We are now halfway through the third annual Fortnight for Freedom, a two-week observance designed by the U.S. Bishops Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty to raise awareness of the serious threats to religious freedom—both domestic and international—and to call Catholics to fourteen days of prayer, education and action.
According to the Ad Hoc Committee, “the success of this year’s Fortnight is vital to establishing and maintaining a new movement for religious freedom, in response to the growing range of religious freedom issues in so many areas of law, such as immigration, adoption, and disaster relief, both here and abroad.”
In the midst of our society’s busy pace of life, it can be very difficult to get people to pay attention to seemingly academic concepts like religious freedom. Or some may just take religious freedom for granted, relying on its deep roots and origins in our nation’s founding. However, neglecting the importance of religious liberty or dismissing its threats has grave implications to human dignity and our democratic way of life.
Dr. Thomas F. Farr, who directs the Religious Freedom Project at Georgetown University’s Berkley Center, warned about these grave implications in a talk he gave to the U.S. Bishops at their June 13, 2012 General Assembly. Having spent the last thirteen years of his life “reflecting, writing, and acting on the subject of religious liberty, both here and abroad,” Dr. Farr offered three propositions:
“First, both history and modern scholarship demonstrate that a robust system of religious liberty in both law and culture is indispensible to individual human dignity, and to the social, economic, intellectual, political, and religious flourishing of civil societies and of nations.”
“Second, religious liberty is in global crisis, with enormous consequences for the Church, the United States, the success of democracy, the defeat of religion-based terrorism, and the cause of international justice and peace. Third, propositions one and two are highly contested.”
Dr. Farr cited some empirical evidence from the Pew Research Center as evidence of his claim that religious liberty is in global crisis. Pew Research studied both government restrictions on religion and social hostilities toward religion in every country of the world between 2006 and mid-2009.
In its first report issued in 2009, Pew revealed a profoundly disturbing statistic: 70 percent of the world’s population lives in countries in which religious freedom is either highly or very highly restricted, either by governments or private actors. Its second report, issued in 2011, demonstrated that the problem is getting worse.
According to Dr. Farr, the root cause of religious oppression around the world is “a belief that religious freedom is not only unnecessary for human flourishing or social development, but that it poses a threat to these and other goods.”
While this belief is not unique to modern times, “what is new, and profoundly troubling,” Dr. Farr warns, “is that we are seeing today the rejection of religious freedom not simply by authoritarian regimes… but by democratic majorities… even Western Europe.”
In the authoritarian regimes, religious oppression is being perpetrated by religious majorities. But in Western Europe, Dr. Farr points out, religious oppression is perpetrated by “an aggressive secularist majority that refuses to permit religiously-informed moral arguments into public life.”
“In short,” Dr. Farr states, “religion in Europe is no longer seen as intrinsic to human dignity and social flourishing. It is generally understood as merely an opinion…a dangerous opinion at that. While it is fine to practice your religion in churches, synagogues, mosques, and temples, democracy requires that you keep it there.”
“This malevolent idea…is gaining considerable purchase in our own country,” he said. “It gives reason for profound concern, not only for religious individuals but for the whole concept of democracy grounded in ordered liberty—both here and abroad.”
If you haven’t already, please find some time in the remaining week of the Fortnight to pray for religious freedom and to educate yourself and your family on this first and most cherished freedom. There are great prayer and educational materials on the Fortnight website (www.fortnight4freedom.org).
