In this post I continue the comment on:
The Washington Post, is much less interested, they reduce the complexity of the issue to be about Trump, and write: Is this Barr’s cry for help? and interprets the speech as a signal that Barr is possibly, maybe, perhaps, opposing Trump. They effectively bury and silence any chance of a meaningful discussion of the political and ethical issues.
In Europe the English liberal-left paper the Guardian is up in arms and has an article 'A threat to democracy': William Barr's speech on religious freedom alarms liberal Catholics that focuses on the aspects of power and connections, but again completely ignores the many political, philosophical and ethical questions that the speech also presents. They only present the case of some liberal Catholics and not voices like the Catholic magazine, Our Sunday Visitor that write: Barr sees ‘growing refusal’ to accommodate free exercise of religion One could argue that the position of the Guardian probably is shared by quite a number of liberal left politicians in Europe, a continent that used to be almost exclusively Christian.
Another voice was the Catholic Herald from the UK:
The Attorney General is right about secularism – but he missed a crucial point | Catholic Herald that ends:
View attachment 32097
While I can't say for sure if the above Tweet is really the expression of a "militant secularist" there is also a description on a Youtube of what activities Potash is involved with, which shows he would certainly like to force his ideas on everyone else:
because as I was writing the previous post, there were some articles and one Tweet that present perspectives on the speech by William Barr and the threats to Christianity: The Washington Times writes for example: 'Organized destruction': William Barr blasts 'militant secularists' over assault on religionA: How do you propose that they could make it possible to destroy Christianity?
The Washington Post, is much less interested, they reduce the complexity of the issue to be about Trump, and write: Is this Barr’s cry for help? and interprets the speech as a signal that Barr is possibly, maybe, perhaps, opposing Trump. They effectively bury and silence any chance of a meaningful discussion of the political and ethical issues.
In Europe the English liberal-left paper the Guardian is up in arms and has an article 'A threat to democracy': William Barr's speech on religious freedom alarms liberal Catholics that focuses on the aspects of power and connections, but again completely ignores the many political, philosophical and ethical questions that the speech also presents. They only present the case of some liberal Catholics and not voices like the Catholic magazine, Our Sunday Visitor that write: Barr sees ‘growing refusal’ to accommodate free exercise of religion One could argue that the position of the Guardian probably is shared by quite a number of liberal left politicians in Europe, a continent that used to be almost exclusively Christian.
'A threat to democracy': William Barr's speech on religious freedom alarms liberal Catholics
Attorney general’s recent address at Notre Dame is a ‘dog whistle’ to conservatives who have aligned themselves with Trump
Prominent liberal Catholics have warned the US attorney general’s devout Catholic faith poses a threat to the separation of church and state, after William Barr delivered a fiery speech on religious freedom in which he warned that “militant secularists” were behind a “campaign to destroy the traditional moral order”.
The speech last Friday at the University of Notre Dame law school, in which Barr discussed his conservative faith and revealed how it affects his decision-making as the nation’s chief law-enforcement officer, has set off a fierce debate among Catholic intellectuals from across the political spectrum, as well as among Catholics inside the justice department.
C Colt Anderson, a Roman Catholic theologian and professor of religion at Jesuit-run Fordham University, said in an interview that he was unaware until this week that Barr was a fellow Catholic. Now, after reading the speech, Anderson believes the attorney general, in revealing his devotion to an especially conservative branch of Catholicism, is a “threat to American democracy”.
He described the speech as a “dog whistle” to ultra-conservative Catholics who, he says, have aligned themselves to Donald Trump in a campaign to limit the rights of LGBTQ Americans, immigrants and non-Christians, especially Muslims, and to criminalize almost all abortions. “The attorney general is taking positions that are essentially un-Democratic” because they demolish the wall between church and state, Anderson said.
In the hallways of the justice department in Washington, there has been a similar furor among some Catholics employees who answer to Barr. “I was shocked by the speech and all this fire and brimstone,” said a senior department career official who considers himself a devout Catholic, speaking on condition that he not be identified for fear of losing his job.
