children of God and have a right to a family. Nobody should be thrown out, or be made miserable because of it…What we have to create is a civil union law. That way they are legally covered…I stood up for that.”
While no Catholic has any serious objection to the first part of the Pope’s statement, the endorsement of civil unions has caused a firestorm within the faith.
Soon after the Pope’s statement, the Bishop of Providence, Thomas Tobin, issued the following statement; “The Holy Father’s apparent support for the recognition of civil unions for same-sex couples…clearly contradicts what has been the long-standing teaching of the Church about same-sex unions. The Church cannot support the acceptance of objectively immoral relationships…the legalization of their civil unions, which seek to simulate holy matrimony, is not admissible.”
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As described by the Associated Press, the controversy “highlight(s)…Francis’ willingness to push his own agenda, even at the expense of fueling pushback from conservative Catholics.” While still the archbishop of Buenos Aires, the Pope “told gay activists that ‘he favored gay rights as well as legal recognition for civil unions, which gay couples could also access.’” This led to “a 2003 document from the Vatican’s doctrine office, which states the church’s respect for gay people ‘cannot lead in any way to approval of homosexual behavior or to legal recognition of homosexual unions.’ That document was issued after Rome criticized (the then-archbishop) for refusing to speak up strongly when Buenos Aires extended civil union protections to gay couples within the capital region.”
The inconsistency between the Pope’s position on civil unions and the Catholic doctrine the Pope is sworn to defend is a terrible, self-inflicted wound for the faithful. If gay Catholics can receive the Church’s blessing for their civil union, what is to stop heterosexual couples from receiving the same blessing? Why then would anyone need or want a marriage within the Church, when a civil union will be accepted?
Much like the non-religious Jews who attack their faithful brethren for following their devotions without heed to secular concerns, the Pope has also allowed his worldly outlook to color his words. Both need to remember that the faithful have endured for thousands of years by maintaining their beliefs, and not by allowing the momentary and fleeting concerns of the present to turn them from their path.
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