Archbishop Chaput: "In Mass Media and Courts, Some Religions Less Equal Than Others"

Denver Archbishop Charles J. Chaput says "Catholics have the right and the duty to form their public actions guided by their faith":

Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against evangelical Christian students and their parents in California who claimed — in the words of the San Francisco Chronicle — that “a Contra Costa County school district [had] engaged in unconstitutional religious indoctrination when it taught students about Islam by having them recite language from prayers.”

According to the Chronicle, the case involved a seventh grade history teacher in the fall of 2001 who had encouraged her students to “use Muslim names, recited prayers in class, had them memorize and recite a passage from the Quran and made them give up something for a day, such as television or candy, to simulate fasting during the month of Ramadan. The final exam asked students for a critique of elements of Muslim culture.”

For Catholics, this story is both refreshing and troubling.

It’s refreshing because religion has always played a major and very public role in shaping society. It still does. It always will. What people really believe about God and humanity helps to form how they act — and in acting, they create law, music, art, politics; or in other words, culture. On the balance, religious faith and religious believers have accomplished far more good for the world over the centuries than any acts of evil committed in their name. Learning about the content of various religious faiths in a public school setting — if properly done — can make good sense, especially to improve understanding and reduce bigotry.

But the California case is also troubling for a couple of reasons. First, the school did not adequately inform the parents and students involved, in advance, about the content of this classroom experiment. Worse, the parents were never informed of their “opt-out” right to excuse their students from the class if they found the content intrusive or offensive.

But the California story should also unsettle us for a second, equally important reason. Veteran religion writer Terry Mattingly captured it on his excellent getreligion.org web site on Oct. 7, with an entry titled, “Imagine this church-state scenario.”

Mattingly, who is not a Catholic, wrote that, “Clearly, there is an ugly anti-Catholic prejudice left in American life, especially in terms of the most devout and traditional forms of the faith. So what would happen if public educators floated a plan to have all students learn more about this important world religion by practicing this faith during their school days” — and to use the example offered by Mattingly, by having students learn and pray the rosary, and getting graded for their class participation?

What would our news media think of that? Or the American Civil Liberties Union, or Americans United for the Separation of Church and State? Perhaps we can all look forward in hope now for similarly warm and extensive public school coursework on evangelical Christianity, Eastern Orthodoxy and Reform Judaism. But we probably shouldn’t hold our breath. In our mass media, public schools and even in our courts right now, some religions seem less equal than others.

What’s the lesson here for Catholics? Week in and week out, but especially every two and four years, we hear a pious lecture from critics of religion. The message is always tired, and it’s always the same: Faith is allegedly a private matter, and Catholics shouldn’t “impose their religion” on society at large.

In fact, what we claim to believe, we need to act on both in our private lives and our public choices — and if we don’t act, we make ourselves into liars. Religion has no business endorsing political candidates or parties. But religious believers have every right and the serious obligation to form their social, political and economic decisions guided by their religious faith.

That duty applies to Catholics just as much as it applies to Muslims or Jews. Democracy draws its life from people of conviction fighting for their convictions — respectfully, but vigorously and without apology — in the public square. Anything less than that kind of engagement by Catholics is a form of theft from the nation’s public life.

That applied in 2005. It will apply in 2007. And yes, it applies even in an election year.

(emphasis added)