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“I expect to die in bed, my successor will die in prison and his successor will die a martyr in the public square. His successor will pick up the shards of a ruined society and slowly help rebuild civilization, as the church has done so often in human history.” — Cardinal Francis George
So apparently, Democrats are making a great deal of hay over what those in the religious community — especially the Catholic bishops — have been discussing for some time now [2]:
Cuccinelli called the Affordable Care Act requirement an attack on the Roman Catholic Church and religious freedom. He suggested forcing authorities to crack down on those who don’t comply.
The Catholic Cuccinelli said he had spoken to a bishop who suggested he’d go to jail to protest it. Cuccinelli said he told the bishop, “don’t take this personally — you need to go to jail.”
Now apparently Democrats have missed the last two years of protests from the Catholic Church about the HHS Mandate in Obamacare. Fair enough.
Perhaps they too cannot fathom as to why Catholics and their bishops would even consider civil disobedience to the point of being willing to go to jail for lack of compliance with government directives.
It all goes back to this guy:
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St. Thomas More and the rights of conscience.
News flash to Democrats: the Catholic Church wasn’t built by those who thought it was a social club. The Catholic Church was built by martyrs.
Now it probably shocks some Democratic observers — well, let’s be honest… they’re not shocked, just trying to provoke outrage — that Catholic bishops are openly discussing this. That Christian businesses will refuse to violate their religious liberties and rights of conscience to conform to an unjust law. That maybe our faith is more important than our government.
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Of course, in an effort to go after Cuccinelli, this will probably backfire in more ways than one.
First, I genuinely believe that most liberal observers will be surprised to learn there are indeed people with differing opinions from their own. Second, that they are willing to stand by those opinions. Third, that when those opinions approach the level of conscience, certain people will not bend. And lastly, that there’s a lot more folks out there sympathetic to the position of the Catholic Church and the larger body of believers as a whole.
Frankly, I’m surprised Democratic political hacks think this is a scandal Cuccinelli (and by extension, the Catholic bishops) will simply slink away from the glaring light of media attention.
Not on conscience, folks.
Think twice.