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Rights, Liberties, and Social
Justice
The Ethics and Politics
of Science and Religion, Abortion, Intelligent Design, Women's Rights, and the Separation Between Church and State
Monsignor John W. Sweeley, Th. D.
425 pages including notes, bibliography, index a book every American should read
To Order on Amazon click below Book Description Rights, Liberties, and Social Justice; How America Lost Its Moral
Authority: The Ethics and Politics
of Science and Religion, Abortion,
Intelligent Design, Women's Rights, and the Separation Between Church
and State. "Fr. Sweeley's
book is a must read for those of us dismayed
at the entrenched politics of the Religious Right and their assault on
the constitutional separation between church and state." As Fr. Sweeley
writes, "Today America is in crisis not unlike that of the former Soviet
Union. It is not in crisis from the threat of an external nation but
rather the threat posed by the Religious Right that has hijacked
both what it means to be Christian in America and America itself."
"Relevant and provable historical facts are the foundation
of Fr. Sweeley's scholarship,
and he demonstrates an amazing grasp of scientific and religious
history. He uses these timelines to show how language, and Christianity,
have been co-opted by the Religious Right to disguise untruth.
For example, in order to study the debate of Evolution vs. Intelligent
Design, he tackles the history of the church
through the emergence of Copernicus and science to the discoveries of
Darwin." "As this book so amply illustrates, rather than becoming
enmeshed in 'below the waist' morals as the Religious Right asks us to
do, God asks us to offer unconditional love to one another." As Fr. Sweeley
asks, "Can
we accept less of ourselves?"
Endorsements
I want to thank Father John Sweeley, Th.D., for
his truthful book about the true intentions of the Religious Right and its attempt to remake the United
States of America into a theocracy in its own image. Father Sweeley's book supports freedom
of individual conscience and freedom of worship. However, the goal of the Religious Right is to remake America
into a theocracy in its own image that undermines the right of all citizens to live in an America as created by the Founding Fathers with a wall of separation between Church
and state. Denial of separation
between Church and state betrays the very foundation of how this country was formed: under God, but with Liberty and Justice FOR ALL.
Most Rev. Richard Alston Gundrey,
D.D., Presiding Archbishop of the world-wide Catholic Apostolic Church of Antioch
In his latest
book, Fr. John W. Sweeley examines some of the most important moral and political issues of our time. He uses his considerable
intellect and scholarship in history, theology, and ethics to illuminate the origins of the American Experiment and describe
the path that has inexorably lead to a State diametrically opposed to the ideals and warnings of the Founding Fathers. For
anyone who loves freedom and democracy, for anyone concerned with the future of our children and the world, Rights, Liberties,
and Social Justice: The Ethics and Politics of Science and Religion, Abortion, Intelligent Design, Women's Rights, and
the Separation Between Church and State must be an integral part of their "survival kit."
The Reverend Daniel
P. Dangaran, D.Min., Dean, Sophia Divinity
School
Fr. Sweeley's book is a must read
for those of us dismayed at the entrenched politics of the Religious Right and their assault on the constitutional separation
of church and state. As Fr. Sweeley writes, “Today America is in crisis not unlike that of the former Soviet
Union. It is not in crisis from the threat of an external nation but rather the threat posed by the Radical Religious-Right
that has hijacked both what it means to be Christian in America and America itself."
Relevant and provable historical
facts are the foundation of Fr. Sweeley's scholarship, and he demonstrates an amazing grasp of scientific and religious history.
He uses these timelines to show how language and Christianity have been co-opted by the Radical Religious-Right to disguise
untruth. For example, in order to study the debate of Evolution vs. Intelligent Design, he tackles the history of the church
through the emergence of Copernicus and science to the discoveries of Darwin.
As this
book so amply illustrates, rather than becoming enmeshed in “below the waist” morals as the Religious Right asks
us to do, God asks us to offer love to one another. As Fr. Sweeley says, “Can we accept less of ourselves?"
