A transcript of a AG Sessions speech from the Department of Justice website:
But in recent years, the cultural climate in this country—and in the West more generally—has become less hospitable to people of faith. Many Americans have felt that their freedom to practice their faith has been under attack.
And it’s easy to see why. We’ve seen nuns ordered to buy contraceptives.
We’ve seen U.S. Senators ask judicial and executive branch nominees about dogma—even though the Constitution explicitly forbids a religious test for public office. We’ve all seen the ordeal faced so bravely by Jack Phillips.
Americans from a wide variety of backgrounds are concerned about what this changing cultural climate means for the future of religious liberty in this country.
Under attack? How many of my readers have felt their freedom to practice their faith has been under attack? The intellectual flaw here, both in Sessions’ remark and my question, is to lump the religious into one group, rather than realistically acknowledging the differences, sometimes antagonistic, between the various faith groups, including those of no faith. Does a Christian feel threatened? A Satanist? A Jew, a Muslim, and the atheist down the street?
A mixture of answers will ensue if you ensue if you pursue persons of each group.
Given Sessions’ background, it’s not difficult to assume this is code for Christians are not as dominant as they used to be, and people are still taking seriously the idea of government not being dominated by religion! And this puts Sessions in the place of practicing subterfuge in order to promote his agenda, which appears to be Dominionist.
And I cannot take the paragraph regarding judicial & executive nominees being asked about dogma seriously. The rebuttal lies in his very words – government is not a vehicle for religion, so it is incumbent to ask if those who embody government will bring their religious prejudices into government, or if they’ll be faithful to the law of Man – not the many religions which those nominated practice.
Still, how many of the religious really feel under attack – and how many are just being stirred up by those fell power-mongers of the right?
