Religion & Law

I like the "Distinctly Catholic" blog, which is run by Michael Sean Winters.  And,I agree with him that ('twas ever thus, no?) that politics and public debate presents no end of examples of hypocrisy, in the sense that many people find it much easier to endorse Principle X when its application benefits or protects those whom they like than to endorse that same Principle when its application threatens to benefit or protect those whom they don't like.  No doubt, some of those who are concerned about the so-called Ground Zero mosque fall into this category (as do, of course, some of those who are -- correctly, this time -- invoking "religious freedom" to establish the project's legal rights, but who might not worry much about religious freedom in other contexts). 

I think it is unfair, though -- and in the case of the baseless charges lobbed at our own Robby George, mean-spirited and unworthy -- to charge those who (a) are publicly and unquestionably dedicated to religious liberty but (b) have not (yet) spoken out in strong defense of the proposal with 'hypocrisy" or "fraud."  (I'm being defensive here, of course, because I spent the weekend doing things besides commenting on the mosque.) 

We do this too much in our public conversations, I think (I am guilty of this sometimes too, I am sure):  "You say you are on the side of the angels, but you have failed to condemn publicly [insert outrageous act or current controversy] and so . . . gotcha!  You are a fraud!"