Janet Sunderland,
D.D., Aux. Bishop of the Catholic Church of Antioch, Kansas
City, Missouri
A heartfelt
book, explaining the roots of the Bush administration's imperialistic actions, undermining democracy, accelerating the decline
of the middle class and the American economy. The rich are getting richer, and the poor poorer. The government is exposed
as fiscally irresponsible and morally bankrupt.
K. Michael Murphy,
DDS, MS
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Table
of Contents
Chapter
1
The Radical Religious Right:
Who are they? What do they want? Why are they wrong?
Rise of the Religious Right
The Political and Religious Right
The Rise of the Radical Religious Right
World-view of the Radical Religious Right
Pope John Paul II’s Error
Fruits of the Radical Religious Right
Abortion in Judaism
Reciprocity of Consciences
Chapter
2
Bozo and the Theologian:
A Dialog on the Separation of Church and State
Now I Sit Me Down to School Thomas Jefferson, Letter
to Ezra Stiles Ely
Mason Weems, Life of Washington
Joel Barlow, Treaty of Tripoli
John Adams, Letter to Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson, Interpretation of the First Amendment
James Madison, Letter to Edward Livingston
James Madison, Against Religious Assessments
Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Peter Carr
Dr. Priestley, On Benjamin Franklin
Thomas Pain, The Age of Reason
Thomas Jefferson, Autobiography
Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America
Al Franken, Supply Side Jesus
Chapter
3
Walking the Pilgrim’s Path - Peace and Justice on Our Journey:
Critique of the Social and Political Agenda
of the Radical Religious Right
Hospitality
Understanding Peace and Justice
The Environment
The Oppression of Women
War
Terrorism
Chapter
4
Intelligent Design as the Wolf of Evangelical Faith Beliefs
In Sheep’s Clothing: The Apostolic Age to Evolution
Genesis
The Development of Christianity
The Enlightenment
The Science of Evolution
Chapter
5
Intelligent Design as the Wolf of Evangelical Faith Beliefs
in Sheep’s Clothing: Why Intelligent Design is not Science
Creationism
The Problem with Creationism
Intelligent Design
Evolutionary Creation
The Problem with Intelligent Design
Discussion
Why Intelligent Design is not Science
Chapter
6
The Radical Religious Right’s Homophobia:
Biblical Inerrancy and Natural Law Gone Amuck
Matthew 25:31-45
The Radical Religious Right’s Homophobia
Jesus on Homosexuality
Historical Judaism on Homosexuality
Exegesis of Leviticus 18, 20 and Deuteronomy 23
Reform Judaism on Homosexuality
The Fruit of Chesed is Justice.
Informed Conscience and the Radical Religious Right
Chapter
7
The Catholic Argument in Support of Abortion:
Obedience vs. Informed Conscience
Historical and Catholic Understandings of Life,
Ensoulment, and Licitness of Abortion
Responses
to Magisterial Teaching
Obedience
Informed conscience
When Human Life Begins
Historical Views
In Antiquity
In Judaism
In Early Christianity
In the Roman Catholic Church
Chapter
8
The Catholic Argument in Support of Abortion:
Obedience vs. Informed Conscience
Scientific Theory, Conscience, and Canon Law
Scientific
Views of the Beginning of Human Life
Genetic View
Neurological View
Movie: The Silent Scream
Ecological/Technological View
Informed Conscience
Historical Views
In Antiquity
In Judaism
In Early Christianity
In the Roman Catholic Church
Final Arbiter of Moral Decision Making and Action
Principal of Proportionality
Utilitarianism
Roman Catholic Theology on Abortion
General Principles of Worthiness to Receive Holy Communion
Doctrine of Probabilism
Canon Law
Canons and Exegesis
The Code of Canon Law and Pro-Choice Candidates
Summary and General Principles
Chapter
9
Moral Values Below the Waist vs. The Immorality
of Poverty
America: At War with Itself
God's Love, the Poor, and the Church
Insights from the Early Church
Insights
from the Protestant Community
Insights
from the Catholic Community
Agents of Poverty
Follow the Money
The Minimum Wage
Gross National Product vs. Poverty
Net Wage
Wal-Mart.
