During last week’s Vice Presidential debate, moderator Martha Raddatz questioned Vice President Joe Biden and his Republican opponent, Paul Ryan, about how their religion shapes their views on abortion. Both men are professed Catholics, but each gave very different answers.
Biden stated that his religion “defines” who he is and although he accepts the Catholic doctrine that life begins at conception, he would never force his personal beliefs on anyone else.
Ryan, on the other hand, stated that he could not “see how a person can separate their public life from their private life or from their faith.” Ryan does not understand the dangers of allowing religious law into legislature.
Religion should never become the basis of political policy because that isn’t a democracy. If religious law supersedes natural law, our democracy devolves into a theocracy. Devolving to a theocracy means forsaking religious freedom for religious compulsion.
There isn’t much difference between a Sharia-based Islamic Republic and a Christian-based theocratic republic. Both types of government reduce or eliminate personal liberties for inelastic religious rule.
For those who wish to return America to its Christian roots, here is some history.
The Founding Fathers fled to America to escape religious tyranny in England. Even in the early colonies, puritanical religious leaders persecuted revolutionists. The English protected the puritanical leaders and wielded insurmountable power within the local government. After America gained independence from England, constitutional framers avoided adding any religious terms to the constitution.
The only mention of religion in the constitution is exclusionary in nature.
The First Amendment states “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” In 16 words, the Framers of the Constitution established organized religion and government as two honorable but separate institutions. The amendment ensured that Americans would never again have to bend to the tyrannical hand of the religious majority.
Presidents and vice presidents no longer represent themselves, but their entire country.
We have seen religious conservatism rear its head and gain steam in politics: Prohibition, the Scopes Trial of 1925, as well as battles against legal and safe access to birth control, abortion, segregation, the decriminalization of homosexuality and the fight to keep marriage traditional.
Pro-choice women, who want full control of their bodies and reproductive destinies, and members of the gay community who want to marry their life-long partners are the ones whose rights are infringed — not those of the religious right, who attempt to legislate the morality for every American.
Recently, we have seen bills like House Bill 2625 emerge here in Arizona, which would allow employers to force their female employees to prove that they use contraception for “medical purposes” as opposed to preventing pregnancy. If an employee uses birth control despite their employers “moral objection,” the employee can be fired without legal ramifications.
American Civil Liberties Union representative, Anjali Abraham told The Huffington Post, “The bill goes beyond guaranteeing a person's rights to express and practice their faith, and instead lets employers prioritize their beliefs over the beliefs, the interests, and needs of their employees.”
This is the sort of legislature that Rabbi Bradley Hirschfield, warns about. Hirschfield is a radio and TV talk host who dedicated his life to studying religious abuses in politics, defends religion. He told The Washington Post “Allowing one’s personal beliefs to inform one’s personal choices is wonderful,” but using the agency of government to force others to abide by one’s morals undermines the fabric of democracy.
Reach the columnist at cjmacks7@asu.edu or follow her at @Jacksoncrista.
Read Matthew Rich's counterpoint here.
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