Slogans

Women’s Rights Are Human Rights. Black Lives Matter. Believe Science. No Justice, No Peace. God Bless America. No more war, war never again.

Symbols, too: the Rainbow, the Shamrock.

Questions: Is it good for the Jews?

Answers: This is what democracy looks like.

I am thinking about gut reactions, that instinctive response based on deep identity. Who I am.

I am thinking of this because two men whose politics I generally agree with made disparaging remarks about those who support abortion. I immediately respond defensively. They are not respecting women!

The example I will share is Michael Sean Winters about the draft report of the State Department’s Commission on Unalienable Rights. I was reading along happily until this: “It also is difficult not to be skeptical of the advocates of abortion rights who are leading the critics, and doing so preemptively, determined to diminish religious liberty anyway they can, willing to ignore the value of freedom of conscience in order to achieve their political ends.” What? The anger in which that comment is launched immediately raises my ire. My political ends are to be respected, not dismissed.

Especially in this year in which any number of documentaries and articles remind us that only 100 years ago people were debating whether women should have the right to vote! Is that not astonishing? Here’s the PBS news release which gives you notice of everything they are presenting, from the excellent American Experience “The Vote” to Mae West, who had a lot to say.

If you want a Catholic angle, it’s unfair to recommend “Mrs. America,” which places anti-ERA activist leader Phyllis Schlafly at the center of 1970s politics. Slate separates fact from fiction; The New Yorker gives you the sense that Schlafly is really the anti-hero of the series. I loved watching it for the profiles of the pro-ERA activists, not, as I hinted, for the Catholic angle.

The secularization of life in the post-war 20^th century is brought to my mind by these ruminations. Winters includes a photo of Eleanor Roosevelt with the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights — in Spanish, how Eleanor! — a secular saint for many, especially women; she spoke up for all the right things.

At the same time, we had Bishop Sheen, a TV personality whose uplifting reflections were watched by everybody I knew then and, I have since learned, by the families of my Jewish friends. I think of my father, who would be proud that so many Catholics have achieved prominent positions in government: think the Supreme Court, think Bill Barr. A Catholic theologian, Mary Ann Glendon, even headed the State Department Commission that wrote the draft report on human rights.

But today I am not proud of many of those Catholic voices. I signed a statement by “Catholic Scholars and Faith Leaders” challenging that draft report. You can, too. In addition to objecting to Cardinal Dolan’s being present to “all but baptize it,” the statement addresses many issues way beyond slogans and symbols. The report raises many questions; I signed on because of answers like these:

We hold that one of the core principles of Catholic Social Teaching, namely, the preferential option for the poor and vulnerable, requires us as Catholics to demand that our government set action priorities with special regard for the human rights of women and children, as well as political, religious, racial, and sexual minorities.

We emphasize explicitly that the right to religious freedom comes with the obligation to protect the rights of members of all religions and those who adhere to no religion, as well as the obligation to protect and promote all human rights. Furthermore, religious freedom must not be prioritized over other human rights, nor must it be weaponized to discriminate against any person, community, or nation.

We hold that more rights do indeed create more justice. Likewise, rights for more people, beginning with those who have been excluded from basic protections, create more justice.

We hold that global justice requires the cooperation of all nations, with no nation claiming to place itself first, above others.