Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
Hobby Lobby Reaction Speaks to Future of Religious Liberty
Hobby Lobby Reaction Speaks to Future of Religious Liberty
Jan 4, 2025 9:52 PM

Regarding the Hobby Lobby decision and the Supreme Court, I believe the National Review editors summed it up best: “That this increase in freedom makes some people so very upset tells us more about them than about the Court’s ruling.”

I address this rapid politicization and misunderstanding of religious liberty and natural rights in today’s mentary. The vitriolic reaction to the ruling is obviously not a good sign for religious liberty and we’re almost certainly going to continue down the path of losing rights of conscience and free expression. Obviously, I hope I’m wrong. But I wanted to step back and take a prehensive look at where we are now.

One point I make in the piece is that our federal lawmakers no longer hold a consensus to protect religious liberty, as they did with the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993. Back then, there was overwhelming unification and bipartisanship to protect and strengthen religious liberty, that is a thing of the past and it has been swallowed up by partisan politics. Our collective partisan politics is ing bigger than our mon understanding of natural rights.

Another point I stress is that there is an obvious difference on the very meaning of religious liberty that cuts through our country. This is well known to those who pay attention to these issues. Many saw the Hobby Lobby ruling not as a ruling in favor of the rights of conscience and liberty, but only a temporary setback in divorcing religion from public human affairs.

The Supreme Court ruling is being politicized in a myriad of vicious ways and that by itself is a bad sign for religious liberty. It will be a tough task going forward to educate people on the necessity of a vibrant understanding of religious liberty and natural rights that promotes mon good.

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
David Deavel on popular misconceptions about socialism
At Respect Life Radio, University of St. Thomas professor of Catholic Studies David Deavel invokes Lord Acton’s famous dictum in a two-part conversation on the differences between the trendy, popular socialism in our politics today and many actual socialist states, both historically and in the present. Says Deavel, Lord Acton’s famous line that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely is … true in every system, but it is particularly true in a system where you start from a premise...
Great news: Even ‘socialists’ love the free market (poll)
A Gallup poll released Monday made headlines: “Four in 10 Americans Embrace Some Form of Socialism.” However, the headline could have read, “Seven in 10 Americans reject the central premise of socialism.” When Gallup asked if “some form of socialism” would be “a good thing or a bad thing,” 41 percent said it would and 52 percent said it would not. However, the public’s response to an ill-defined “socialism” reveals less than a more detailed question buried deeper in the...
Robbing Pietro to pay Paolo? The zero-sum game in Italy’s welfare state
Robbing Peter to pay Paul. This is an idiomatic expression about bad – or at least disappointing – economics. Curiously, it was born within the context of the Church’s supposedly poor financial administration of its properties. While there are many sources to the origin of the idiom, there is a famous story from 17th C. England when a bishop was said to have ordered funds transferred from one old church (St. Peter’s Abbey) to another in disrepair (St. Paul’s Cathedral)....
Can intellectuals actually win elections?
The European Parliament in Brussels In my previous Letter from Rome, I asked whether populists have the capacity to govern, given the failings of the Italian coalition made up of left-wing and right-wing populists and their apparent disdain for ideology. In the wake of the recent elections for the European Parliament, the corollary question is whether non-populists can actually win elections. It’s a bit of a trick question, since elections are popular by nature, even if they are not always...
How to think like a Christian
Photo Credit: Michael Matheson Miller Here is a podcast interview I did recently with my friend Matt Leonard, host of The Art of Catholic and Next Level Catholic Academy. Matt and I talked about some of the foundational ideas of Christian thinking in contrast with the dominant secular way of seeing the world. As you can see from the title of Matt’s show, The Art of Catholic, this podcast is directed to a Catholic audience, but many of the ideas...
Athenians and Visigoths: Neil Postman’s graduation speech
While it could be argued that youth is wasted on the young, it is indisputable mencement addresses are wasted on young graduates. Sitting in a stuffy auditorium waiting to receive a parchment that marks the beginning of one’s student loan repayments is not the most conducive atmosphere for soaking up wisdom. Insight, which can otherwise seep through the thickest of skulls, cannot pierce mortarboard. Most colleges and universities recognize this fact and schedule the graduation speeches accordingly. Schools regularly choose...
Unseen wonders: Man’s creative power and the sacramentality of nature
When I lived in Rome I taught a religious education class for a year, preparing kids for their first Communion. When they found out I was American, some of them were confused as to why I e all the way across the Atlantic to study in Italy. In response I tried to point out that while they were used to the beauty of Rome, the closeness of the Pope, and all the rest, for those of us who didn’t grow...
10 facts about Theresa May’s resignation as prime minister
After surviving a no confidence vote last December, and suffering two of the largest legislative defeats in modern parliamentary history, UK Prime Minister Theresa May announced this morning that she will step down as prime minister. Barely suppressing tears, “the second female prime minister but certainly not the last” said she was leaving office “with enormous and enduring gratitude to have had the opportunity to serve the country I love.” Here are the facts you need to know: 1. Theresa...
An aid to defining ‘capitalism’
I am working on a project now that has to do with the various attempts to reform, redeem, redirect, or otherwise update capitalism. And in so doing, I’m reminded of one of the most incisive, insightful, and relevant passages in all of Catholic Social Teaching. I’m of course referring to section 42 of John Paul II’sCentesimus Annus, in which he distinguishes between two definitions of capitalism. This distinction is outlined in response to the following questions: “can it perhaps be...
Study: How do millennial Christians approach faith, work, and calling?
Millennials recently surpassed Baby Boomers and Generation Xers to e the largest generation in the American workforce—a development that has likely led many to recall mon stereotypes about millennials as dreamy-eyed idealists or lazy, plainers. But if we look past our various cultural prejudices, what does the evidence actually indicate? If the attitudes and priorities of Generation Y are, in fact, so strikingly distinct from their counterparts, what might it tell us about the future shape of economic order? In...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved