The state has become a “fake church”, which imposes its own form of morality on everyone, the head of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago has warned.
Cardinal Francis George suggested that in recent years the state has taken the position of an “official religion”, and is now telling its citizens “what ‘values’ they must personalize in order to deserve to be part of the country”.
Writing in his column for the Archdiocese of Chicago’s newspaper, he said, “society has brought social and legislative approval to all types of sexual relationships that used to be considered ‘sinful'”.
Impose
“The ‘ruling class,’ those who shape public opinion in politics, in education, in communications, in entertainment, is using the civil law to impose its own form of morality on everyone.
“We are told that, even in marriage itself, there is no difference between men and women, although nature and our very bodies clearly evidence that men and women are not interchangeable at will in forming a family”, he added.
Cardinal George said an outside observer “might note that American civil law has done much to weaken and destroy what is the basic unit of every human society, the family”.
Weakened
He reflected that: “With the weakening of the internal restraints that healthy family life teaches”, the state will “need to impose more and more external restraints on everyone’s activities”.
Cardinal George commented that in some states, “those who run businesses must conform their activities to the official religion or be fined, as Christians and Jews are fined for their religion in countries governed by Sharia law”.
He criticised the media response to a US Supreme Court ruling earlier this year which backed a Christian-run business that did not want to provide health insurance covering abortion-inducing drugs.
Concerns
Last week, the US Government decided to continue legal action over a Roman Catholic charity wanting an exemption from the so-called ‘contraception mandate’ under Obamacare.
The law forces employers to authorise third parties to provide drugs and devices that cause abortions, plus contraception.
In January this year, a judge gave a temporary exemption to the Little Sisters of the Poor Home for the Aged in Colorado.