The dangers of relinquishing liberty for a quiet and “safe” life

In recent months, it has become increasingly clear that religious freedom, or any individual liberties for that matter, are best respected in lands where private property and financial resources are respected by the state.  Mark Steyn explores the themes of private property and financial responsibility in this speech describing the dangers other nations are facing when they fail to respect these boundaries.  I would encourage you to read the speech in its entirety.  Editor

The following excerpts are from a speech Mark Steyn gave at Hillsdale College on March 9, 2009.  You can read the full article here.

“In most of the developed world, the state has gradually annexed all the responsibilities of adulthood—health care, child care, care of the elderly—to the point where it’s effectively severed its citizens from humanity’s primal instincts, not least the survival instinct.”

…

“And now the last holdout, the United States, is embarking on the same grim path: After the President unveiled his budget, I heard Americans complain, oh, it’s another Jimmy Carter, or LBJ’s Great Society, or the new New Deal. You should be so lucky. Those nickel-and-dime comparisons barely begin to encompass the wholesale Europeanization that’s underway. The 44th president’s multi-trillion-dollar budget, the first of many, adds more to the national debt than all the previous 43 presidents combined, from George Washington to George Dubya. The President wants Europeanized health care, Europeanized daycare, Europeanized education, and, as the Europeans have discovered, even with Europeanized tax rates you can’t make that math add up. In Sweden, state spending accounts for 54% of GDP. In America, it was 34%—ten years ago. Today, it’s about 40%. In four years’ time, that number will be trending very Swede-like.”

…

“That’s Stage Two of societal enervation—when the state as guarantor of all your basic needs becomes increasingly comfortable with regulating your behavior. Free peoples who were once willing to give their lives for liberty can be persuaded very quickly to relinquish their liberties for a quiet life. When President Bush talked about promoting democracy in the Middle East, there was a phrase he liked to use: “Freedom is the desire of every human heart.” Really? It’s unclear whether that’s really the case in Gaza and the Pakistani tribal lands. But it’s absolutely certain that it’s not the case in Berlin and Paris, Stockholm and London, New Orleans and Buffalo. The story of the Western world since 1945 is that, invited to choose between freedom and government “security,” large numbers of people vote to dump freedom every time—the freedom to make your own decisions about health care, education, property rights, and a ton of other stuff. It’s ridiculous for grown men and women to say: I want to be able to choose from hundreds of cereals at the supermarket, thousands of movies from Netflix, millions of songs to play on my iPod—but I want the government to choose for me when it comes to my health care. A nation that demands the government take care of all the grown-up stuff is a nation turning into the world’s wrinkliest adolescent, free only to choose its record collection.

 

“And don’t be too sure you’ll get to choose your record collection in the end. That’s Stage Three: When the populace has agreed to become wards of the state, it’s a mere difference of degree to start regulating their thoughts. When my anglophone friends in the Province of Quebec used to complain about the lack of English signs in Quebec hospitals, my response was that, if you allow the government to be the sole provider of health care, why be surprised that they’re allowed to decide the language they’ll give it in? But, as I’ve learned during my year in the hellhole of Canadian “human rights” law, that’s true in a broader sense. In the interests of “cultural protection,” the Canadian state keeps foreign newspaper owners, foreign TV operators, and foreign bookstore owners out of Canada. Why shouldn’t it, in return, assume the right to police the ideas disseminated through those newspapers, bookstores and TV networks it graciously agrees to permit?

 

“When Maclean’s magazine and I were hauled up in 2007 for the crime of “flagrant Islamophobia,” it quickly became very clear that, for members of a profession that brags about its “courage” incessantly (far more than, say, firemen do), an awful lot of journalists are quite content to be the eunuchs in the politically correct harem. A distressing number of Western journalists see no conflict between attending lunches for World Press Freedom Day every month and agreeing to be micro-regulated by the state. The big problem for those of us arguing for classical liberalism is that in modern Canada there’s hardly anything left that isn’t on the state dripfeed to one degree or another: Too many of the institutions healthy societies traditionally look to as outposts of independent thought—churches, private schools, literature, the arts, the media—either have an ambiguous relationship with government or are downright dependent on it. Up north, “intellectual freedom” means the relevant film-funding agency—Cinedole Canada or whatever it’s called—gives you a check to enable you to continue making so-called “bold, brave, transgressive” films that discombobulate state power not a whit.

