CNA\/EWTN News<\/a>).- The growing perception of religion as a threat to a free society\u00a0is leading to persecution of\u00a0believers around the world, according to\u00a0speakers at a recent meeting of the U.S. bishops.
\n\t\u00a0
\n\t\u201cReligious liberty is in global crisis,\u201d said Thomas F. Farr, director of the Religious Freedom Project at the Berkley Center for Religion Peace and World Affairs at Georgetown University.
\n\t\u00a0
\n\tHe explained that the crisis has \u201cenormous consequences for the Church, the United States, the fate of democracy worldwide, the defeat of religion-based terrorism and the cause of international peace and justice.\u201d<\/p>\n\tFarr spoke June 13 to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops as part of a two-hour discussion on both domestic and international religious freedom concerns.<\/p>\n
\tHis address came during the conference\u2019s June 13-15 general assembly in Atlanta, Ga.<\/p>\n
\tBishop Richard E. Pates of Des Moines, Iowa, chairman of the bishops' Committee on International Justice and Peace, noted that Christians around the world face threats ranging from Church bombing to discriminatory legal restrictions.<\/p>\n
\tChaldean Auxiliary Bishop Shlemon Warduni of Baghdad, president of Caritas Iraq, also spoke at the bishops\u2019 gathering, discussing the plight of Christians in the Middle East.<\/p>\n
\tHe offered accounts of priests being kidnapped, tortured and held for ransom, as well as churches being attacked and worshipers being killed.<\/p>\n
\tThere has also been a \u201chuge diaspora\u201d of Christian communities in the region, he added.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cSome wonder if there is a big plot to empty Iraq, if not to empty all of the Middle East, of Christians,\u201d he told the American bishops.<\/p>\n
\tBishop Warduni said that leaders in U.S. \u201cbear a special responsibility\u201d towards Christians in Iraq because the United States led the 2003 invasion that caused some of these problems between the religious groups.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWe ask you to do your best\u201d to raise awareness and support for Iraqi Christians, he urged, explaining that the people in the region simply want to live peacefully with \u201cno more war, no more death\u201d and \u201cno more explosions.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tFarr cautioned the U.S. bishops that a negative view of religion is leading to a continued erosion of religious freedom around the world, with disastrous consequences.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cBoth history and modern scholarship demonstrate that a robust system of religious liberty in both law and culture is indispensable to individual human dignity and to the flourishing of civil society and nations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\tHe pointed to a Pew Research study indicating that 70 percent of the world\u2019s population lives in a country where religious freedom is seriously restricted.<\/p>\n
\tAnd the problem \u201cis getting worse,\u201d he said, citing studies indicating that \u201csocial hostilities\u201d towards religious minorities are rising in many areas, including much of Europe.<\/p>\n
\tAlthough this does not match the level of violent persecution seen elsewhere, \u201cthe root cause is quite similar,\u201d Farr explained. In such countries, the free exercise of religion is not only seen as unnecessary, but is even viewed as a threat to democratic society.<\/p>\n
\tWhile this view has commonly been held by tyrants and authoritarian regimes throughout the ages, the alarming development is that it is now being held by democratic majorities, he said.<\/p>\n
\tReligion today is commonly treated as \u201cmerely an opinion\u201d and possibly \u201cdangerous,\u201d he alerted the bishops, pointing to Europe, where an \u201caggressive secularist majority\u201d refuses to allow religiously informed opinions to enter the public square.<\/p>\n
\tThis view is also growing in the United States, he cautioned, as religious freedom is increasingly being depicted as the mere right to worship privately.<\/p>\n
\tFarr argued that American policy under both Republican and Democratic administrations is failing to alleviate infringements upon religious freedom around the world.<\/p>\n
\tHe observed that the current U.S. State Department has devoted \u201cfar more energy\u201d to supporting gay agendas overseas than to addressing religious liberty concerns.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\tThe American bishops can make a great contribution in \u201cstrengthening our understanding of the value of religious freedom,\u201d Farr said, explaining that Church teaching on \u201cthe fundamental dignity and equality of every person in the eyes of God\u201d is powerful for society.<\/p>\n
\tThe Church is \u201cuniquely positioned\u201d to help proclaim the importance of religious liberty and must work immediately to do so, he urged, because \u201cthe stakes are high.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n
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Atlanta, Ga., Jun 14, 2012 \/ 10:10 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- The growing perception of religion as a threat to a free society is leading to persecution of believers around the world, according to speakers at a recent meeting of the U.S. bisho…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-us"],"yoast_head":"\n
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