The rapidly growing threat to religious liberty.

You'll come to know
... when the bullet hits the bone...

What a blessing it is that more and more voices - in and outside the Church - are being raised to point out the escalating threats against religious liberty facing Christians in the West.  Now - after years of more or less subtle discrimination, misrepresentation and mockery of Christianity from media - especially the entertainment industry.  The ACLU along with our educational system fomenting an absolute separation of church and state mentality over the past decades has contributed in no small way to making religion irrelevant in public discourse, as well as inconsequential to popular culture and morality.


“It starts with intolerance which is a cultural phenomenon.”

Anyway - I found the following on CNA - the good news is that more and more people are beginning to notice - and point it out:

Rome, Italy, Jul 4, 2012 / 04:05 am (CNA).- The head of Italy's new religious liberty watchdog group warned that present threats of “discriminatory legislation” in the U.S. could eventually result in violence against Christians in America.

“In a climate of discrimination, it is possible that somebody will act upon that discrimination to say ‘the laws are not enough’ and resort to actual violence and this is the realms of hate crimes,” Professor Massimo Introvigne told CNA June 28.

The inaugural meeting was held at Rome’s Foreign Press Association June 28. It heard Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore make the case that religious liberty in the United States is currently imperiled by the prevailing culture as well as by legislation such as the recent Department of Health & Human Services mandate.

Introvigne stressed that he did not want to create a “false impression” that he was equating “the bloody persecution of Christians” as presently occurs in some African and Asian countries with “discriminatory legislation in the United States or Europe.”

However, the 57-year-old sociologist suggested that there was a “three stage process” which could lead to anti-Christian violence in the West if action to protect religious liberty was not taken.

“It starts with intolerance which is a cultural phenomenon,” he explained “and then if intolerance becomes so widespread and popular, some politicians will act upon it and introduce discriminatory legislation.”

It is in this “climate of discrimination,” he said, that people can decide to take the law into their own hands and use violence to further suppress Christianity. - CNA

Fostering a 'climate of discrimination'.

One such example may be those activities promoted by gay activists and those promoting same sex marriage, a group calling themselves Catholics for Equality.  I get periodic emails from them protesting the U.S. Catholic Bishop's involvement in the Fortnight for Freedom and the defense of Marriage debates.  They claim the Bishops are hurting the Church and alienating Catholics, as well as overstepping their bounds in speaking out against the escalating threats to religious freedom.  Their campaign slogan: "Bishops: We Need Pastors, Not Politicians. Your Antics are Hurting the Church."  Claiming:

The USCCB's "Fortnight for Freedom" 2012 election year campaign marks an unprecedented level of political activity for the institutional American Catholic Church. Catholic Bishops across the country are unabashedly demanding our priests and parishes use the pulpit and the Liturgy of the Mass to engage in partisan election year campaigning. Catholics in the pews overwhelmingly oppose this and are making our voices heard in the streets where we cannot be silenced.

The irony here is that it is their organization and their antics which is hurting the Church, and posing a greater threat to religious freedom.  They are cooperating with evil, and promoting dissent, thus contributing to a culture of religious intolerance.

The Fortnight is over - now what?  Pray the rosary every day.  And:

 Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore believes that the fight for religious liberty has not been damaged the Supreme Court’s ruling that President Obama’s Affordable Care Act is constitutional.  “So don’t give up, don’t imagine that all is lost, it’s not,” he said, adding that “the struggle is fresh, important and more vital than ever.”