RFI President Emeritus Tom Farr recently wrote a piece for The Catholic Thing on “Free Exercise of Religion and Catholic Responsibility.” “Until recently,” Farr argues, “most Americans and their institutions assumed the principles of Christian and natural law anthropology, reflected in the Bible and our founding documents.” Farr continues:

Each of us humans, because we are created and loved by God, possess equal dignity and worth. We are endowed by God with inalienable rights, intellect and will, and the freedom to use them in pursuit of happiness. But we are also fallen creatures. Our instincts deceive us into believing that accumulating wealth and power, and satisfying our desires, leads to happiness.

In the real world, we live best by employing faith and reason in seeking virtue. We are most likely to achieve happiness with self-discipline and hard work, respecting our neighbor, obeying the laws, and curbing our desires. Long human experience suggests that pursuing sexual love only within marriage benefits the spouses, their children, and the common good.

This understanding of the human person has now been rejected in large swaths of America. It’s being replaced by a “progressive” ideology that is reshaping our national understanding of what it means to be a human being, unconstrained by the shackles of tradition, with a “modern” view of love and happiness. Stunningly, this project is spreading – everywhere.

Almost overnight, the LGBTQI+ ideology has captured major American cultural and political institutions, including public education, universities, medicine, major corporations, and the Democratic party. Many Christians have also welcomed it, on the grounds that “love” trumps outdated Biblical injunctions about sex, marriage, and happiness.

Read the full article: “Free Exercise of Religion and Catholic Responsibility.”