TO THE EDITOR:
Rhode Islanders, we have been betrayed, again! Both Senators Reed and Whitehouse voted to reject the Blunt Amendment, an amendment that would have given conscience protection to religious institutions from being forced to follow the tyrannical mandates of President Obama’s health plan.
Rhode Island has been called the most Catholic state in the Union. But our senators who have been elected to supposedly represent the needs and wishes of their constituents have decided that the consciences of those constituents are trumped by their own misguided understanding of women’s rights.
Now we confront the most open, bold-faced, direct attack our church, and indeed all of Christianity, has yet to be challenged with in our lifetime. It is precisely our complacency and acquiescence in the face of decades of moral erosion that has emboldened the enemies of the church to imagine that we will passively submit again. Although many of our politicians have somehow seen the penumbras in the constitution that have allowed for the killing of almost 55 million Americans, they seem to be blind and deaf to the clearly-stated First Amendment right to freely practice religion. We must be loud and clear both in the arena of public opinion and at the polls. God help our children and us if we don’t stand firm now, join the battle, and recognize that we are fighting for our very souls.
Barbara A. Monfils
Providence
