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Monday, August 31, 2015

Favoring Some Claims of Conscience Over Others

'Sexual freedom' is afforded more protection than religious liberty

We face a crisis of conscience today — a crisis forced upon us by elites in Washington who would pick and choose who is allowed to follow their deeply held beliefs and who is to be punished by the government for doing so.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services recently indicated it is issuing policy guidance expanding the conscientious objector provision exempting new citizenship applicants from affirming, during their naturalization oath, that they will (if required by law) bear arms on behalf of the United States and perform noncombatant service in the U.S. armed forces . While this provision has existed for some time, the new guidance will loosen evidentiary rules and broaden the contours of conscience exemptions: A “deeply held moral or ethical code” can suffice, and the applicant is “not required to belong to a specific church or religion [or] follow a particular theology or belief.”

While some may disagree over whether these changes are legally justified, it is nice to see the Obama administration recognizing protections for the individual’s conscience and religious convictions. After all, that is what is being done here by bolstering the conscientious objector provision.

Why then, does the federal government refuse to acknowledge such requests for exemptions in other contexts, such as regarding contraception and abortion, and same-sex marriage? The conscientious objectors are often similarly motivated by religion, and just as sincere.

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3 comments:

lmclain said...

WTF? Most AMERICANS who have died in war probably had a "deeply held moral code" that gave them an aversion to dying, but went to defend their country anyway.
Now, (and please be truthful --- this entire change is made to accommodate the hundreds of thousands of MUSLIMS who come here to escape the poverty, violence, and misogyny of the Muslim countries they flee, only to try to establish ANOTHER muslim country HERE), they don't even gave to fight for, or defend, the country that they now want to live in.
It's up to the rest of us to make sure they remain free.
Keep cheering.

Anonymous said...

Sexual freedom should include bathing suit wear is optional, women can go topless like men, and if the mood strikes you, make love right there wherever. Lets go back to the 1960's era of "Free Love" and the "Love Ins", those were happy times.....

Anonymous said...

Actually, 1:56, that stuff from the sixties is what got us to where we are today.
We thought we were throwing off the chains, but we were really cutting our own throats.
This 'anything goes' attitude is what's destroying our country.