Is religious liberty being hijacked?

Is religious liberty being hijacked? by MSW.  MGB: The idea that Catholic institutions that take government money to do government functions can exist without government interferance is simply naive, as is the belief that the government has no role in drawing lines as to what is a religious organization and what is not. Some kind of line must be drawn or anyone can claim to be a religious group for purposes of avoiding governmental rules. The summer event is key, but for a reason MSW hates - it will show to all the world whether the bishops efforts in this area are as entirely partisan as many of us suspect. It is still ironic that some in the Church are essentially pursuing an argument to gut the very essence of labor rights that Catholic social teaching has fought for over a century to establish. There is something simply Orwellian about using the term freedom of conscience to restrict employee health care choices that are mandated not by government social engineers, but by the medical community.


As to the question of anti-Sharia law or other foreign law, it is not a state matter. Indeed, the question of whether the local archbishop acted seditiously in the matter of Governor Sebelius is a question best addressed by the State Department to the Papal Nuncio - especially as she has been asked to continue to avoid communion by the local ordinaries in Washington. If she had justfied her veto on feminist grounds, that would be one thing. That she did so based on her understanding of the federal constitution should be unassailable by ecclesiastic authorities. Perhaps they should work with her on find a constitutional solution before going down the garden path of forcing issues before the Supreme Court that they will never hear.