CNA\/EWTN News<\/a>).- Whether the federal contraception mandate stands or falls, it has changed U.S. politics forever, the head of the Knights of Columbus observed during the 2012 Catholic Media Conference.<\/p>\n\t\u201cIt definitely has changed the political landscape,\u201d Supreme Knight Carl Anderson told CNA in a June 22 interview at the convention held in downtown Indianapolis.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWhat we see clearly, is an attempt to redefine the role of religion in American society.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThe Obama administration, he said, is applying a \u201cvery narrow\u201d conception of religion and its social role. \u201cSo that leads us to ask the question: What will the administration do next, whether or not it wins on the HHS mandate?\u201d<\/p>\n
\tHe predicted that U.S. politics would be permanently changed by the assault on the Church's freedom and its role in society, even if the HHS mandate eventually fails.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cOnce of the 'genie is out of the bottle,' it's going to be difficult to put it back in,\u201d the head of the Catholic fraternal order noted. \u201cIt ought to give us all very serious concern.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tAnderson, a veteran lawyer, explained that the administration's restrictive view of religion was previously seen in the \u201cHosanna-Tabor\u201d Supreme Court case, pitting the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against a Lutheran church and school.<\/p>\n
\tIn that 2011 case, Anderson recalled, the government attempted \u201ca redefinition of what constitutes 'ministry,'\u201d claiming that a teacher of religious and secular subjects was not a \u201cminister\u201d and could not be fired at the school's discretion. The school's rights, however, were unanimously upheld by the court.<\/p>\n
\tShortly after that decision was handed down, Health and Human Services finalized its contraception mandate, forcing religious institutions \u2013 except those covered under a narrow exemption \u2013 to provide services that violate their moral principles, including sterilization and abortion-causing drugs.<\/p>\n
\tAccording to Anderson, both the Hosanna-Tabor case and the HHS mandate are part of a larger effort to redefine religious freedom and marginalize faith-based institutions.<\/p>\n
\tIn Hosanna-Tabor, \u201cthe administration was arguing for the most narrow possible, most restrictive possible, definition of ministry.\u201d Similarly, the HHS mandate granted an exemption only to institutions that primarily employ and serve those of the same faith for the purpose of spreading \u201creligious values.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThe Obama administration, Anderson said, \u201chas continued to attempt to redefine religion, by taking an extremely narrow definition of what constitutes a 'religious institution.'\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cMany institutions that we would normally think of as part of the charitable or service mission of the Church, suddenly are defined out of the ambit of being a faith-based religious institution.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tEven if the HHS mandate is defeated in court, or fundamentally changed by the administration, the thinking behind it will persist and continue to shape political life.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWhat we're seeing is a paradigm shift \u2013 in how religion is viewed in American society, and the role of religion. Once you make that shift, the logic leads on down a certain path. And that path is: 'Wherever we can find a less inclusive role for religion, we take the less inclusive role.'\u201d<\/p>\n
\tTo turn back from this course, Anderson suggested, Americans must first \u201cunderstand authentically what the Constitution intends by the Free Exercise Clause and the Establishment Clause.\u201d These clauses exist not to marginalize religion, but to protect its integrity and allow it to shape social life.<\/p>\n
\tThe head of the Knights of Columbus also wants Americans to rediscover \u201cthe role of religion in society in promoting the common good,\u201d as envisioned by the country's founders. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\u201cAmerican society has traditionally found, and the Founders believed, that religion is a good \u2013 and is good for the common good,\u201d the Supreme Knight noted. \u201cWe value a freedom because the freedom produces a good in society.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cIf you look at the history of the Catholic Church in America \u2013 where we built so many schools, and hospitals, and orphanages, and Catholic charities \u2013 it's a tremendous contribution.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tBut modern Americans, Anderson said, may have a \u201cdiminished sense of the role of religion in fostering the common good.\u201d Without this sense of religion's social role, its \u201cfree exercise\u201d may be misunderstood as serving only the self-interests of believers, rather than the nation's common interest.<\/p>\n
\tTo fight this perception, Anderson suggested Catholics \u201cneed to tell our story better \u2013 and we also need to do more.\u201d The Church's social teaching, he said, \u201cshould compel Catholics to works of greater charity in society, to promote the common good.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tBy using their freedom to serve society as a whole, Catholics can help all Americans rediscover religious liberty as a universal good \u2013 worth preserving not only for the benefit of believers, but for the good of the whole country.<\/p>\n
\tTo preserve their religious freedom in the long term, Anderson suggested, Catholics \u201chave to have a more visible role in society \u2013 and a more effective role in society \u2013 in actually doing those things that actually benefit the common good.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Indianapolis, Ind., Jun 26, 2012 \/ 10:20 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- Whether the federal contraception mandate stands or falls, it has changed U.S. politics forever, the head of the Knights of Columbus observed during the 2012 Catholic Media Conference.<\/p>\n
\t&l…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-us"],"yoast_head":"\n
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