{"id":44180,"date":"2020-08-29T00:00:07","date_gmt":"2020-08-29T00:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=44180"},"modified":"2020-08-29T00:00:07","modified_gmt":"2020-08-29T00:00:07","slug":"what-about-religious-freedom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=44180","title":{"rendered":"What about ‘religious freedom’?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I want to discuss religion briefly, as it well might become an issue in the rapidly unfolding and accelerating presidential campaign.<\/p>\n

The issue has come up in a public way and in a way near to my own heart.<\/p>\n

Former college and professional football coach Lou Holtz told the Republican National Convention that Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is a Catholic “in name only.” Coach Holtz, who once guided student-athletes at Notre Dame University, received immediate pushback from the renowned Catholic school. He spoke for himself, ND officials said, not for the university.<\/p>\n

Biden is far from a CINO — Catholic In Name Only. His faith is well-known. He speaks openly about it, about how his faith has helped steer him through unspeakable tragedy.<\/p>\n

This topic makes me uncomfortable. Religious faith is deeply personal. It’s not something I like sharing, and I won’t do so here.<\/p>\n

However, I do want to challenge an implication that a fellow I know made to me directly. He said in a social media post that I “probably” am comfortable with doing away with “religious freedom.” This fellow seems to believe, according to his world view, that we should be allowed to worship openly and freely without any interference.<\/p>\n

I could not agree more with this fellow. He and I actually share a devotion to “religious freedom.” I want to add a caveat, however.<\/p>\n

The Constitution spells out quite clearly that we also are free to not<\/em> worship if we choose. It is a secular document written by men whose direct forebears fled religious persecution in Europe.<\/p>\n

While I am committed to religious freedom, I also want to embrace what I believe is a broader view of what that term means and what it entails.<\/p>\n

So, when a noted public figure, such as former coach Lou Holtz, says a leading politician is a “Catholic in name only,” he crosses a line he shouldn’t cross. He shouldn’t purport to know what rests in Joe Biden’s heart. That is a dangerous assumption Holtz makes.<\/p>\n

As for the fellow who jabbed at me by assuming I “probably” would want to do away with religious freedom, he also is crossing a precarious line.<\/p>\n

I am all for granting Americans the right to worship as they please. I also believe we are free to forgo religious faith … if that’s how we want to roll.<\/p>\n

Just think that we’re about to be force-fed a large dose of religion in a presidential campaign that already has gone from harsh to ugly.<\/p>\n\n

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I want to discuss religion briefly, as it well might become an issue in the rapidly unfolding and accelerating presidential campaign. The issue has come up in a public way and in a way near to my own heart. Former college and professional football coach Lou Holtz told the Republican National Convention that Democratic presidential … Continue reading What about ‘religious freedom’?<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[8882,1738,3883],"class_list":["post-44180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-religious-news","tag-catholicism","tag-first-amendment","tag-religious-freedom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44180"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44182,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44180\/revisions\/44182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}