Posted on 01/10/2014 5:28:10 PM PST by Mrs. Don-o
Justice Sonia Sotomayor's recent ruling, issuing a stay on the fines for the Little Sisters of the Poor, struck some people in violent ways. One blogger, Jamie Stiehm writing for U.S. News, seems to think that Sotomayor outed herself as that most crass and small minded of people: a Catholic! This was certainly not a predictable outcome in the minds of those progressives who celebrated the elevation of the first "wise Latina" to the highest court in the land. She was supposed to stay on the reservation, of course, voting reliably to uphold the foundations of liberal orthodoxy, whenever they were threatened.
In the progressive worldview, contraception and abortion are to women what breathing and eating are to men: absolute necessities of life. Waivers are being handed out right and left for Obamacare victims, but no waivers for nuns. And if Justice Sotomayor stands up for the religious liberty of these noble women, well "she's just a good Catholic girl," in the snarky tone of Stiehm's blog post. In her opinion, that court is now the "Catholic Supreme Court," and it hates women.
In a rant of old fashioned anti-Catholic bigotry, of which there is a long history in the United States, we learn several scary things. "Catholics often try to impose their beliefs on you, me, public discourse and institutions. Especially if 'you' are female." And that when Thomas Jefferson championed the separation of church and state, he was "thinking particularly of pernicious Rome." Rome remains pernicious, apparently. The Little Sisters, who, by the way, take vows of poverty, chastity and obedience in order to slave their lives away taking care of the indigent elderly, are terribly wily, and "seemingly innocent." And the big bad Catholic archbishops have painted a bullseye on the foreheads American females: "Their principal target for years on end has been squelching women and girls."
The kind of contempt the author spreads on the heads of Catholics, if written about any other group, would have her immediately barred from polite society, and justifiably. In her mind, there is a noble sisterhood, comprising at least her and Nancy Pelosi. Women who disagree with them are not sisters, though they may be nuns. As a wise Latina myself, I feel very sorry for Justice Sotomayor. She thought she was being celebrated for herself and her achievements in the face of societal barriers that should have kept a Hispanic woman down. It turns out she was just a token after all. Now that she has sided with religious liberty over liberal pieties, she has been unceremoniously dumped from the sisterhood.
I think that Justice Sotomayor understands something that Ms. Stiehm may never get. Governments that wish to preserve a truly pluralistic society must act with great delicacy and even tenderness when it comes to the conscientious scruples of its citizens. It is not necessary to share those scruples or even understand them. Progressives believe with all their soul that women's sexual liberty, untrammeled by copays or unwanted children, trumps any other "good," including religious freedom. They are free to propose that idea in the public square, and they do so with all the power of Hollywood, MTV and higher education behind them. They have the administration on their side, most newspapers and most TV stations. But they don't have most of the citizens of this country, they don't have the Catholic Church and they may have lost Justice Sotomayor.
How about looking to God, not to churches, for your liberty. That works better!
You mean like they did with Phil Robertson? Face it, in the end this is all just anti -Christian hate. The denomination de jour is immaterial.
What kind of perverted logic is that?
These commie churches advocate tyranny, and then when those of us oppose this evil, we are scolded to look to God instead of churches?
To Hell with these churches.
QED.
oh please…. just because someone doesn’t agree with your religion does not make that person a bigot or ‘anti’ catholic.
Just remember that a lot of those poor picked on catholics ended up working for city governments, joining unions, and voting democratic for generations and generations.
thank you exactly
We will pray for you.
It would take a bigot and anti-Catholic to puke up that propaganda.
Then you apparently haven’t paid attention to the NYPD and NYFD and those of New Jes=rsey as well. The history is specific. And if you don’t think that these union thugs vote rat you are delusional. That has NOTHING to do with whatever faith you espouse. It has to do with the cold hard facts
Well we now know where YOUR faith is, and it’s not up above. People are going to act like snots. Big honkin’ news! It’s been happening since the eviction from the Garden. You want some secular “savior” to damn it all for you. Sorry, that won’t happen. However, God will carry YOU through everything you need to glorify HIM (yeah the nerve of that God, wanting everybody to think it’s all about HIM, doesn’t He have the sense to know that these sinful people all know better? Irony, if you could not discern that).
Now, THAT is liberty.
Here’s my read as a crazy evangelical, a protestant who protests for Christ wherever He happens to manifest Himself.
These liberals are scapegoating the Roman Catholic organization. What they REALLY hate is a God that someone dares to say has the right to suggest that these sisters will be blessed by obeying Him the best they know how. The Roman Catholic church is only in the middle here. The response would have been similar if it was Bible Belt Baptists. It so happens that the Roman Catholic church has the uncomfortable privilege of being the scapegoat of the day. My prayer for them is that they make the most of it for the Lord’s sake. Explain why they believe the gospel enough to think God matters more than Caesar.
Contempt only hurts if you respect where it’s coming from.
What do you know?
Perhaps it is in fact you who has misplaced faith.
No WONDER folks who understand the BIBLE get on your case!
You are correct.
(Mormons are NOT christians)
Unless you are a victimized Mormon.
And then they blame it on PROTESTants!
These anti-GOD folks are REALLY good at getting the others to FIGHT AMONG THEMSELVES!
Facts only hurt when they are true.
"How about looking to God, not to churches, for your liberty. That works better!"
I have to agree to the idea of looking to God for your liberty. "Trust not in princes, in men in whom there is no salvation."
But you really can't separate Christ from His Church. The Church is His body --- or, in another sense, His Bride. This is the strongest of bonds: un-divcorceable.
I think we’re saying the same thing in two different ways.
It certainly benefits a church — any earthly part of the church — to reflect the Lord the best it knows how. And it shares the blessings of God to do that. As one of those pesky permanent salvationists, I affirm the betrothal of the Body of Christ very strongly. God does not welsh on promises, and engagement promises are among them. So in a sense people who complain about how the church acts have a point. A misbehaving bride is a scandal. However they still need to put their foot in the stirrup provided by God, so to speak, if they expect to actually ride that victorious horse.
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