 

“And then comes Stage Four, in which dissenting ideas and even words are labeled as “hatred.” In effect, the language itself becomes a means of control. Despite the smiley-face banalities, the tyranny becomes more naked: In Britain, a land with rampant property crime, undercover constables nevertheless find time to dine at curry restaurants on Friday nights to monitor adjoining tables lest someone in private conversation should make a racist remark. An author interviewed on BBC Radio expressed, very mildly and politely, some concerns about gay adoption and was investigated by Scotland Yard’s Community Safety Unit for Homophobic, Racist and Domestic Incidents. A Daily Telegraph columnist is arrested and detained in a jail cell over a joke in a speech. A Dutch legislator is invited to speak at the Palace of Westminster by a member of the House of Lords, but is banned by the government, arrested on arrival at Heathrow and deported.”

MARK STEYN’S column appears in several newspapers, including the Washington Times, Philadelphia’s Evening Bulletin, and the Orange County Register. In addition, he writes for The New Criterion, Maclean’s in Canada, the Jerusalem Post, The Australian, and Hawke’s Bay Today in New Zealand.

 

Read the full article at http://www.hillsdale.edu/images/userImages/mvanderwei/Page_4221/ImprimisApril09.pdf

Supreme Court nominee Sotomayor’s rulings on religious issues

University of Toledo law professor Howard M. Friedman has compiled a list of Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s rulings on religion clause issues at his blog, Religion Clause.   Sotomayor has served on the Second Circuit since 1998. She served as a federal district court judge in the Southern District of New York from 1992 to 1998.

Friedman lists a couple of Second Circuit decisions involving religion where Sotomayor joined the panel majority, but his list of Sotomayor’s Southern District decisions is most helpful:

• Mehdi v. United States Postal Service, 988 F. Supp. 721 (1997) [LEXIS link] (rejecting claim by Muslim plaintiffs that post offices must include crescent and star along with Christmas and Hanukkah decorations);
• Moore v. Kennedy, 1996 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11474 (1996) (prisoner free exercise);
• Miller v. New York State Department of Labor, 1996 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11067 (1996) (employment discrimination);
• Utkor v. McElroy, 930 F. Supp. 881 (1996) [LEXIS link] (immigration asylum);
• DiNapoli v. DiNapoli, 1995 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13778 (1995) (accusations against sibling, member of religious order, growing out of estate administration).
• Rodriguez v. Coughlin, 1994 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5832 (1994) and Campos v. Coughlin, 854 F. Supp. 194 (1994) [LEXIS link] (preliminary injunction allowing Santeria prisoners to wear religious beads).
• Flamer v. City of White Plains, 841 F. Supp. 1365 (1993) [LEXIS link] (enjoining city from preventing rabbi’s placing of menorah in city park during Hanukkah).

Read the full article at http://religionclause.blogspot.com/2009/05/sotomayor-is-high-court-pick-here-are.html

On the Table

 A collection of the latest news and opinions.

