Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on who is supporting the latest attack on religious liberty
The Equality Act, as I recently stated, “is the most comprehensive assault on religious liberty, the right to life, and privacy rights ever packaged into one bill in the history of the United States.” I enumerated twelve reasons why it is so draconian. Joining in defense of it are people who proclaim to be religious, yet are doing everything they can to eviscerate religious liberty, all in the name of the radical LGBT agenda.
On the Catholic side, supporters include NETWORK, the “nuns on the bus” group that is at war with the bishops on this issue, as well as many others. Led by Sr. Simone Campbell, the “social justice lobby” is dishonestly framing the Equality Act as if it were merely championing rights in the workplace. It is not.
This bill is designed to strip the Catholic Church, and other religions, of all the religious exemptions that have traditionally been afforded by federal and state legislation. It would also mean that men who declare themselves to be women would be permitted to compete in women’s sports and use their locker rooms. This has nothing to do with fairness in the workplace.
New Ways Ministry, a breakaway Catholic organization, is also supporting the Equality Act, as is Dignity USA, another group that is more pro-gay than it is pro-Catholic. John Gehring of Faith in Public Life, who claims to be a Catholic leader while being bankrolled by the atheist-billionaire George Soros, is also praising the legislation (he posted his comments on the website of Commonweal, a dissident Catholic outlet).
Other religious groups supporting this attack on religious liberty include the Interfaith Alliance, the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, the Unitarian Universalist Association, the Religious Institute, and the United Methodist Church (it’s a sure bet most Methodists have no idea about this decision).
Naturally, there is a whole host of secular organizations supporting this attack on religious liberty. They include the ACLU, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the Center for American Progress (led by Clinton operatives), and the ADL.
None of this is surprising. These entities, and there are many more like them, have worked against religious liberty for years. Now they have committed themselves to the most radical assault on the First Amendment ever launched in the Congress of the United States. That many of them are dishonestly clothed in the robes of religion makes them all the more contemptible.
