{"id":1560,"date":"2013-02-17T19:42:00","date_gmt":"2013-02-17T19:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/02\/why-sometimes-religion-should-be-criticized.html"},"modified":"2013-02-17T19:42:00","modified_gmt":"2013-02-17T19:42:00","slug":"why-sometimes-religion-should-be-criticized","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/02\/why-sometimes-religion-should-be-criticized.html","title":{"rendered":"Why Sometimes Religion Should Be Criticized"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

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The vast majority of humanists, even those actively engaged in the secular movement, share the general public\u2019s sentiments on this issue. Live and let live, right?\u00a0<\/span>We should realize, however, that the social norm that discourages the criticism of religion can work to the great advantage of religious political activists. Social conservatives, for example, righteously claiming the highest<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>moral<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>authority grounded in religion, knowing that criticism of religion is considered off-limits, can demand that their policy positions be given legitimacy even when those positions lack any rational basis.<\/span><\/div>\n

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This is precisely what is playing out as\u00a0America\u2019s Catholic bishops reject the latest effort from the Obama administration to find common ground on the debate over contraception coverage<\/a><\/span>. The administration, bending over backwards to appease the clerics, proposed a plan that would allow religious employers to avoid paying for contraception coverage, placing the burden of such coverage on insurers instead. The bishops rejected the proposal even though it would cost the church nothing, claiming that \u201creligious freedom\u201d requires that\u00a0all employers<\/a><\/span>\u00a0(not just religious employers) be allowed to deny contraception coverage.<\/span><\/div>\n

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Read the rest here<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The vast majority of humanists, even those actively engaged in the secular movement, share the general public\u2019s sentiments on this issue. Live and let live, right?\u00a0We should realize, however, that the social norm that discourages the criticism of religion can work to the great advantage of religious political activists. Social conservatives, for example, righteously claiming […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2251,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy Sometimes Religion Should Be Criticized<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The vast majority of humanists, even those actively engaged in the secular movement, share the general public's sentiments on this issue. 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