Monday, December 11, 2006

Faith and Freedom-Its Hand in Glove

Last week at a Southern California symposium, Denver's Archbishop Chaput hit the nail on the head regarding the relationship of faith to freedom. He stated that "democracy does not mean putting aside our religious and moral beliefs for the sake of public policy; in fact, it demands exactly the opposite."

While some secular apologists would posit that freedom does not require faith, their rationale ignores American history. Our nation's rich liberties are the fruit of our mostly faithful predecessors. Our culture, institutions and creeds are primarily based on the common assumption that most Americans have and practice faith in God.

Several years ago, a current state legislator proudly claimed that while she was a Christian she would "check her faith at the capital door so not to be biased." For her, the highest notion was tolerance and consensus, buzz words for secularlism . In my view, she sold out unhooking faith and freedom.

Our view: faith and freedom are historically connected. Promoting secularlism does not benefit our state or nation. Secularlism only offers tolerance which offers no principles or beliefs for a successful life. Instead, let's offer faith, hope, charity and life to our dark world.

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