Saving Our Society

Can we hold onto our virtues?

The Church strikes back at the Empire

The Catholic Church, other religious groups, and independent-minded individuals have become obstacles to our otherwise inexorable descent into dictatorship. It has finally struck home that no one is exempt from the tentacles of the federal government. 

The immediate problem is that the Obama administration is attempting to force the Catholic Church and its appendages to provide services to employees that the church canon strictly prohibits. Although the specific dispute relates to the providing birth control and abortion services; activities that there are divided opinions about, thoughtful people can see that the federal government’s assault on this church, if successful, will inevitably be repeated against other religions and organizations.

I have worried about the ineffectiveness and intrusion of our huge national government. However, I now see that it isn't just the size of the government that is dangerous, but that more and more power is being accumulated in one office, and consequently in the hands of one individual. One does not need a crystal ball to imagine the effect that this concentration of power by one office provides for ever greater exercise of the will of a single person.

While I do not accuse the current president of attempting to become a dictator, there is ample reason to believe that his actions have pushed us further down the road toward rule by diktat. That there has been an accumulation of authority in the White House, there can be no doubt. The administration, despite it's the czars and its supposedly independent cabinet secretaries, does what the president wants done. The administrative branch of the government is the largest, and through its bureaucracy, has the most direct impact on citizens.

You might think that congress is more powerful; but unless they act with a unity—that has been notably absent—the president thumps every time.
For its part, the Congress (especially the Democrat controlled Senate) has abandoned its responsibility to represent its constituents in favor pursuit of party and personal power.

 As result of legislative incompetence, the president wields excessive and coercive power.

The court system, headed by the Supreme Court, might be a counter to runaway power; but we must recognize that the courts can only attempt to determine the legitimacy of laws and rules: courts have no enforcement power which is vested to an increasingly contemptuous administrative branch. More critical to the character of the courts is the fact that the president has the leading part in appointing Supreme Court justices, which over time can corrupt the integrity of the Constitution.

Rome’s famed senate yielded its authority to the emperor
Athens’s democracy fell to rule by tyrants
Freedom can be lost by small steps
In EU nations individual citizens seldom get to vote on critical issues

Although the Catholic Church is reacting to one specific part of the health care plan that impacts directly on their practices, they just happen to be the only large group of voters who can be mobilized to resist the encroachment that everybody experiences. Similar demands placed on other smaller or less powerful groups and individuals did not get such publicity because these groups were complaining about their individual words (as the church is) and were not numerous or powerful enough to respond with equal vigor.

The president likely believes that he is acting in the best interest of the country, but his uncontrolled activities in support of philosophical ends, he is assaulting the individual rights that our country has always provided and which is the basis for our liberty and the endurance of our Democratic Republic. He is determined to force his views on to our society by pushing philosophy that has never been proved to work. There may be an ulterior motive or his tampering with freedom of religion. Nations which have a strong religious basis are not subject to falling for the false appeals of socialism.

In places where religious belief is strong, socialism will not flourish: the religious teachings will inevitably clash with the mores of the state. Religion, “the opiate of the masses” prevents the populace from falling for the illusion of socialism and communism. They cling to guns or religion and disbelieve the cynical proclamations of government good will.

Freedom of religion is guaranteed only if we protect it