There was a real hostility to the Catholic faith expressed at last week’s Feminist Majority Conference in Washington, D.C., that I happened to be at. Barry Lynn — who you might recall was the House Dems’ expert on religious liberty before they made Sandra Fluke a star — made clear he believed the religious-liberty claims of the bishops are “bull****” and that they have “no moral authority,” anyway.
(I write about it here. Students for Life of America has video here.)
The hostility was expressed in the inability of the audience to understand why it could be perfectly acceptable for the Catholic University of America to expect its students to keep to a moral standard while living on campus (which I wrote a bit about in my syndicated column this week).
But it wasn’t just a hostility to Catholics, of course, that was on display.
Lorraine Sheinberg, a Feminist Majority board member and filmmaker may have best summed up the tenor of the times when she said: “I know we are not supposed to talk about other people’s religion. I don’t give a damn, because I have none.”
We used to value the right to believe or not to believe. Now we are confining that troublesome religion thing to the inside of places of worship, not to be practiced in the public square.
There is a secular moment afoot, and the erosion of religious liberty in America that is evidenced by the HHS mandate, among other things, is a part of it. We can embrace it or not; it’s still our choice.