CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – The Madison-based Freedom from Religion Foundation is a woefully misguided group that inserts itself into otherwise non-controversial issues all across the country.
If your kids can’t sing Christmas carols at the school concert, or a cross that marks a significant gravesite or memorial happens to be on public land, the FFRF springs into action. They could not be more misguided. Our Constitution says that there shall be no official state religion, nor shall the government interfere with the free practice of religion. The Constitution does not guarantee freedom from religion. In fact, religion, specifically Christianity, cannot be separated from our country’s founding and its traditions. To pretend otherwise is a bastardization of our history.
Last month the Marathon County Board of Supervisors drew the attention of the Freedom from Religion Foundation. The county was debating a budget cut for the Nurse Family Partnership. Instead the county considered a partnership with the Hope Life Center, whose great sin is to encourage women in crisis pregnancies to carry their babies to term instead of seeking an abortion.
Funding for the Hope Life Center “must be rejected” according to a letter from the Freedom from Religion Foundation because, the county “would replace secular public health care with a religiously oriented crisis pregnancy center.“
The reasoning is completely wrong. Wausau already partners with Catholic Charities and the First United Methodist Church to run its warming center. Lutheran Charities helps with refugee relocation. In countless communities religious groups run soup kitchens, daycares, and health clinics. So long as the services are open to all, and they aren’t proselytized to, these partnerships are fine. The Hope Life Center offers support to pregnant women who choose life, regardless of the woman’s religion.
The Freedom from Religion Foundation likes to throw its weight around by threatening lawsuits. The right response is “go ahead, you’ll lose.”
Chris Conley
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