Do you see religious liberty as under threat in America? The debate over GOP candidates’ comments about Islam reveal how bitterly divided Americans are over how to view a basic right. For the last few years, several of the biggest and most influential religious groups have made the cause of religious freedom a top priority, saying a crisis is afoot. The US Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Southern Baptist Convention, the Mormon Church and many prominent faith leaders have focused intensely on a campaign for religious liberty.
Massive fundraising and public awareness campaigns have gone on, with slogans coined like the bishops’ “Fortnight for Freedom.” Advocacy groups have been formed or reshaped to focus on education and litigation about the threat to religious liberty.
Yet in the fall, when Republican presidential candidates filled the airwaves with dramatic statements about the rights of Muslims, there has been largely silence. Ben Carson in September said a Muslim “absolutely” couldn’t be president. In early November, businessman Donald Trump said he would “absolutely” require a database to track Muslims. Last week former senator Rick Santorum said the constitution does not protect Islam, which “is different from Christianity.” It was only when Trump on Monday proposed banning all Muslims from the country that a few religious liberty leaders spoke out. The comments ranged in their sense of urgency.
There are influential public interest law firms, such as the Becket Fund, and leading First Amendment scholars who work to bring attention to cases across the spectrum. This group can one day defend an order of nuns who refuse to include birth control in their employee health care package and the next day defend a Muslim Abercrombie & Fitch employee who wants to wear a hijab to work. But let’s face it, a group of academics doesn’t have the public’s attention. And they have their own standard for when they think it’s time to speak up. “In my world, what gets attention isn’t political rhetoric but actual legal efforts," said John Inazu, a scholar on religious liberty at the Washington University in St. Louis. “Candidates are saying so many stupid things.”
However, Inazu said, this could be a moment for the religious freedom movement. “For people who care about religious freedom, ignoring the real challenge of US Muslims is making a huge tactical blunder. And not to mention on the merits. You have to stand up for others, or everything you say is going to look like special pleading,” he said. Many see a culture, in particular on the liberal side, refusing to take their concerns seriously. They see this also in Americans who don’t prioritize Middle Eastern Christians being persecuted and killed in conflicts in Syria and Iraq that are terrorizing many religious minorities. And all that may be coming home to roost during this Muslim-slamming fall. “In one sense, until these latest incidents, it seemed religious freedom was on the run,” said Archbishop Thomas Wenski, who works on religious liberty issues for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. The Catholic Church has pushed back hard against candidates’ efforts to restrict refugees — particularly Muslim ones; the church is the largest settler of refugees in the US. In Indiana this week the archbishop welcomed a Syrian family of four over the wishes of Gov. Mike Pence. And yet the bishops’ extensive website on religious liberty, with news and articles, mentions nothing of the season’s anti-Muslim comments.
Asked why not, Wenski said he felt the topic was addressed in the bishops’ political guide they approved last month, called “Faithful Citizenship.” The document called for “civil and respectful dialogue.”
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THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
