By FR. MICHAEL P. ORSI
(Editor’s Note: Fr. Michael P. Orsi is host of “Action for Life TV,” a weekly cable television series devoted to pro-life issues [actionforlifetv.net].
(A broadcast of a September 10 talk he gave concerning religious freedom and the upcoming election received widespread attention on social media. Fr. Orsi kindly provided The Wanderer with this commentary on his talk. All rights reserved.)
+ + +
I have been quite stunned at the response to a talk I gave on September 10 during a Naples, Fla., event marking the National Day of Remembrance for Aborted Children. In it I challenged pastors and churches to come out of the political shadows and take a forthright stand for religious liberty before there is no liberty left to defend.
At latest count, a video of my appeal posted on YouTube has received more than 50,000 hits, and links to it have flooded Facebook’s news feed. This is a clear indication of pent-up frustration over an intense campaign to drive religious voices from the public square — an effort which has been carried on for half a century but has reached a kind of climax under the Obama Administration.
“For too long,” I insisted, “pastors and churches have been bullied into believing that they can say nothing political from the pulpit.”
The main concern holding them back is fear of losing 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status. But as I pointed out to those in attendance, since this type of tax exemption was introduced into the law in 1954, “no church, up to the present, has been prosecuted.”
In fact, the most the IRS has ever done to any congregation was to revoke a tax status determination letter which had previously been issued to a church in Binghamton, N.Y., because the church had sponsored a political ad (this was in 1992, and the ad criticized then-presidential candidate Bill Clinton, interestingly enough).
While that revocation cast a cloud over the deductibility of cash offerings and other gifts, the church itself was never forced to pay taxes. The court upholding the IRS’s action called it “more symbolic than substantial.”
And so in the wake of the infamous 1973 Roe v. Wade decision we have seen more than 54 million abortions. We have seen religious orders, schools, hospitals, apostolates, and para-church ministries pressured into providing insurance coverage for abortions, contraceptives, and abortifacients.
We have witnessed legalization of the great fantasy called “same-sex marriage,” which is nothing less than an attempt to transform the family (“the basic building block of society”) into something never accepted by any nation or culture from the beginning of time.
This is a trend that’s not just political, but diabolical. And along the way, religious people have endured being called reactionaries, misogynists, bigots, and worse, whenever we’ve raised objections to each new outrage perpetrated against the consciences of believers and the laws of God. As I said in my talk, “Get it straight, for crying out loud, the devil is in this” — all of it.
I called upon pastors to stand up boldly, and to act quickly. It must be said that I wasn’t gentle in my appeal.
“What are you afraid of,” I scolded them. Is it just a matter of losing “a couple of bucks”? What are church leaders really risking, compared to the price paid by history’s great martyrs for religious liberty like St. Thomas More or Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer?
During my talk I said that I wished some church would have its tax-exempt status challenged and for that case to go to the Supreme Court. But this wish was a bit premature. Because, as I pointed out later, the protection of our rights depends on the makeup of the Court. And that makeup very much depends on the outcome of this November’s presidential election.
We have truly reached a tipping point. A lot of thoughtful people are convinced that the very freedom to live our faith is at stake. And as evidence they point to the words of high Administration officials. One such, Martin Castro, chairman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, has stated:
“The phrases ‘religious liberty’ and ‘religious freedom’ will stand for nothing except hypocrisy so long as they remain code words for discrimination, intolerance, racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia, Christian supremacy or any form of intolerance.”
Hillary Clinton has made her position clear. In a speech last spring she declared, in reference to abortion:
“Far too many women have been denied critical access to reproductive healthcare and safe childbirth. All the laws we’ve passed don’t count for much if they’re not enforced. Rights have to exist in practice, not just on paper. Laws have to be backed up with resources and political will. And deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs, and structural biases have to be changed.”
As Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, has pointed out, it’s our “deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs, and structural biases” that Clinton says have to be changed. In other words, we believers must abandon our moral principles. Donohue has insisted unequivocally, “If you are a devout Catholic or Evangelical, remember that you cannot vote for Hillary.”
