Freedom of Religion in America?

The following was copied from the “Washington Update” of the Family Research Council dated 5/22/12.

Nothing seems to stand in the way of President Obama's political agenda--not Congress, not the Constitution, and certainly not the church. When he ordered faith-based groups to turn their backs on church teachings and fund life-destroying drugs, the White House was asking for a fight. And yesterday, they got it. After months of trying to negotiate, the Catholic Church bombarded the Department of Health and Human Services with 12 lawsuits, representing an army of dioceses, hospitals, schools, and charities across eight states and the District of Columbia. A total of 43 entities--including Catholic powerhouses like Notre Dame, Catholic University, Catholic Charities, the entire Archdiocese of New York and Washington, D.C.--will fight to end the strangling of religious freedom in America.

With the first wave of mandate rules scheduled to take effect on August 1, Cardinal Timothy Dolan said:

 "Time is running out, and our valuable ministries and fundamental rights hang in the balance. We have to resort to the courts now." Even the Fighting Irish, who once invited President Obama to speak at their university recognize what is at stake.

"[I]f one presidential administration... can use religious organizations to advance policies that undercut our values, then surely another administration will do the same for another very different set of policies, each time invoking some concept of popular will or the public good, with the result these religious organizations become mere tools for the exercise of government power, morally subservient to the state, and not free from its infringements. If that happens, it will be the end of religious organizations..."

Never in the history of our nation has the federal government reached into the church and imposed its will over the protest of the faithful. "When did the government get into the business of defining for us the extent of our ministry?" Cardinal Dolan wanted to know. This isn't about birth control. It's about government control. And every time religious freedom conflicts with this administration's agenda, freedom seems to lose. Together, America's faith community is rising up to say "enough!" If this President wants to drive religion out of the public square, then his administration will have to go through thousands of priests, pastors, and rabbis first. They understand, as we do, that this war has implications--not just for religious liberty--but for every liberty. If the church can be conscripted to advance a liberal political agenda, then anyone can. "At the deepest level, we are witnessing an attack on the institutions of civil society that are essential to limited government."

Is Austerity the Answer to the Economic Woes of the World?

We hear a lot lately about what is wrong with the Euro. The two following excerpts seem to capsulize the problem for me. I hope they clear up some of the problem for you, too.

Paul Krugman wrote in the N.Y. Times on 27 April, “All around Europe’s periphery, from Spain to Latvia, austerity policies have produced Depression-level slumps and Depression-level unemployment; the confidence fairy is nowhere to be seen, not even in Britain, whose turn to austerity two years ago was greeted with loud hosannas by policy elites on both sides of the Atlantic.”

Writing in the Brooklings Papers On Economic Activity, Spring 2012, Jay Shambaugh says,“The euro area faces three interlocking crises that together challenge the viability of the currency union. There is a banking crisis – where banks are undercapitalized and have faced liquidity problems. There is a sovereign debt crisis – where a number of countries have faced rising bond yields and challenges funding themselves. Lastly, there is a growth crisis – with both a low overall level of growth in the euro area and an unequal distribution across countries. Crucially, these crises connect to one another. Bailouts of banks have contributed to the sovereign debt problems, but banks are also at risk due to their holdings of sovereign bonds that may face default. Weak growth contributes to the potential insolvency of the sovereigns, but also, the austerity inspired by the debt crisis is constraining growth. Finally, a weakened banking sector holds back growth while a weak economy undermines the banks. This paper details the three crises, their interconnections, and possible policy solutions. Unless policy responses take into account the interdependent nature of the problems, partial solutions will likely be incomplete or even counterproductive.” (I highly recommend this link; but if it will not open, copy it into your internet browser to read it. http://bit.ly/JifIQK )

From my own viewpoint, I can see that growth of economies is the problem; but the difficulty is the solution. Conservatives believe that the answer to the problem is belt-tightening and quitting the cycle of tax, borrow, and spend. Liberals still cling to the idea that tax, borrow, and spend is still the answer. Those ideas have long since been proven wrong. It is absolutely impossible to spend ourselves out of debt. That is a STUPID idea.