New Ways Ministry: Supreme Court’s Ruling Greatly Wounds People of Faith and Entire Nation
U.S. Supreme Court
The following is a statement from Francis DeBernardo, New Ways Ministry’s Executive Director, regarding the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling today in 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis:
The LGBTQ+ community, people of faith, and the entire country have been greatly wounded by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in the 303 Creative case which dangerously allows religious beliefs to be weaponized for discrimination.
The decision makes LGBTQ+ people second-class citizens by putting them at greater risk of discrimination and limiting their use of public accommodations, such as businesses. Discrimination violates our nation’s ideals for building a more just and equal society. Moreover, it goes against Catholic social teaching which upholds that every person has inherent human dignity and deserves equal treatment in society.
Broad exemptions to allow religious-based discrimination hurts people of faith, too. The legacy of people from particular religious backgrounds facing discrimination in housing, employment, and public accommodations from people with different religious beliefs persists. Historically, Catholics from a variety of ethnic groups know this kind of exclusion only too well. The court’s exemption will further fuel the violence against religious minorities, particularly against non-Christian adherents, that still continues to poison our national life.
The Supreme Court’s decision also harms the entire country by affirming that theocratic ideas can trump the democratic processes of a pluralistic society. The court endangers democracy by eroding laws designed to protect equality and justice for all. This ruling supports the rising tide of Christian nationalism which threatens true religious freedom, and opens the door to discrimination in public life based on gender, race, disability, and other legally protected categories.
As Catholics, we encourage members of our church, and indeed all people of faith, to follow Pope Francis’ advice for building a better world: encountering those who are different from ourselves and treating them with respect and courtesy. Such encounters are the opposite of that discrimination this new ruling condones.
This case did not have to be a struggle between religious beliefs versus civil law. Business people whose religious beliefs prevent them from following civil law can choose to stop providing services they do not want to offer to everyone. If the owners of 303 Creative LLC do not want to provide wedding websites for same-gender couples, they have the option not to offer that service to any couple. If beliefs are truly strongly held, religious people would be ready to live by them even if that means losing revenue by curtailing their businesses to honor both their personal beliefs and the law of the land in which they elect to set up shop. Religious people have long redirected their lives so as not to follow laws with which they disagree. They should not seek loopholes that carve out exemptions which create new injustices targeted against marginalized groups.
Instead of upholding the principle in the U.S. Constitution’s Preamble to “form a more perfect union,” the Supreme Court’s decision instead enhances the growing divide in our country by giving the blessing of so-called “religious freedom” to people who want to discriminate.
LGBTQ+ people and so many other marginalized communities continue to suffer greatly in the present national atmosphere where division and exclusion are rampant. Religion should be a tool to help unite people across ideological lines, not cause greater isolation into camps that oppose one another.
–Francis DeBernardo, New Ways Ministry, June 30, 2023
This is just one more step in the Republican Party’s effort to weaken and ultimately destroy our democracy.
Thank you Francis for this excellent statement and for your profound theological knowledge, spiritual discernment and journalistic skills that enabled it 🙏.
Thank you for your honesty and transparency.
With love and prayers,
Sister Mary Elizabeth Clark, SSJ
Philadelphia
I agree with most of your opinion and the societal and legal regression that has occurred in the USA. Your country used to be a leader in many areas of democratic society. Unfortunately it is no longer as seen from the outside.
Where I disagree, is yes Catholics have known and been the object of discrimination, but the institutional Catholic Church through many sitting in the pews and those in the sanctuary are responsible for advocating and supporting significant discrimination against sexual minorities and women. Huge sums of money have been spent over time on legal measures to allow legally protected discriminations by the very institution. They are also responsible for the ongoing huge assault on transgenders, using the same tactics that were, and still are to some extent, used hypocritically against gays and lesbians for centuries, all to great suffering and injustice. The influence of religion on societal normes, culture and the laws is a reality that cannot be forgotten or erased from truth and the related responsibilities need to be addressed.
Seems like “everyone” is “weaponizing” their views against a perceived “other.” – Believer vs non-believer; “correct” believer vs “incorrect” believer; LGBTQ, etc. vs non-LGBTQ, etc.; democrat vs republican; European-American vs Non-European-American; Poor vs Wealthy…etc., etc., etc. – UGH!!! – I thought division is of the devil. – Who/what is this “them” that “we” are fighting against? – Jesus didn’t fight against an “other” did he? If I claim to be his friend and disciple, why would I not see ALL people as my friends and family? WHO exactly are WE fighting against? What would “victory” look like? How exactly does Jesus fit in?
Haven’t we had enough discrimination here in Florida and now the Supreme Court. Where is there a safe place to go?