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Danielle Bean

Danielle Bean
Danielle Bean, a mother of eight, is editor-in-chief of Catholic Digest and Faith & Family. She is author of My Cup of Tea, Mom to Mom, Day to Day, and most recently Small Steps for Catholic Moms. Though she once struggled to separate her life and her …
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Rachel Balducci

Rachel Balducci
Rachel Balducci is married to Paul and they are the parents of five lively boys and one precious baby girl. She is the author of How Do You Tuck In A Superhero?, and is a newspaper columnist for the Diocese of Savannah, Georgia. For the past four years, she has …
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Lisa Hendey

Lisa Hendey
Lisa Hendey is the founder and editor of CatholicMom.com and the author of A Book of Saints for Catholic Moms and The Handbook for Catholic Moms. Lisa is also enjoys speaking around the country, is employed as webmaster for her parish web sites and spends time on various …
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Arwen Mosher

Arwen Mosher
Arwen Mosher lives in southeastern Michigan with her husband Bryan and their 4-year-old daughter, 2-year-old son, and twin boys born May 2011. She has a bachelor's degree in theology. She dreads laundry, craves sleep, loves to read novels and do logic puzzles, and can't live without tea. Her personal blog site …
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Rebecca Teti

Rebecca Teti
Rebecca Teti is married to Dennis and has four children (3 boys, 1 girl) who -- like yours no doubt -- are pious and kind, gorgeous, and can spin flax into gold. A Washington, DC, native, she converted to Catholicism while an undergrad at the U. Dallas, where she double-majored in …
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Robyn Lee

Robyn Lee
Robyn Lee is a 30-something, single lady, living in Connecticut in a small bungalow-style kit house built by her great uncle in the 1950s. She also conveniently lives next door to her sister, brother-in-law and six kids ... and two doors down are her parents. She received her undergraduate degree from …
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DariaSockey

DariaSockey
Daria Sockey is a freelance writer and veteran of the large family/homeschooling scene. She recently returned home from a three-year experiment in full time outside employment. (Hallelujah!) Daria authored several of the original Faith&Life Catechetical Series student texts (Ignatius Press), and is currently a Senior Writer for Faith&Family magazine. A latecomer …
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Kate Lloyd

Kate Lloyd
Kate Lloyd is a rising senior, and a political science major at Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in New Hampshire. While not in school, she lives in Whitehall PA, with her mom, dad, five sisters and little brother. She needs someone to write a piece about how it's possible to …
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Lynn Wehner

Lynn Wehner
As a wife and mother, writer and speaker, Lynn Wehner challenges others to see the blessings that flow when we struggle to say "Yes" to God’s call. Control freak extraordinaire, she is adept at informing God of her brilliant plans and then wondering why the heck they never turn out that …
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"Just" Your Conscience

http://www.flickr.com/photos/58294452@N00/2961421827/

My hometown’s City Council is poised to shut down many Catholic charities within the District of Columbia’s borders.

It’s doing so through a measure with the Orwellian title the “Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Amendment Act of 2009.”

The proposed law does preserve the right of religious groups not to provide goods, services or facilities in violation of their religious beliefs.

Unless they provide those goods to the general public.

The instant any charity accepting government grants opens its doors to an unbeliever, in other words, it loses its right to act in accord with its beliefs.

The Archdiocese of Washington has forthrightly explained that it won’t be able to operate the numerous hospitals, homeless shelters, adoption services and other charities it partners with the city to run under those conditions.

Passage will mean that where city contracts for social services are concerned, people of faith need not apply.

The Church has petitioned for an exemption which the City Council appears disinclined to grant.

The Washington Post is reporting this as a threat—as if the Church were attacking the city and not vice versa.

The paper is also running a non-scientific poll on the question. The anti-Church side was winning (73%) last time I checked.

(I think you’ll find the comments at the poll both sad and enlightening.)

Meanwhile, this is a clear-cut illustration of the truth of Hadley Arkes’ premise highlighted last week.

If same-sex marriage is a “right,” it becomes “wrong”—and illegal—to oppose it.

This is why perhaps a majority of members of the DC City Council, having once embraced same-sex marriage, does not notice or does not care that in so doing it will abrogate the First Amendment rights to religious liberty, freedom of assembly and free speech of not only the Catholic church but numerous historically black churches operating charities within the city’s limits.

Championing same-sex marriage takes precedence in the Council’s mind over all those things—and over the health care and nutrition of the numerous sick, poor and addicted DC residents the Church—and churches—care for.

Lest I be accused of being hysterical, I should point out that the ACLU testified in hearings on the subject on behalf of the Church, arguing that the proposed law represents a narrowing of religious liberty.

There’s an excellent “chat” on the subject, with good Q & A by government professor Patrick Deneen here.

For simply pointing out the conflict and asking that its rights be respected, one council-member referred to the Church as “childish.”

Are they really going to harm people because they have a philosophical disagreement with us on one issue?

“Just” a philosophical disagreement? That one question gives us a window into the council-woman’s view of conscience, doesn’t it?


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