Commonweal deplores statement of U.S. Catholic bishops

The issues of freedom of religion are often complex (see, e.g. ACLU v. Sebelius) - and one of the dangers is that people will forget its complexity and oversimplify the issues.  That is what the bishops did in today's statement to which  Commonweal responded - criticizing the call by the country's Catholic bishops call for a "Fortnight for Freedom.  There is a lot more to the editorial, but this captures the spirit of the magazine's  statement. - GWC
dotCommonweal » Blog Archive » Religious freedom & the U.S. Catholic bishops:

 "The USCCB’s statement vastly exaggerates the extent to which American freedoms of all sorts and of religious freedom in particular are threatened. Church-state relations are complicated, requiring the careful weighing of competing moral claims. The USCCB’s statement fails to acknowledge that fact. Worse, strangely absent from the list of examples provided by the bishops is the best-documented case of growing hostility to religious presence in the United States: hostility to Islam. Unless the bishops correct that oversight, their statement will only feed the impression that this “campaign” for religious freedom has been politically tailored. This silence is especially striking in view of the parallels between anti-Muslim sentiment today and the prejudice encountered by Catholic immigrants in the nineteenth century. If religious freedom becomes a partisan issue, its future is sure to grow dimmer, not brighter.  Religious liberty, absolutely. Partisan politics, no."

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