Religious Liberty and Political Civility

Vatican News highlighted the recent International Religious Freedom Report released by the U.S. State Department. Religious liberty is in danger abroad, and as we’ve written here before, religious freedom is endangered in America as well.

American citizens are blessed that these threats come in the form of policy mandates and not in the Church bombings we see in the Middle East today. Some think that we are on our way to that type of persecution, but until then we still have the political process as our weapon.

One step towards protecting our precious American freedom is debating with a civil and respectful tone. A recent Knights of Columbus-Marist poll found that 78 percent of people in the U.S. are frustrated with the tone of current politics. This is why the Knights have launched their Civility in America campaign, to encourage political leaders and media to maintain a civil discourse and a Christian respect for opposing parties.

Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia wrote a great piece about this. The whole article is worth the read, but the most important thing to remember is: Jesus has already claimed victory.

So we should march towards Him in this battle for religious liberty. No matter what happens, we will be victorious with Him in the end.