State threats to our religious freedom

By Deacon Mike Manno

(The Wanderer) – Recently, the Iowa Catholic Radio Network carried two individual segments – one from Minnesota, the other from Indiana – that shed a glaring spotlight on how anti-Catholic and anti-religious elements in society are attempting to undermine our traditional values and beliefs, as well as our ability to follow the tenets of our faith and to apply them to our daily travails.

          Our program, Faith On Trial, has been on the air at Catholic Radio since May of 2013 and focuses on how law and society affect people of faith. During that time we’ve covered hundreds of religious based lawsuits, had guests from the major religious liberty law firms, experts from institutions such as the Heritage Foundation, pro-Christian and pro-family organizations, such as the Family Research Council, as well as a host of other guests, including an FBI whistleblower and an expert Catholic ethicists.

          While we’ve under gone changes in our days and times, the program now airs each weekend for one hour and is podcast on our web site. It consists of two interview segments with guests usually on related topics. But recently we had two back-to-back programs that I think highlighted the lurking problem we face in our society today.

          During the weekend of March 20 we had an attorney from the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, Joe Davis, who detailed a case from Indiana that Becket lost which involved a state investigation against two loving Catholic parents who were accused of neglecting and verbally abusing their son who was suffering from gender dysphoria.

          The investigation, which was prompted by an anonymous complaint, included a charge that the parents refused to call their son by his preferred pronouns and female name. The result of the investigation found that there was no neglect or verbal abuse, and that the parents had sought mental health counseling for their son for observable mental irregularities as well as for an eating disorder.  

          However, the parents explained that as devout Catholics they believed that the immutable characteristics of sex could not be changed and they tried to discuss that with their son. They did not call him by a female pronoun but agreed to call him by a mutually agreed upon nick name. That did not matter to the state who removed the boy from his parents’ home claiming that their actions contributed to his eating disorder and placed him in an LGBT-friendly foster home, where his eating disorder became worse. The parents were allowed to visit with their son as long as they did not mention their religious beliefs.

          The parents appealed through the state courts and were denied a return of custody. An appeals court upheld the removal ruling that the parents’ First Amendment rights did not apply to private speech in the home. In March the United States Supreme Court refused to review the matter. The boy has now aged-out of the juvenile system without returning home.

          The parents now live in fear that the state might try to remove their other children over their religious beliefs.

          Anonymous complaints? Resisting the LGBT gospel? No free speech in the home? No religious conversations? Who was the boy’s rightful parents and what happens to their beliefs and values? 

          At the same time we were airing this story another came across the wire: Washington State denied the renewal of a foster care license because the foster parents were unwilling to promote the state’s gender ideology.

          The other radio interview came from Minnesota where this paper is published. It was aired the weekend of April 4 and the guest was Jason Adkins, executive director and general counsel for the Minnesota Catholic Conference.

          Minnesota has a Human Rights Act which prohibits discrimination against persons based on traits such as race, disability, religion, and sex. In 1993 it was amended to include sexual orientation. As is the normal practice in these matters, there was an exception protecting religious organizations from being forced to act against their beliefs.

          Last year the legislature amended the Act again this time adding protection for gender identity. Unknown at the time was that in an apparent oversight the religious exemption was omitted leaving religious institutions unprotected. When that discrepancy was uncovered it seemed only a simple matter to add language to the new law that would restore the religious exemption.

          But what appeared to be a simple oversight which needed only a few words of correction became much more.

          As the Catholic Conference explained, when the bill to amend the law was introduced, the Democrat controlled legislative leaders made it clear that the omission of the exemption was no oversight and they had no interest in amending the law. The “oversight” was intended to persecute some faith communities because of their “bigoted” beliefs over the concept of gender identity. They saw the attempt to add the exemption as “disturbing, appalling, and infuriating” and that the proposed amendment is just an “excuse for hatred.”

          Unfortunately for the state’s religious communities, neither the legislative leadership nor the Democrat governor have the exemption on their to-do lists for this session, leaving churches to the perils of a law without a religious exemption. In addition, there is now at least one church forced to defend itself from legal action due to the omission of the exemption.

          Now what does this mean for the religious communities in Minnesota if the law is allowed to stand as written? Christian schools could be forced to hire gay-friendly teachers and administrators, school curriculums could be forced to acknowledge that gender is fluid and can be changed, churches and other religious organizations could be denied state benefits due to their bigotry and hatred. Depending on how far the enemies of Christ want to take this, some such communities could be forced out of business and outlawed.

          Fortunately the Catholic Conference has the support from the leaders of several other religious communities: Missouri Synod Lutheran Church, the Islamic Center of Minnesota, and the Association of Christian Schools International. But will that be enough to turn the governor, the legislature, and the Democratic Party around or will they still view conservative religious beliefs as hateful. All this, of course, coming from the party of tolerance.

          These are only two stories from amongst the many that we broadcast every week, but they tend to demonstrate the depth to which religious animas will dive in an attempt to strike at people whose only crime is their religious faith and their desire to live that faith. Of course I could go on about some of the more appalling stories, such as Covid church closings, pastors being fined for holding services, surveillance of traditional Catholics by the FBI, government imposed transgender ideologies in schools, and the like. But these are two that should hit home with any believing person.

          We need prayer, but we can’t forgo political and legal action. If we fail now, then what? The possibilities are endless, and none are good.

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 (You can reach Mike at: DeaconMike@q.com, and listen to him every week on Faith On Trial on the Iowa Catholic Radio Network, or the podcast at https://iowacatholicradio.com/faith-on-trial/ the programs mentioned in this article are Episodes 405 and 406).