Republican Economic Policy
Corporate Greed and Arrogance
The Automobile Industry
Caterpillar Corporation
The Oil Industry
Gas Royalties
Not-for-Prophet Sector Greed and Arrogance
Chapter
10
Moral Values Below the Waist vs. The Immorality
of the Assault on Women’s Health Care
The
State of America’s Health Care
Mr. Bush’s Lopsided Health Care Plan
The Convoluted Cost of Cancer Drugs
Radical Religious Right’s Faith Beliefs' Impact
on Health Care
Abstinence-Only-Before-Marriage Sex
Education
SIECUS
Special Report on Absence-Only-Sex Education Curricula Guidelines
Abstinence-Only-Before-Marriage Programs
do not Work
The Religious Right's Opposition to
HPV Vaccination
Faith-based Initiative Programs Impact
on Women’s Health
Chapter
11
American Fascism: America
not so Beautiful
The
Purveyors of Tyranny
American Fascism
Mussolini’s 12 Articles of Fascism
Lawrence Britt’s 14 Articles of America’s Fascism.
The Emperor Without any Clothes
Introduction
We all have blinders on and are subject to being seduced by the attitudes and values of the greater society.
This is part of our humanity. Recognition of our humanness, especially those parts that are less than we expect of ourselves,
is always painful and difficult to acknowledge. I remember when I realized that I was becoming a racist. I had grown
up in a small town in New England with three Black families. Interracial dating was the norm, I played high school football
and baseball with a Black student in my class, and we were guests in each other’s homes.
Yet after five years in Florida attending segregated colleges much of it spent living in dormitories
with men who grew up in the “Deep South,” I slowly realized that I was beginning to think and talk like them in
reference to “Negros and the Negro Problem.” However, what finally woke me up to the fact that I had become
prejudiced was nothing I can take credit for. It was listening to my mother, who had retired to Florida, who had also succumbed
to the same prejudicial attitudes. It was hearing my mother, a woman who had instilled in me that all people regardless of
race, color, or creed, were created equally in the image of God speaking in racially derogatory terms that informed me that
none of us are immune to becoming someone we do not want to become.
The point of this sharing is that this part of our humanity does not make us bad people. Rather,
it tells us loud and clear that as Jesus warned, us we must always be vigilant for we do not know the day or hour of either
our death or when God will break into human history ushering in the salvation of the world. However, is being vigilant
enough to satisfy Jesus’ expectation of us? Is it enough just to know without doing?
The Bible says that as Christians we all share in Jesus’ priesthood, kingship, and prophet
nature. I had never given much thought to what sharing in Jesus’ prophetic nature means to my own life and found
it comfortable to envision prophets as old men in long white beards who lived during the time of the Old Testament. Yes, I
was aware that we have had modern day prophets like Phil Berrigan, Martin Luther King, and Dorothy Day, but these were people
who chose to be extraordinary and set themselves apart from “ordinary people” like me. However as we are in the seventh
year of the Bush presidency and the de facto theocracy of the Radical Religious-Right that has already done so much
to destroy the America I love with no end in sight, the Lord has been working on me to embrace what sharing in his prophetic
nature means. He has been helping me find my prophetic voice and speak out in his name.
What has been made manifest to me in sharp relief is that as a priest I really am set apart
– not only as a matter of theology – but as a matter of fact. Priesthood means that I am of this world but
at the same time not of this world. Being set apart as a priest is liberating because it allows, no it mandates, that I exercise
my prophetic oneness with Jesus the Christ.
This is not always easy and it does have risks. Modern day prophets in America will not be stoned,
but they may well end up in jail if not by their actions than by what they say that is deemed subversive under the Patriot
Act. More likely those who prophesy in defense of the poor, marginalized, and disenfranchised, which by necessity places
them in opposition to the Radical Religious-Right and Bush administration, will lose friends and become alienated from members
of their own family. Sometimes members of their church family will also turn their backs. I know, all of these have happened
to me.
