A 'must-read' column by Mark Steyn

By Phil Lawler ( bio - articles - email ) | Mar 07, 2012

Just in case you didn’t catch our summary in today’s CWN news headlines, here’s another chance to catch a brilliant column by Mark Steyn entitled “The Church of Big Government.” Steyn explains how liberal social engineers have steadily reduced the sphere of religious freedom, and now the Catholic Church faces a crucial test.

There’s a lot in this column: insights on several different but related topics, revelations about the extent of government encroachment, and a call to action. A quick sample:

Even if you profoundly disagree with Pope Paul VI's predictions that artificial birth control would lead to "conjugal infidelity and the general lowering of morality," the objectification of women, and governments' "imposing upon their peoples" state-approved methods of contraception, or even if you think he was pretty much on the money but that the collective damage they have done does not outweigh the individual freedom they have brought to many, it ought to bother you that in the cause of delegitimizing two millennia of moral teaching the state is willing to intrude on core rights — rights to property, rights of association, even rights to private conversation.