The Constitution is Under Attack Right NOW
The U.S. Constitution is under attack. This may not be news to some of us. Some of us realize that the federal government has whittled away at the Constitution for years. But today I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about one of the most blatant and outrageous attacks on the Constitution ever by the federal government.
The federal government now requires all institutions who offer health insurance, including religious institutions, to offer insurance coverages that include contraceptive products and services. The Catholic Bishops of the U.S. have taken a strong stand against this requirement. Their efforts have gotten most of the media attention, although this is not a strictly Catholic issue. This is a Constitutional issue.
The first sentence of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..."
Can this statement possibly be any clearer? The first part means that the federal government may not declare any particular religion as the official religion of the state. The second part means that each of us may exercise his or her religion freely - without impediment. The state may not impose restrictions or requirements on any religion, as that would interfere with the free exercise of religion.
Apparently the federal government has decided that the First Amendment either doesn't apply to it, or the government has interpreted this clear statement in some different manner, or (possibly) they have found that some other more important "right" supersedes our First Amendment right to free exercise of religion.
It's important that you engage with this issue, whether or not you're Catholic. Here's why: the whole point of our ancestors coming to America was to exercise their religion freely. Our first ancestors were Protestants who dissented from the established state religion of England, the Church of England. They were persecuted because of their faith. They came here to be able to freely practice their faith.
You must understand this fundamental point about why they came here in the first place. It wasn't to pursue business opportunities, or because they thought they would live a life of luxury like when people buy a place on some Caribbean island to lounge around in the sun, or because - like some of the Spanish Conquistadors - they wanted to find gold and silver and get rich. They came here to freely exercise their religion.
In fact, they didn't even want to get rid of their English citizenship status, like today when some Americans "expatriate" and live overseas and renounce their citizenship. They remained "Englishmen" and modeled their laws on the common law tradition of the mother country.
Again, they wanted to freely exercise their religion.
There is nothing more fundamental to our rights as Americans than the free exercise of our religion.
In the moment the government creates a law that tells a religious institution that it must offer products and services that the religion considers sinful, it is preventing the members of that religion from freely exercising their religion. How could you view this any other way?
This is therefore a fundamental attack on all of us as Americans. It is an attack on our fundamental rights as guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution.
In fact, the Catholic Bishops recently made it clear that they don't want an exemption from this law; they want the law overturned. They understand that this is a fundamental attack on freedom of religion and realize that letting this law stand would be the beginning of a new (and profoundly disturbing) round of erosion of our U.S Constitution and therefore our rights as U.S. citizens.
We should all applaud them. They are fighting for our liberty - the most fundamental liberty of all - as guaranteed under the Constitution. If anything should energize you to somehow get involved here and let your voice be heard, I can't imagine another issue that could be more pressing or more important - at least from the point of view of being an American. Can you?
(Disclosure: I'm Catholic. But if you don't understand why this isn't the reason that I'm writing this, then you need to figure out why your faculty of reason can't grasp this point. Really.)
From a financial perspective, such an attack - if left unanswered - will further erode the "rule of law" that underlies so much of the success of our American economy since our founding.
(Indeed, if the government had carefully followed the rule of law - we would not be in the economic crisis we find ourselves in today. Perhaps we can talk more about this in the future.)
I'd ask you to do some thinking about this. Use your reason and common sense and think about how big government that goes about making decisions without consideration for the rule of law can and has eroded our liberties.
A good starting point would be by re-reading the Constitution. I'm sure you'll see how our liberties have been eroded if you do. If you are not familiar with the Constitution, or if you have forgotten what you learned in the past, now is the time to learn or refresh your memory.
In any case, you should be able to see that saving and investing safely only gets you so far. Without rule of law, you stand the chance of losing everything in a heartbeat. You can understand this without being a Constitutional expert. You see that right?
The federal government now requires all institutions who offer health insurance, including religious institutions, to offer insurance coverages that include contraceptive products and services. The Catholic Bishops of the U.S. have taken a strong stand against this requirement. Their efforts have gotten most of the media attention, although this is not a strictly Catholic issue. This is a Constitutional issue.
The first sentence of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..."
Can this statement possibly be any clearer? The first part means that the federal government may not declare any particular religion as the official religion of the state. The second part means that each of us may exercise his or her religion freely - without impediment. The state may not impose restrictions or requirements on any religion, as that would interfere with the free exercise of religion.
Apparently the federal government has decided that the First Amendment either doesn't apply to it, or the government has interpreted this clear statement in some different manner, or (possibly) they have found that some other more important "right" supersedes our First Amendment right to free exercise of religion.
It's important that you engage with this issue, whether or not you're Catholic. Here's why: the whole point of our ancestors coming to America was to exercise their religion freely. Our first ancestors were Protestants who dissented from the established state religion of England, the Church of England. They were persecuted because of their faith. They came here to be able to freely practice their faith.
You must understand this fundamental point about why they came here in the first place. It wasn't to pursue business opportunities, or because they thought they would live a life of luxury like when people buy a place on some Caribbean island to lounge around in the sun, or because - like some of the Spanish Conquistadors - they wanted to find gold and silver and get rich. They came here to freely exercise their religion.
In fact, they didn't even want to get rid of their English citizenship status, like today when some Americans "expatriate" and live overseas and renounce their citizenship. They remained "Englishmen" and modeled their laws on the common law tradition of the mother country.
Again, they wanted to freely exercise their religion.
There is nothing more fundamental to our rights as Americans than the free exercise of our religion.
In the moment the government creates a law that tells a religious institution that it must offer products and services that the religion considers sinful, it is preventing the members of that religion from freely exercising their religion. How could you view this any other way?
This is therefore a fundamental attack on all of us as Americans. It is an attack on our fundamental rights as guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution.
In fact, the Catholic Bishops recently made it clear that they don't want an exemption from this law; they want the law overturned. They understand that this is a fundamental attack on freedom of religion and realize that letting this law stand would be the beginning of a new (and profoundly disturbing) round of erosion of our U.S Constitution and therefore our rights as U.S. citizens.
We should all applaud them. They are fighting for our liberty - the most fundamental liberty of all - as guaranteed under the Constitution. If anything should energize you to somehow get involved here and let your voice be heard, I can't imagine another issue that could be more pressing or more important - at least from the point of view of being an American. Can you?
(Disclosure: I'm Catholic. But if you don't understand why this isn't the reason that I'm writing this, then you need to figure out why your faculty of reason can't grasp this point. Really.)
From a financial perspective, such an attack - if left unanswered - will further erode the "rule of law" that underlies so much of the success of our American economy since our founding.
(Indeed, if the government had carefully followed the rule of law - we would not be in the economic crisis we find ourselves in today. Perhaps we can talk more about this in the future.)
I'd ask you to do some thinking about this. Use your reason and common sense and think about how big government that goes about making decisions without consideration for the rule of law can and has eroded our liberties.
A good starting point would be by re-reading the Constitution. I'm sure you'll see how our liberties have been eroded if you do. If you are not familiar with the Constitution, or if you have forgotten what you learned in the past, now is the time to learn or refresh your memory.
In any case, you should be able to see that saving and investing safely only gets you so far. Without rule of law, you stand the chance of losing everything in a heartbeat. You can understand this without being a Constitutional expert. You see that right?
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