But as Dr. King said, long life has its place. To this I would add other things also have their
place including family and friends. But Dr. King went on to say having a long life didn’t matter. He had been to the
mountaintop, looked over, and seen the Promised Land.
So to for us there are many things that have their place including family and friends but they
are not important now. Our country is in a crisis perpetrated by the Radical Religious-Right that is intent on destroying
our Constitutional rights and liberties and making their faith beliefs the law of the land in violation of the Constitutional
separation between church and state. As priests we must put our house in order and be not only vigilant but prophetic.
We must embrace our separateness and use its liberating power to do God’s work as his representatives on earth. God
made a claim on us when he bestowed the gift of priestly charism and we accepted that gift at our ordination. We are God’s
men and women now and that is what matters. We must climb our own mountain and when we look over the mountaintop we will see
that doing God’s will, being prophets in today’s America, means enduring whatever privation we experience by living
our priesthood with joy in our hearts.
As priests, we are called to love all humanity as God loves us. Moreover, we are called
to act on that love by reaching out to the poor, marginalized, and disenfranchised wherever we meet them. We are called
to prophesy in their name. As God whispered in the ear of the ancient prophets of Israel, “Who will speak for me?”
and their answer was, “Here I am, Lord,” so he whispered in our ear and we answered, “Here I am Lord.”
What does it mean to speak in the name of the Lord in defense of the poor, marginalized, and
disenfranchised? In light of the hijacking of America by the Radical Religious- Right who are radical but not particularly
religious and certainly not right, it means speaking out in defense of the Constitution as the Funding Father’s meant
it to be. It means speaking out and opposing the social and political agenda of the Radical Religious-Right and Bush
administration whenever, wherever, and however possible. It means that individual rights and liberties are God given and are
to be exercised pursuant to one’s conscience, in privacy, without having the faith beliefs of conservative Roman Catholics,
Evangelicals, and others who support their truncated vision of both faith and government imposed upon us.
The bottom line is there is no freedom of conscience in any religious denomination that is dogmatic
and fundamentalist; that is, one that believes only it knows what truth is because God informed only it of its nature.
In such denominations, truth ceases to be based on objective criteria and is made to conform to dogmatic statements and divinely
revealed faith beliefs.
In these denominations, the exercise of one’s conscience is compromised and becomes nuanced
pursuant to the “revealed” truth of God as proclaimed by the purveyors of orthodoxy. Decisions reached and
acts undertaken as a consequence of one’s conscience that are oppositional to “the truth of orthodoxy” are
given labels such as secular humanism, relativism, un-biblical, and against the divine order of humanity as ordained by God.
We see this evidenced by the Radical Religious-Right, both conservative Roman Catholics and Evangelicals, in their fixation
on what the Chilean feminist writer Rosario Guzman Bravo calls, “moral values below the waist.”
It is the obsession the Radical Religious-Right has with “moral values below the waist”
such as birth control, emergency contraception, abortion, assisted reproduction, fetal stem cell research, and homosexuality
to the virtual exclusion of the greater moral issues of poverty, hunger, lack of health care, rape of the environment, our
broken educational system, the plight of migrants, oppression of women and other minorities, the lies, lies and more lies
that constitute the Bush administration, and the invasion of Iraq that constitutes a greater moral evil than any possible
moral evil that occurs below the waist.
In their all out assault against what they perceive as the breaking of “moral values below
the waist,” the Radical Religious-Right has instituted a cataclysmic battle in their words “for the soul of America”
to strip from the Constitution and eradicate our Constitutionally guaranteed rights and liberties exercised pursuant to our
conscience that are protected by the Constitutionally guaranteed right of privacy.
As I write this introduction, it is January 15, 2006, the 77th anniversary of Dr.