	VIRGINIA: Laid-off religious workers denied jobless benefits Under Virginia law, as in many states, tax exemptions for religious organizations include freedom from paying unemployment taxes, though the IRS requires they pay Social Security and withholding taxes.  For workers who are left jobless, unemployment benefits are a big piece of the social safety net. In Virginia, payments range from $54 to $378 weekly. Benefits are available only to people whose employers paid the unemployment tax. Despite their tax exemption, religious groups in Virginia can voluntarily pay unemployment benefits.      Not every state bars unemployment compensation to employees of religious groups. In New York, for example, employees whose work is not religious in nature, such as a cook or a secretary, are entitled to benefits, and their employer must pay the state unemployment tax. Read more at Pew Forum.
	West Virginia State Senator Sen. Jeffrey V. KesslerLead sponsor of the West Virginia Senate Bill 701, the West Virginia Religious Freedom Restoration Act.   Introduced on March 23, 2009, this bill would have restore the high standard of protection for religious liberty previously guaranteed in the federal RFRA and earlier Supreme Court decisions. Under the West Virginia RFRA, if an individual’s religious belief is in conflict with a state regulation, the state will have to prove, with evidence, that its regulation is essential to fulfill a compelling state interest and is the least restrictive means of doing so. If the state fails to carry the burden, the regulation must give way to the individual’s religious freedom. Restoring this protection for religious freedom will simply “even the playing field.”  Unfortunately the bill died in committee, but kudos to Sen. Kessler for introducing the legislation.
	Actor William H. MacyAcademy Award-nominated actor William H. Macy told CNSNews.com that the government should not regulate talk radio so it is “balanced” — with some variant of a Fairness Doctrine or local ownership rules – because “this is America” and “you can say anything you want.”   Read more.
	President Obama’s Speech at Notre Dame blurs church-state linesU.S. News columnist Peter Roff addresses some issues he found in President Obama’s diplomatic and sincere but somewhat troubling speech.  In his remarks the president urges the graduating class of Notre Dame to be aware that the challenges before them “require that we remake our world to renew its promise; that we align our deepest values and commitments to the demands of a new age.” As I read that sentence, it means President Obama wants those in attendance to reorient their faith in ways that allow them, indeed compel them to address global problems—not as the church or as Pope Benedict define them—but as he and his political cohorts see them to be. . . . As I read it, President Obama is telling the “one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church,” of the Nicene Creed that it must catch up with the times, be part of the change, and accept diversity of all kinds and stripes. Which sort of reminds of the scene in Hannah and Her Sisters when Woody Allen, thinking he is dying of a brain tumor, visits a priest in contemplation of conversion, talks about joining “the against school prayer, pro-abortion, anti-nuclear wing,” of the church despite the fact that he still doesn’t believe in God but has to believe in something. Writing Monday for National Review Online, noted Catholic scholar and papal biographer George Weigel issued a caution of his own about the Notre Dame speech. “What was surprising, and ought to be disturbing to anyone who cares about religious freedom in these United States, was the president’s decision to insert himself into the ongoing Catholic debate over the boundaries of Catholic identity and the applicability of settled Catholic conviction in the public square,” Weigel wrote, adding that “Obama did this by suggesting, not altogether subtly, who the real Catholics in America are.” Read more from Roff’s essay. Read the speech.
	Oklahoma State Legislature The Oklahoma legislature has unanimously approved a bill to prohibit all forms of human cloning. The House of Representatives voted 83-0 for the measure May 15, and the Senate passed the bill with a 44-0 vote the same day, according to The Daily Oklahoman.
	German Courts take away parental rights A German couple was convicted for withdrawing their eleven-year-old daughter from sex education classes. They decided to keep their daughter Lilli away from the four days of “sexual education” lessons, and an interactive stage play called Mein Körper gehört mir (My Body Is Mine), choosing to educate her according to their own views on sexuality instead.  Since being convicted the Dojans have lost two appeals to the German courts and they are now taking their case to the European Court of Human Rights with the help of the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), a religious liberty advocacy group. Home schooling is illegal in Germany under laws introduced by Hitler to ensure children’s education was under state control. Read more.
	Lauren Vance tackles issue of Christians who support torture   Lauren Vance, the author of Christianity and War and Other Essays Against the Warfare State writes a stirring essay at LewRockwell.com that tackles the difficult issue of why some Christians in America tend to support torture.  EXCERPTS:   Read the full essay. The most ardent atheist would be rendered speechless should he hear of Christians for abortion, profanity, adultery, or drunkenness. Of all people in the world, it is certainly Christians – and especially the conservative, evangelical, and fundamentalist kind – that atheists, agnostics, and infidels expect to be opposed to these things. . . . We associate torture with third-world prisons, the KGB, the Stasi, and other secret police organizations, the Dark Ages, the Inquisition, the Holocaust, the Reign of Terror, mass murderers, massacres, and genocides. We associate torture with the Soviet Union under Stalin, China under Mao, Germany under Hitler, Korea under Kim Il-sung, Cuba under Castro, Cambodia under Pol Pot, Iraq under Saddam Hussein, and Uganda under Idi Amin. We associate torture with everything that is evil, vile, and inhuman. What have we come to in the United States when people who name the name of Christ support torture? How dare Christians criticize Muslims for saying that Islam is a religion of peace and then advocate the torturing of suspected terrorists? By their support for torture, Christians have given “great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme” (2 Samuel 12:14).”
	Lifting embargo may prolong Cuban repression  EXCERPT from the Epoch Times: Alcazar is a proponent of the 47-year-long U.S. embargo on trade with Cuba. He explained that the United States stands to gain nothing from lifting the embargo; only the Cuban regime would gain. “Cuba has nothing to buy from the U.S., except the food it is already getting from American growers,” he said. “Until Cuba opens up its political system, its economy, and guarantees civil rights and free elections to its people, nothing will really change. “Opening up American tourism to Cuba, or extending it credits it will not be able to pay back, will only help the regime to maintain its repressive apparatus. If American investment is allowed into Cuba while the regime is in power, it will only consolidate them for decades to come, as foreigners can only invest through joint ventures with the regime’s state corporations and no ordinary Cubans are permitted to participate. “Lifting the embargo before political changes set in will only ensure that the Communist system will last for many decades to come. Read more.

