Rick Perry recently had a discussion with CNN's Wolf Blitzer concerning what Perry called “Obama's war on religion” in his recent advertisement titled “Strong.” Perry says that he is “very comfortable with that ad” and elaborates on his ideas presented in the advertisement.
Perry, in the discussion with Blitzer, says, “There is clearly an agenda by this [Obama] administration to go after those Catholic charities. [...] The administration is clearly sending messages to people of faith and organizations of faith that we're not going to support you with federal dollars.”
Many Catholic charities which had received federal funding closed because they failed to comply with federal regulations stipulating that discrimination against homosexuals was impermissible and did not have privately donated money to remain open. In order for Catholic charities to receive federal funding, they must comply with federal regulations. If Catholic charities do not want to comply with federal regulations, they are free to do so, but they will not receive federal funding.
Perry says, “I ask people, which one of the ten commandments do you not like? Why are our children not allowed to pray in school? Why can they not celebrate Christmas? Those are, I think, traditional and solid American values that we're seeing trampled upon by this administration.”
The Ten Commandments can hardly be called “American values” because they are religious edicts pertaining to specific religions that do not represent all Americans. As mentioned in a previous article analyzing the “Strong” video, children are allowed to pray in school, but they must do so during free time, must not be disruptive and schools can not lead or sponsor prayers. Many public schools are not including a celebration of Christmas, but rather are being inclusive and having holiday celebrations.
Wolf Blitzer asks Perry if separation of church and state means anything to him. Perry responds, “Sure, it means that we're supposed to have freedom of religion, not freedom from religion.”
Perry fails to recognize that freedom of religion entails that Americans can be religious or non-religious and not have religion imposed on them; freedom from religion is part of freedom of religion. Government neutrality toward matters of religion is not a 'war on religion,' but rather is inclusive and affirms the secular nature of our country.
David Niose, president of the American Humanist Association, writes, in an article titled “Government Neutrality is Not Anti-Religion,” “Unfortunately, whenever secular groups or individuals attempt to encourage governmental religious neutrality, predictable cries will be heard from the Christian right that religion and God are “under attack.” […] When the Religious Right complains about such fairness and neutrality, it only demonstrates that it expects special treatment for its views, and that anything less will be seen as unfair.”
Is it the case that 'President Obama and the left' have declared a 'war on religion' or are persons striving for government neutrality on matters of religion?
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