“Just because our faith is personal, doesn’t mean it’s private,” says new video.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) are now equating one-man, one-woman marriage with freedom, and claiming the government is “penalizing Catholic institutions because of their faith.” In “Made for Freedom,” a video released Tuesday as part of the USCCB’s “Marriage: Unique for a Reason” campaign, the Catholic Bishops depict wistful and beleaguered Catholics lamenting the public and governmental acceptance of same-sex marriage, and voicing fears that expressing anti-gay beliefs will see them branded as hateful and prejudiced.
Arguing that Catholics should be able to discriminate in public, Heritage Foundation’s anti-gay spokesperson Ryan T. Anderson says in the video that the “most important thing now is to protect the freedom to be faithful in the public square.” He goes on to insist that Catholic institutions (which receive state and/or federal funding) “shouldn’t be penalized because of their faith, because of their beliefs.”
But much of the video features anti-gay attorney Kellie Fiedorek with the Christian legal firm Alliance Defending Freedom. The ADF is one of two faith-based groups responsible for many of the anti-LGBT bills currently flooding state legislatures.
“As an attorney, I represent a number of clients who are being punished and coerced by the government to change their views on marriage,” Fiedorek notes. “We’re seeing this happen to florists, to bakers, to photographers, we’re seeing this happen to judges and to clerks who are authorized to solemnize weddings and have a religious objection to doing so.” Similar fears have prompted bills in several states that would restrict LGBT equality by offering legal protections to organizations that refuse service to LGBT people on religious grounds.
“The implications of the redefinition of marriage for religious freedom are vast,” says Fiedorek. “I think that the short term effects we will see will first come in the attempt to silence people of faith, or people that hold a conviction that marriage is something sacred, something special, they will be silenced. Whether that’s by the government, or simply out of fear.”
Some are shown struggling to figure out how to express themselves in a world where restricting LGBT equality is now seen as discriminatory. “I’ve been really surprised that just saying that it takes a man and a woman to create a child, that a child deserves a mom and a dad, is viewed by some as hate speech. As if acknowledging where a child comes from is discrimination,” says one man, adding that he thinks the government shouldn’t be “imposing a monolithic secularism.”Â
Many on the religious right see civil equality and public acceptance of LGBT people as a threat to religious liberty and demand the government protect their right to discriminate.
“If in any way shape or form, you disagree with the prevailing narrative about what is appropriate in terms of sexuality, same-sex marriage, even a hint of it, it sort of takes the air out of the room,” says Gloria Purvis. “People begin to think you’re closed minded, you’re a bigot, and you’re hateful.”
The Southern Poverty Law Center sees things differently. In a statement on their website regarding the use of religion as a means of discrimination, they said, “Religious liberty is a cherished constitutional value, enshrined in the First Amendment. But, as earlier efforts to offer biblical justification for slavery and Jim Crow segregation have taught us, religious liberty should not be used as an excuse to discriminate.”
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Image: Screenshot via archbaltimore/YouTube
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