(8) REPORT ON THE CATALYST - APRIL, 2021 - EQUALITY ACT IS ANTI-CHRISTIAN

 (8) REPORT ON THE CATALYST - APRIL, 2021 - EQUALITY ACT IS ANTI-CHRISTIAN

IN PURSUIT OF THE TRUTH - HTTP://WWW.CINOPSBEGONEBLOGSPOT.COM - WED. APRIL 21, 2021

 

    According to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the Equality Act is "about ending discrimination"; may be its intent, but its effect is to promote the most comprehensive assault on Christianity ever written into law. This explains why the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has been fighting this proposed law for years. Most recently it said the Equality Act "would discriminate against people of faith." The Catholic League and many other civil rights and religious organizations have also sounded the alarm.

    The Equality Act has two major goals: It would amend the 1964 Civil Rights Act to include sexual orientation and gender identity to definition of sex; it would also undermine the Religious Freedom Restoration Act by allowing gay rights to trump religious rights.

 

    The 1964 Civil Rights Act was primarily motivated by a desire to end racial segregation. It banned discrimination based on race, sex or national origin. That was it. It said absolutely nothing about sexual orientation, and it certainly didn't address transgender rights - it wan't even a concept in 1960s. Adding sexual orientation and gender identity to this law not only violates the intent of legislation, it unduly burdens houses of worship and other religious organizations.

     In order to end racial segregation, the 1964 Civil Rights Act banned discrimination in Public accommodations. Blacks had historically been denied services in many public facilities, ranging from diners to hotels. The Equality Act goes way beyond this, so much so that it disfigures the meaning of this historic 1964 law.

 

    The Equality Act not only covers homosexuals and transgender persons, it expands public accommodation to include consumer services such as healthcare. In practice this would a disaster. It would mean, for example, that healthcare providers woulds be forced to provide hormone therapy and surgical procedures that are required to change the physical characteristics associated with sex changes.

      One does not have to be a Catholic healthcare practitioner to register moral and religious objections to this "healthcare" initiative. Will anyone be allowed to voice objections to these procedures pointing out the long-term physical and mental problems associated with sex reassignment? What about parents who learn that their child wants to switch his or her sex? Will their rights be respected or eviscerated.

    It has been increasingly clear that the expansion of rights to transgender women - really biological males who identify as female - has come at the expense of rights for biological females, Take sports.  Boys and men would be allowed to compete in sports with girls and women, thus unfairly altering women's athletics. Females would also loose their primary rights. These biological males can use their locker rooms, rest rooms and shower facilities that have always been reserved for females. None of this has anything to do with why the 1962 Civil Rights Act was passed. There are other problems with this bill that alone should be enough to stop it from ever becoming law. 

    In 1993, Re. Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Chuck Schumer co-sponsored the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA); It was signed by Clinton. This was a major victory for religious liberty. But now Pelosi and Schumer regret their vote, even to the point of supporting the Equality Act, knowing full well that it exempts itself from RFRA! This is perverse. There could be no more serious undercutting of religious liberty than what they are proposing.

 

    It would mean that Catholics, evangelicals, Orthodox Jews, Mormons, Muslims and many other religious communities could not raise religious liberty objections to any of the aforementioned rights to any of the aforementioned rights of transgender women. In effect, religious entities would be secularized.

     For example, if the Equality Act were to become law, Catholic foster care programs would be shut down. They would have to agree to allow two men to adopt children - a clear violation of Church teachings or lose Federal funding. This is the kind of gotcha type element that makes this bill so pernicious.

 

    Currently, Catholic hospitals can legally refuse to perform abortions. Under the Equality Act, they would either lose federal funding or be forced to get into the abortion business. That is because refusing abortion services would be declared "pregnancy" discrimination.... Catholic schools, for instance, would be expected to change their teachings on sexual ethics to suit the radical LGBT agenda.... George H. Kubeck

P.S. For more information on "Catalyst" tel. (212) 371 - 3191