What Lies Ahead?
July 5, 2001

by Joe Sobran

     The churches' turn is coming.

     Last year the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that New 
Jersey couldn't force the Boy Scouts to accept homosexual 
scoutmasters. The Court held that the Scouts were 
entitled to set their own standards for members and 
leaders. Still, the American Civil Liberties Union and 
other like-minded groups persist in trying to force the 
Scouts to accept homosexuals, in the name of "civil 
rights."

     A few weeks ago the Court ruled that the 
Professional Golfers' Association must allow competitors 
to use golf carts. The majority held that walking around 
a golf course is not an essential part of competitive 
golf. Many great golfers (and the PGA itself) disagreed, 
but the Court decided that it could claim the authority 
to define golf.

     This ruling was directly at odds with the Court's 
position on the Boy Scouts. It raises an interesting 
question.

     Suppose a feminist group sues the Catholic Church 
for the right of women to be ordained as priests. The 
case goes to the Supreme Court. If the Court follows its 
logic in the Boy Scout precedent, it throws the suit out. 
But if it follows the logic of its PGA ruling, it orders 
the Catholic Church to ordain women.

     For, the Court might argue, a male clergy isn't 
"essential" to Catholicism. Nothing in the Apostles' 
Creed or the other great creeds requires it. Many modern 
theologians agree that the male clergy is no more than a 
historically and culturally conditioned tradition, now 
outmoded. This can't justify "discrimination" against 
women.

     The Church may argue that its religious freedom is 
being infringed; but the Court may reply that this is a 
"civil rights" issue, not a religious one. Catholics are 
free to retain their beliefs and to practice their 
religion, provided they recognize the equal rights of 
women. After all, even religion is bound by secular law; 
human sacrifice wouldn't be tolerated if it were 
practiced as part of a religious ceremony. It's the same 
with civil rights.

     By the same token, and using similar logic, the 
Court could order churches not to discriminate against 
homosexuals.

     Unthinkable? No it isn't. I just thought it. So many 
formerly unthinkable things have come to pass already, 
and we can expect many more. Who, in 1960, would have 
predicted that the Court would strike down the abortion 
laws of all 50 states? Who, even when that had come to 
pass, imagined that the federal government would 
subsidize the killing of human embryos for medical 
research? More recently, who supposed that homosexuals 
would demand the right to be scoutmasters?

     Do you hear groups like the ACLU pledging that they 
will never try to force churches to act against their own 
moral principles? No, no more than you heard them 
pledging never to try to force the Scouts to accept 
homosexuals before they actually did it.

     Does any aggressor tell you, at any step, that this 
is the last time he will seize his neighbor's territory? 
Of course not. He always wants you to assume that this 
time is the last time, while he hatches his plans for the 
next time. But aggression follows its own unappeasable 
logic. Every gain mandates further gains. Don't bother 
asking him where he will stop; he may not know himself. 
But when opportunity arises, so will temptation.

     Religion is the last stronghold of freedom. When the 
state forces the church to surrender, its victory will be 
complete. Of course it will insist that it respects "the 
separation of church and state" -- as defined by the 
state, of course. We will be nominally and verbally free 
to worship -- within state guidelines. We will still be 
able to call ourselves Catholics, Baptists, Jews -- as 
long as our clergy meet state standards.

     I don't mean that our enemies are already planning 
and plotting their future assaults (though I don't rule 
it out). But their record, their logic, and their 
fanaticism require us to assume that these assaults will 
inevitably come. Why not? There is no restraining 
principle that will prevent them when the time is ripe.

     If the state can define golf and Scouting, why 
should it leave defining Catholicism and Judaism to 
priests and rabbis? This isn't a prophecy. It's a simple 
extrapolation from experience, and we'll have no right to 
be surprised when it comes to pass.

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