Catholics and Evangelicals Stand Together For Religious Liberty.

Although Catholics and Evangelicals do not stand together on several theological issues, on one issue we are solidly united—our need and our right to religious liberty.

We are seeing presently an important demonstration of Catholic/Evangelical unity in that both Catholic University of America and Wheaton College are together sponsoring a lawsuit against the Department of Health and Human Services protesting a recent requirement of the Affordable Care Act. That Act requires that all religious institutions except churches, which carry health insurance on their employees, must provide in that insurance, payment for abortion-inducing drugs as well as contraceptives.

Although Catholics and Evangelicals are not completely united on their opposition to contraception, we are united on the issue of induced abortion. We both strongly believe that live begins at conception; and no government has the right to violate that right by the application of abortion-producing drugs or surgical procedures. We are most certainly united in our belief that the government has no right to interfere with our right to practice our religious beliefs; and that issue is the sticking point in this whole matter. The Affordable Care Act, as interpreted by the Executive Branch of our Federal Government, is requiring a limitation on our right to freedom of religion.

In 1943, Justice Robert Jackson wrote in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette "If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, “it is that no official . . . can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein." This belief in the freedom of religion must apply to all Americans who gather in voluntary association for distinctively religious purposes, such as Christian education.

Chuck Colson and John Neuhaus have written concerning our American Constitutional system, "[T]his constitutional order is composed not just of rules and procedures but is most essentially a moral experiment. . . . [W]e hold that only a virtuous people can be free and just, and that virtue is secured by religion. To propose that securing civil virtue is the purpose of religion is blasphemous. To deny that securing civil virtue is a benefit of religion is blindness."  

This blog post was redacted from the Wall Street Journal of 18 July 2012 in the opinion section.