Martin Luther King’s birth. I am reminded of the words of Dr. King when he wrote about the separation of church
and state:
"The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather
the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool. If the church
does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority."
As a Baptist pastor and conservative Christian, Dr. King would be no supporter
of the Radical Religious-Right of today. He did not politick from the pulpit. He did not pass out voting guides predicated
on the “rights” and “wrongs” of candidates. He did not electioneer in church. He was an advocate
of family planning and once compared the struggle for civil rights to the battle to legalize artificial forms of birth control.
He even supported the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down government sponsored prayer in school. In defense
of the latter, he said in an interview:
"I endorse it. I think it was correct. Contrary to what many have
said, it sought to outlaw neither prayer nor belief in God. In a pluralistic society such as ours, who is to determine what
prayer shall be spoken, and by whom? Legally, constitutionally or otherwise, the state certainly has no such right.
I am strongly opposed to the efforts that have been made to nullify the decision. They have been motivated, I think, by little
more than the wish to embarrass the Supreme Court. When I saw Brother [George] Wallace going up to Washington to testify against
the decision at the congressional hearings, it only strengthened my conviction that the decision was right."
If Dr. King were alive today, he would also not support the efforts of
the Radical Religious-Right to introduce Creationism as “Intelligent Design” into our school’s science curricula.
He wrote, “Science keeps religion from sinking into the valley of crippling irrationalism and paralyzing obscurantism”
America is now in a spiral of self-destruction that gains momentum with each
passing day both domestically and internationally. Today’s New York Times had an article that speculated whether
India or China would be the world’s superpower in 2,050. I honestly do not think it will take that long. Given
what the Radical Religious Right has already done to destroy America and what they will be able to do unchecked for the foreseeable
future with an extremist right-wing Supreme Court will plunge our nation into the lower levels of Dante’s Hell.
The America I grew up in, the idealist 1950s, and the one I helped create through
the 1960s, 70s, and into the 80s, is hanging by a thread and that will soon be broken and fade from memory. I am again reminded
of Pogo who said, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” Historians write that the Roman Empire imploded
because of corruption, rot, and loss of the vision of the ideals of the State. I think it is safe to say that although
we are not Rome, we are doing exactly as did the Romans.
Such ends the “Nobel Experiment” as the European nations called
post-Revolutionary America. I would add a refrain from the end of T.S. Elliott’s poem, The Wasteland, “Not
with a bang but with a whimper.”
The question is, “Does the American story have to end this way?”
Absolutely Not! As a nation, we have been seduced by the Siren Song of the Radical Religious-Right. Our ship of state has
foundered on the jagged rocks of their promise to give America, “ripe wisdom and a quickening of the spirit”
just as the Sirens lured ancient mariners to destruction on the jagged rocks of Sirenum scopuli.
However, the Argonauts escaped destruction as they passed Sirenum scopuli.
How did they do it? They did it because when Orpheus realized the peril they were in he immediately took out his lyre
and sang a song so clear and ringing that it drowned out the sound of those seductive voices.
That is what all rational mainstream Americas must do. We must sing out our
song of reason in the clarity of what is right and just in the face of the Radical Religious -Rght’s irrational attempt
to impose their faith beliefs on us all as the law of the land. We must sing out the song that has sustained America
for 230 years - the song the Founding Fathers codified in the Constitution of the Untied States of America on July 4, 1776
– a song that has a melody and counterpoint of individual rights and liberties predicated on one’s conscience
exercised within the Constitutional principle of privacy under girded by the strong base line of the separation between
church and state.
That is what Rights, Liberties, and Social Justice: How the Fight Over
Abortion, Homosexuality, Intelligent Design, and Poverty Created Amercian Faschism and Destroyed the Separation Between Church
and State is all about. It is a prophetic song calling America back to its true self. It is a clarion call for Americans
and America to remove the blinders and see the Radical Religious-Right for what it is: a subversive movement intent on destroying
the Constitution and vision of the Founding Fathers.
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