It is not surprising to see the Star Tribune continue to beat the drum in opposition to the marriage protection amendment that will appear on the November 2012 ballot ("On gay marriage, state is out of step," Oct. 1).continue at Star Tribune
What is troubling is the paper's attack on the Catholic Church's participation in the public debate -- an attack that should concern all Minnesotans as out of step with this country's most cherished traditions of free speech and religious liberty.
The Star Tribune sees in the church the specter of a looming theocracy, but this could not be further from reality. The church only proposes; she imposes nothing.
Legislators and the public are free to accept or reject her witness, and Catholics who participate in the public square are fully conscious that they must make arguments that are persuasive to people of faith and those outside religious communities.
So why are some eager to silence the church's voice?
The church's public witness in helping to shape a public order that is just, protects authentic rights, serves the common good and promotes human flourishing is not in any way different from what the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. did when he, a Baptist minister and theologian, fought for just laws.
His civil rights advocacy was grounded in biblical conviction, the natural law, and the Declaration of Independence, much like Catholic advocacy today. In his words, "a just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God."
Would the Star Tribune criticize Dr. King for imposing his religious views on others?
To be clear: There is such a thing as a healthy secularism that guides the respective roles of church and state.
But what animates the Star Tribune and other purveyors of a false secularism is a politically correct rewriting of the First Amendment, in which the newfangled concept of "freedom of worship" is substituted in place of "religious freedom" -- a move that seeks to "protect the public" by enclosing religious people and their evangelical witness within their own walls.
I've never heard a Catholic Conference proclaim the truth so boldly.
HT Bliss