“At least it helps me understand why Barr has been so willing to put his own reputation on the line to defend Trump so fiercely in every battle,” beginning with the congressional investigation that is likely to end in the president’s impeachment, he said. “Trump is Barr’s imperfect vessel in serving a much higher cause: the gospel.”
In the speech, delivered to an invitation-only crowd at Notre Dame, one of the nation’s largest and best known Catholic universities, the attorney general described threats to religious freedom.
He warned that Catholicism and other mainstream religions were the target of “organized destruction” by “secularists and their allies among progressives who have marshalled all the force of mass communications, popular culture, the entertainment industry and academia”.
He insisted that “the traditional Judeo-Christian moral system” of the United States was under siege by “modern secularists” who were responsible for every sort of “social pathology”, including drug abuse, rising suicide rates and illegitimacy.
Barr did not address the fact that many of the policies of the Trump administration are strongly opposed by the Vatican. Pope Francis has repeatedly pleaded for the United States to open its doors to more refugees, even as Barr has defended policies that turn away or imprison immigrants seeking refugee status at the US-Mexico border, even separating parents from their children.
The reaction to Barr’s address came as another Trump cabinet member, secretary of state Mike Pompeo, was drawing fire from civil liberties groups over the state department’s decision this week to promote his recent speech titled Being a Christian Leader on the department’s online homepage.
The speech by Pompeo, an evangelical Christian, was delivered on Friday, the same day as Barr’s speech, to a meeting of the American Association of Christian Counselors in Nashville.
“It’s perfectly fine for secretary Pompeo to be a leader who is a Christian,” the group Americans United for Separation of Church and State said in a statement. But the decision to promote Pompeo’s speech on the department’s official website sends “the clear message that US public policy will be guided by his personal religious beliefs”.
Barr’s speech at Notre Dame was a reminder of a fact often overlooked in analysis of Trump’s political base – that while the president enjoys the support of many high-profile right-wing Christian evangelical leaders, he has also surrounded himself with conservative Roman Catholics associated with organizations that some others in the faith consider extreme.
One example: Barr and Patrick Cipollone, Trump’s White House counsel, have both served on the board of directors of a Washington-based organization staffed by priests from the secretive, ultra-orthodox Catholic sect Opus Dei.
Another voice was the Catholic Herald from the UK:
The Attorney General is right about secularism – but he missed a crucial point | Catholic Herald that ends:
The following may be an example of how any display of religious sentiment is shamed:Yet if the pendulum does not swing back, as Barr fears it may not, it will not simply be because Christians were not sufficiently moral and religious in their little platoons, but also because they did not regard their faith as fundamentally public when the secularists absolutely did.
View attachment 32097
While I can't say for sure if the above Tweet is really the expression of a "militant secularist" there is also a description on a Youtube of what activities Potash is involved with, which shows he would certainly like to force his ideas on everyone else:
Also the following is an indication that Potash is pro at what he is doing:The Global Climate March is finally here. Millions of people around the world are striking to call attention to global climate change. We'll bring you up to date on the climate strikers. We'll also speak with labor reporter Mike Elk, who's on the road covering the GM workers strike. And Joshua Potash is a young activist who's advocating for massive general strikes in the US, a la Hong Kong and Puerto Rico, to effect massive change in this country.
It is safe to conclude that Christianity is a target of attempts to destroy and silence it. At the moment it is hard to see how that is going to change. One can always hope the spirit of Christianity will survive in some form.Despite the fears of some observers who were skeptical of the involvement of IfNotNow members like Rubin, or those who have overheard chants at progressive rallies comparing walls on the Mexican and Palestinian borders, participants say Israeli-Palestinian issues have not been a factor at Never Again Action’s events. Potash said that the issue did not come up at a recent planning meeting at the offices of Jews For Racial and Economic Justice, which has close ties to activist groups like Blacks Live Matter which deemed Israel an “apartheid state.”
“I was with about a hundred people at a planning meeting this past week, and it just didn’t really come up,” Potash said.