Former diplomat weighs US stand on religious freedom
January 16, 2012
The former director of the US State Department’s office for religious freedom spoke about the challenges to religious liberty in the US itself, as well as the foreign-policy initiatives of the Obama administration, in an interview with the National Catholic Register.
Thomas Farr—who now heads the Religious Freedom Project at Georgetown University’s Berkley Center—offered his critique of the announcement by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that the US now considers gay rights as fundamental human rights. Farr also spoke about recent developments in American domestic politics, including the Supreme Court’s decision in last week’s landmark Hosanna-Tabor case. Farr said: “The fact that all the liberal justices went along with the decision is almost miraculous.”
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Posted by: frjpharrington3912 -
Jan. 18, 2012 1:03 AM ET USA
If the purpose of law is to promote the common good, which consists of those conditions of a social nature which allow a person to reach a fuller measure of perfection with the greatest of ease, the legislative process must be open to "public religious advocacy" for two reasons: first because it represents an exercise of religious liberty; and second because the spiritual and temporal perfection of the person is the object of the values associated with it, which enhances the common good.
