Here’s a good article for my “thinking” readers, from the Archdiocese of Denver website (linked to by Juicy Ecumenism).
While written as a consideration of the Roman Catholic crisis it is equally applicable to Protestants. We face/will face many of the same concerns as the Roman Catholic Church. Instead of sitting back and letting the Roman Catholics fight the battle alone, we should see it as our “fight” as well and not sit quietly by while our religious freedoms are stripped away from us under the guise of “progress” and “tolerance.” Consider the article:
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The Crisis of a Second Obama Administration
by George Weigel
Nov.14,2012 – President Obama’s re-election and the prospect of a second Obama administration, freed from the constraints imposed by the necessity of running for re-election, have created a crisis for the Catholic Church in the United States. In the thought-world and vocabulary of the Bible, “crisis” has two meanings: the conventional sense (a grave threat) and a deeper sense (a great moment of opportunity). Both are applicable to the Church in America these next four years.
The immediate threat, of course, is the HHS (Health and Human Services) mandate requiring Catholic institutions and Catholic employers to include coverage of contraceptives, sterilizations, and abortifacient drugs in the health insurance offered to their employees. The legal challenges mounted against this obvious violation of the first freedom, religious freedom, may well be vindicated. But with Obamacare now seemingly set in concrete, the Church will face a host of such implementing “mandates” and it will be imperative to contest those that are morally unacceptable, time and time again. Authentically Catholic health care in America is now in mortal danger, and it is going to take a concerted effort to save it for future generations.
A further threat comes from the gay insurgency, which will press the administration to find some way to federalize the marriage issue and to compel acceptance of the chimera of “gay marriage.” Thus it seems important to accelerate a serious debate within American Catholicism on whether the Church ought not pre-emptively withdraw from the civil marriage business, its clergy declining to act as agents of government in witnessing marriages for purposes of state law.
Here I Sit 
I think the difference is that the Catholics have a single hierarchy, which is wedded to these ridiculous ideas, against the wishes of ordinary accepting Catholics. Evangelical Christians are more free to speak out against such rubbish, and welcome their own gay children as equals, just as they practice contraception. Fortunately the illusion that these reactionary arguments are “moral” is fading away.
Clare,
Thank you for your comment!
You make a good point about the hierarchy of the Catholic Church. This helps defend their religious freedom easier than the multiplicity of Protestant/Evangelical Denominations that have little organizational unity.
As with any association, group, club or church, people join voluntarily just as they are able to leave voluntarily. No group forces their beliefs on their members, the members are a part of that group because they agree (generally speaking).
Fortunately, these moral arguments have lasted for over 2000 years as Christian morals and several thousand years longer for Jewish morals; so they are likely not to fade away anytime soon.
Again, thanks for commenting!
Daryl
Daryl,
We’re glad to see you enjoyed the article enough to share it!
Best,
Juicy Ecumenism Blog Editor