It’s on the ballot

Richard A. Sokerka

If you were asked, who is on your voting ballot, it would be an easy question to answer.

However, if you were asked, what is on your voting ballot, for many the answer might be a head scratcher.

The answer to the second question should be as easy as the first, if you realize that whomever you cast your vote for is what is on the ballot.

And the only answer to what is on the ballot this election year is our religious freedom.

Although you will not see the words religious freedom written anywhere on your ballot, it is without a doubt written in the actions of candidates you vote for.

This year has been anything but normal. COVID-19 and social discord have garnered all the attention. Yet, a disturbing and consistent development that has not gained enough national attention is the attacks on the Church and people of faith.

The fact is that houses of worship are being targeted by acts of violence and religious statues are being defaced and torn down by vandals with no condemnations of these actions by public officials. Democrat Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, a Catholic, voiced no objections to violent mobs pulling down statues, saying nonchalantly “People will do what they do.”

The fact is that Democrat vice presidential candidate, Sen. Kamala Harris badgered federal court judge nominee Brian Buescher of Nebraska, indicting him for belonging to the Knights of Columbus, wanting to know whether Buescher was aware that the Catholic organization accepts Catholic teachings on abortion and marriage. The obvious implication was that it is not acceptable for a practicing Catholic to sit on a federal court. The same line of questioning was used against Judge Amy Coney Barrett by the Democrats in the Senate in trying to paint her as unfit for a seat on the Supreme Court because of her deeply held faith and her pro-life views. In both instances, they knew that there is no religious test for public office in the Constitution, yet they pursued their bitter anti-Catholic rhetoric because Church teachings stand against their “morals.”

The fact is that the Little Sisters of the Poor have had to go through unending legal conflicts to protect their religious liberty rights. Obamacare’s contraceptive mandate required the Little Sisters to provide contraceptives and abortifacients to employees in violation of their deeply held religious beliefs or pay millions of dollars in fines. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Little Sisters earlier this year allowing them to continue serving the elderly poor without violating their conscience. The Little Sisters fought for their religious exemption to preserve accommodations from burdensome government regulations for all religious Americans. Yet, their battle for religious liberty is not over as Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, a Catholic, has said, if elected, he will fight to end all religious exemptions in Obamacare that the Little Sisters fought so hard for.

So, who will defend our religious freedom, protect consciences and the right of people to live out their faith in the public square as our Founding Fathers wished, if not us?

Make no mistake about it: religious liberty is on the ballot. And we must defend the right to religious freedom by voting for the candidates who are like-minded in order for our nation to flourish as the land of the free and the home of the brave.