China and Brazil Plan to Dump Dollar (FT)

This news will have significant repercussions for the United States economy.  Editor

US Commission on International Religious Freedom Issues 2009 Report – 13 Nations of concern

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) Friday, May 1, announced its 2009 recommendations to Congress, the White House and the State Department that 13 nations–Burma, China, North Korea, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam–be named “countries of particular concern,” or CPCs. 

USCIRF is a bipartisan Federal Commission, whose Commissioners are appointed by the President of the United States and the Senate and House of Representatives.

Click here to read the full report in PDF format.

TURKMENISTAN: Old “offences” still used to punish current religious activity (Forum 18)

EXCERPT:

By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service

Former prisoner of conscience Shageldy Atakov, is the latest victim of Turkmenistan’s use of old “offences” to punish current activity, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. Officials under orders from the central authorities are now threatening to confiscate Atakov’s property, if he does not pay an enormous sum he is alleged by the authorities to have swindled an individual out of in 1995. “It is all being done because I am a Christian – I don’t owe anyone anything,” Atakov insisted to Forum 18. His fellow Baptists have repeatedly backed his statements that he is completely innocent of all the alleged offences. Atakov was shown documents in court showing that the latest moves were ordered from the capital Ashgabad. He pledged not to allow the authorities to seize his family’s property. “They’ll completely empty the house. They don’t have the right to do this.” Atakov, his wife Artygul Atakova and their children are also on an exit blacklist, which the authorities use against people they dislike. No official has been willing to discuss the case with Forum 18.

More than seven years after he was freed in early January 2002 from a four-year prison term, prosecutors in Turkmenistan are renewing the same charges against Baptist leader and former prisoner of conscience Shageldy Atakov, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. Atakov was imprisoned in 1999, allegedly for swindling another individual out of 12,000 US Dollars (this is the exact sum quoted in official documents). The latest moves come fourteen years after the alleged offence in 1995.

Read the full article:  http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1293

Around the globe, religious freedom under assault (Read it News)

EXCERPT: At a time when religious persecution is at the heart of the world’s most violent conflicts, religious freedom matters. That’s why the 2009 report from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom should be required reading for policymakers in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere.

