San Antonio Tea Party Statement on Religious Liberty

The real cause of our rally today is the attempted destruction of our Constitutional right to freedom of religion. While it is true the action that brought the Faith and Freedom First Coalition together was the Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate that forces all employers to provide free contraceptive services including sterilization, abortion-inducing drugs, and contraceptive pills—this is just the latest salvo in a long string of abuses. Here are others you may have heard about:

 The Department of Justice unilaterally deciding not to enforce or defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

 Repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell” in the military and directing military chaplains to perform and make their facilities available for same-sex marriages in states that recognize such “unions.”

 When the Catholic Church issued its denomination-wide letter informing parishioners that the Church “cannot and will not comply with this unjust law” (meaning the forced provision of contraceptive services), the Administration issued orders to all Army chaplains, especially Catholic chaplains, that they were not allowed to read the letter in its entirety to their congregations. If they did, they would be charged with sedition and treason.

The San Antonio Tea Party sees this as a continuing effort on the part of this Administration to erode the right to freedom of religion guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution, by exercising powers not granted to the federal government in the Constitution. There is a good reason that freedom of religion is the FIRST Amendment. It is the most important!

We stand with our Catholic brothers and sisters in their determination to oppose this unjust and unconstitutional mandate. We must all stand together and say, “NO MORE!” We must and we will turn back this attack on the religious freedoms of not just Catholics, but all people of faith.

So what do we do about it? We must:

       – turn our Resentment into RESOLVE!

       – turn our Anger into ACTION!

       – turn our Passion into POLITICAL POWER!

Each one of us must decide TODAY that we will do four things:

 1. Find out exactly where your US Congressman and Senators stand on the issue of Obamacare versus religious freedom.

 2. Become informed on all the actions that your government is considering. YOU must be alert and aware!

 3. Make sure you and all of your family and friends are registered to vote.

 4. VOTE!!!! In the primary election currently scheduled for May 29, 2012, and in the general election on November 6, 2012.

The signers of the Declaration of Independence nobly pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to the cause of freedom. Can we do any less?