Touring the Newseum -- And a Reminder About Religious Freedom

(Don Hamer is on professional development leave until the middle of May. He periodically posts to this blog on www.trinityhartford.org as an update on his activities.)
After morning worship and some reading yesterday morning, I went downtown to meet an old friend for lunch. Having taken a vacation day, my daughter Katie joined us. I continue to marvel at the efficiency of the Metropolitan DC transit system – both subway and surface transit. This was to be the first of two reunions yesterday – Katie and I had dinner with my law school roommate and his wife in the evening.
After lunch Katie and I went to the Newseum, a beautiful new museum of the journalism industry. While a young man I had often considered a career in journalism, and in fact my first job out of college (and before law school) was in Washington, D.C. with the interviews department at US News and World Report under the founding editor, David Lawrence. So I have an inbred interest in the media, particularly the news media. To have an opportunity to experience and chart the course of the history of the trade was quite a thrill.
One section in particular captured my attention, and that was on the first five freedoms guaranteed in the Bill of Rights. (There will be a quiz on this later.) There was a subsection on the freedom of religion, and at this point I was reminded of how we have tended to pervert this right in the service of partisan and parochial self-interest: How some in the State of Connecticut – Roman Catholics themselves – were so easily able to cross that line by introducing legislation that would govern how Roman Catholic churches manage their finances. And yet, as though they can’t see the inconsistency in their position, some of the same people who objected to that proposed legislation are reportedly agitating to have two members of the General Assembly removed from their positions because of their sexual orientation. (Can you guess what it is?)
There is a lesson here that we find it so hard to learn: When the state inserts itself into the activities of one denomination, the door is opened for the state to insert itself into all denominations. When the freedom of any group of people is denied or threatened, the door is opened to challenge the freedom of everyone. The founders of this nation, although imperfect themselves and subject to the social norms of the day, had the wisdom to make the United States one of the first sovereign nations without an established church. It has taken us all of the ensuing years to begin to understand that there should be no exceptions to the dignity and equality of every person.
Today is my final day at the cathedral as I leave for Baltimore this evening on my way back to Hartford tomorrow. Have a blessed day. Your brother in Christ, Don+
P.S. Can you name those first five freedoms? Answer tomorrow. dlh