He’s speaking not only from a Catholic point of view but from a moral one. And he’s entirely right. Clinton advocates death for unborn children. And that is an abomination in the eyes of God. Nothing else she may propose, no social policy, no vision for the country, can offset the evil at the heart of her politics. Her embrace of same-sex marriage and other iniquities only makes the wickedness more inclusive.
With several seats on the Supreme Court and a host of other judicial appointments hanging in the balance — and every expectation that she would fill them with judges who share her warped ideology — Hillary Clinton cannot be considered a morally legitimate choice for President of the United States.
What about Donald Trump?
Here is a man who has lived a life of worldliness beyond the imaginings of most people. Moreover, he has been wildly inconsistent in the views he’s expressed on important public questions. To put it mildly, he’s had a rather loose ethical rudder. But he strikes me as a man on a journey toward some kind of consistency in his moral outlook, though clearly he’s struggled along the way.
Certain religious leaders claim that Trump has come to Christ. Whether this is true, or whether his professed opposition to abortion (except in cases of rape) and the other more traditionalist stands he’s taken are mere political expediency I cannot say. Nor can I express any certainty that, in office, he would live up to the “conservative” promises he’s made during the campaign.
But he does seem to have some respect for the Constitution and the limits it places on government power. This contrasts sharply with the wanton disregard of our founding principles by which the Obama Administration has operated throughout two terms as well as with the abiding commitment to Leftist Progressivism that has marked Hillary Clinton’s life from college days onward.
For all his personal flaws and moral ambiguities, Donald Trump does at least offer us something other than an inevitable, intensifying assault on religious liberty. And he has demonstrated that he’s someone who isn’t cowed by parties, factions, or power structures.
This is no small advantage. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.), who would be in line to become majority leader if the Democrats retake the Senate, told a conference hosted recently by Al Sharpton, “A progressive majority on the Supreme Court is an imperative, and if I become majority leader, I will make it happen.”
Pastors have to recognize the reality of the danger faced by religious believers. Our shepherds must use their pulpits to alert and motivate the people who look to them for moral clarity. And they must not be inhibited by phantom threats about tax-exempt status.
It won’t be easy. They will encounter resistance, and that resistance may be tough. As I noted in my talk, pastors have told me that “people get very touchy” when political subjects are addressed in sermons. “Somehow they have come to buy the story that you cannot be political in church.”
Outside their religious communities pastors can expect extreme levels of bitterness. You have only to look at some of the comments about my talk posted on YouTube. A brief sampling will suggest the petty invective that’s all too predictable:
“This is what a Catholic fanatic looks like.” (from BillyBob Bazooka).
“Religion is a fascist NAZI based idea. . . . What a f-ing moron this religious nut is.” (from Sagan Hill).
“The Catholic church is one of the greatest evils on this planet.” (from A3Kr0).
“Tax the church!” (from Joe C).
There’s plenty more.
We must not be deterred by such childish nonsense. But neither can we allow ourselves to assume that these comments represent a fringe element. On the contrary, they reflect very widespread sentiment in a time when so many people identify themselves as “none,” in regard to church affiliation. Active hostility to religion is on the rise, and it is precisely that attitude by which Progressives like Hillary Clinton are emboldened.
This election may very well be the last chance for people of faith to defend liberty. And it seems to me that our stand can only be made upon our faith and the churches that profess it.
We’ve been in similar situations before. Great preachers helped to fan the love of freedom on which America’s struggle for independence was based. It was from churches that the fight to abolish slavery was launched. Powerful religious spokesmen and their loyal congregants led the Civil Rights Movement.
I call upon the faith community to take the initiative now.
Let me conclude this essay by repeating the impassioned plea with which I ended my talk:
“Please encourage your pastors. Tell your friends what I have said today. And remember — remember — we are in a battle for the soul of America. God has given you His grace, and He will bring us to a successful conclusion of the battle that is before us.”
Powered by WPtouch Mobile Suite for WordPress