Our basic God-given, American, religious freedom is under attack.  The time is now to get off the couch, the fence or whatever it is you are sitting on that’s keeping you from getting involved.   

Here’s my second point: Freedom of religion is more than freedom of worship. The right to worship is a necessary but not sufficient part of religious liberty. Christian faith requires community. It begins in worship, but it also demands preaching, teaching, and service. It’s always personal but never private. And it involves more than prayer at home and Mass on Sunday–though these things are vitally important. Real faith always bears fruit in public witness and public action. Otherwise it’s just empty words.

The founders saw the value of publicly engaged religious faith because they experienced its influence themselves. They created a nation designed in advance to depend on the moral convictions of religious believers, and to welcome their active role in public life.Archbishop Charles Chaput delivered a speech on June 20th in Indianapolis to a group of Catholic journalists on the eve of the “Fortnight for Freedom,” a national campaign of teaching, witness, and prayer against these attacks on our religious freedom.  Here are a few quotes from that speech.  What you should gather from this is that Archbishop Chaput, and he is not alone, is not watering down the seriousness of this matter.  It would do you good to read the entire speech http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2012/06/launching-the-fortnight-for-freedom  and START THE CONVERSATION with those around you.  If we do not take an urgent stand NOW then we will be facing even worse threats in the future.  Pay close attention to what many of the bishops are saying.  What is needed here above everything else is that we pray, fast and give our lives to God, entirely!  It is the grace of God that can heal and convert hearts.  But the hearts that need healing and converting always include our own.

Archbishop Chaput’s speech to Catholic journalists:

I’ve known Greg Erlandson as a friend for many years. So I was glad to accept his invitation to join you tonight.  And I’m very glad to speak on the theme of religious liberty because events in our country have made it an urgent concern.  I can sum up my remarks tonight in five simple points.

First, religious freedom is a cornerstone of the American experience. This is so obvious that once upon a time, nobody needed to say it. But times have changed. So it’s worth recalling that Madison, Adams, Washington, Hamilton, Franklin, Jefferson–in fact, nearly all the American founders–saw religious faith as vital to the life of a free people. Liberty and happiness grow organically out of virtue.  And virtue needs grounding in religious faith.

Gertrude Himmelfarb, the historian, put it this way: The founders knew that in a republic, “virtue is intimately related to religion. However skeptical or deistic they may have been in their own beliefs, however determined they were to avoid anything like an established Church, they had no doubt that religion is an essential part of the social order because it is a vital part of the moral order.”

Here’s my second point: Freedom of religion is more than freedom of worship.  The right to worship is a necessary but not sufficient part of religious liberty. Christian faith requires community. It begins in worship, but it also demands preaching, teaching, and service. It’s always personal but never private. And it involves more than prayer at home and Mass on Sunday–though these things are vitally important. Real faith always bears fruit in public witness and public action. Otherwise it’s just empty words.

The founders saw the value of publicly engaged religious faith because they experienced its influence themselves. They created a nation designed in advance to depend on the moral convictions of religious believers, and to welcome their active role in public life.

I will be posting more of Archbishop Chaput’s speech in coming days.  I encourage you to go out to the link above and read the entire speech now.  This issue is far too important to ignore!  If you remain silent then you are part of the problem.  Spread the word and be part of the solution.

 Thank you for joining in the effort to end this unprecedented government coercion.