"It's usually offered in indirect but aggressive ways. Behind a lot of American political arguments is the belief that Catholics don't belong in the political world - unless we-re willing to set our faith aside.
"It
comes out in claims like calling the commitment to the unborn child's
right to life 'a Catholic issue.' We're said to be imposing our values.
We point out that we're arguing on purely secular grounds, and an
atheist should say what we're saying. No matter how many times we do
that, someone tries to push us out of the discussion by saying we're
dragging religion into it. . . .
"There we see two of the rhetorical tricks secularists pull. The first declares that anything the secular world disagrees with must be religious and therefore invalid. We appeal to universal truths; they howl that we're forcing our religion on other people. The second rhetorical trick declares that the Constitution only protects the 'freedom to worship.' It doesn't protect believers' freedom to live out their faith in the world.
"We can get some help from a man who dealt with Protestant bigotry almost 100 years ago. New York Gov. Al Smith was running for the Democratic nomination for the presidency. The first Catholic to run for president for a major party, he lost in part because so many Americans still felt such prejudice against Catholics.. . ."In a recent commentary using the example of Al Smith and the way he responded to attacks on his faith, writer David Mills reflected on a number of five lessons for our own engagement in politics and in arguments about politics.
To access Mr. Mill's complete post, please visit:
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