Released on May 1, the report documents in chilling detail the global assault on freedom of religion and belief, making a powerful case for the need to take religious freedom more seriously in U.S. foreign policy

Read the full article: http://readitnews.com/read-it-views-prescott-opinion/inside-the-first-amendment/2110-around-the-globe-religious-freedom-under-assault-

Pope urges religious reconciliation (Al Jazeera)

Excerpt:

Pope Benedict XVI has called on followers of the three major monotheistic religions to put their differences behind them and work towards reconciliation.
…

“Jews, Muslims and Christians alike call this city their spiritual home… Thereshould be no place within these walls for narrowness, discrimination, violence and injustice,” Benedict said.

“Believers in a God of mercy … must be the first to promote this culture of reconciliation and peace, however, painstakingly slow the process may be, and however, burdensome the weight of past memories.”

Read the full article at http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/05/2009512152454727969.html

North Korea Freedom Week – CBN.com

North Korea has long been recognized as one of the world’s worst abusers of religious freedom. This week in Washington, D.C., North Korean defectors and human rights activists came together to bring attention to the situation… From The Christian Broadcasting Network CBN

Oregon Senate Passes Workplace Religious Freedom Act

WORKPLACE RELIGIOUS FREEDOM PASSES OREGON STATE SENATE!

Tuesday,  May 5, 2009 at the Oregon Legislature, with the leadership of Senator David Nelson (R-Pendleton District) and the bipartisan support of Republicans and Democrats, we finally realized the fruits of our labor in the Senate passage of our Oregon Workplace Religious Freedom Act, SB 786-A (see attached). The vote was 19-11. It is a bill that we, the Northwest Religious Liberty Association (NRLA), launched during the 2007 legislative session under the sponsorship of House Majority Leader Dave Hunt.

In 2009, Representative Hunt (D-Gladstone District) was elected by his Democratic Party Caucus peers to serve as Speaker of the House of Representatives, which then placed our bill in an even more favorable position for passage. We have worked with Representative Hunt since the 2003 legislative session on other critical religious freedom legislation. So we have had a positive working relationship with him and his entire office staff—particularly Trevor Sleeman, his chief legislative aide—for some time now. Needless to say, it has paid off in a huge way, including our working relationship with a bipartisan group of Republican and Democratic Senators and Representatives going back to the 1999 session. In reality, yesterday represented the fruits of years of seemingly futile, but ultimately valuable, labor. It has taken many failures, as well as substantive lessons learned, and the Lord’s guidance, to get this far.

What this bill does is clarify the responsibility of employers to accommodate the scheduling of leave time for the observation of religious holy days, or for the wearing of religious apparel in the workplace unless it poses a “significant difficulty or expense” to their business(es). More specifically, it restores the original federal Title VII legal standard involving religious discrimination which obligated employers to demonstrate that they reasonably attempted to accommodate the sincerely held religious beliefs and practices of their employees before claiming that such beliefs and practices posed a “significant difficulty” and “expense” for their business(es). This bill, once law, will help thousands of people of faith in the workplace who many times are forced to choose between their faith and putting food on the table for their family.

Our bill now goes to the Oregon House of Representatives where a hearing will be scheduled fairly soon, probably in the Public Affairs or Judiciary Committee. Having already passed the Senate Judiciary Committee by a vote of 4-1, and now the full Senate, it should be a little easier securing favorable passage of our bill in the committee and floor vote stages on the House side.

 Securing Governor Ted Kulongoski’s signature will be the final stage of the process, and we remain encouraged that he will sign the bill. With the enthusiastic support of both the Speaker of the House, Representative Dave Hunt, and the State Director of the Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI), former Senator Brad Avakian (and Senate sponsor of our bill in 2007), these positive influences cannot hurt our chances.

 Please keep this important matter in your prayers and thanks again for your ongoing and faithful support.

 

Greg W. Hamilton
President,
Northwest Religious Liberty Association

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