You don't have to wait long

It did not take very long for an issue to come up that highlights the critical need for a Catholic organization dedicated to supporting law students and reform in the legal and political arenas.

Item 1. The 9th Circuit Court held that the University of California could reject high school credits given to a student by a Christian high school on the basis that the class content contained religious themes thereby preventing the student from enrolling in the University of California. The decision, Association of Christian Schools International v. Stearns, et al., holds that the University rightly rejected the classes because the they did not teach about religion in a neutral way and that in rejecting the classes "UC does not punish a school for teaching, or a student for taking, an unapproved course."

Item 2. Martha Coakley, Democratic candidate for Senator from Massachusetts, in discussing abortion said ”You can have religious freedom, but you probably shouldn't work in the emergency room.” The context was that physicians need to be able to prescribe the "morning after" pill to rape victims.

The lesson here is that, if you go to a high school that teaches the wrong things, you cannot go to a public university and, if you believe in the wrong things, you cannot be a physician. The "wrong" things being ideas that disagree with the beliefs of the political and legal elites. However, it is modern philosophy that has it all wrong. Classical human rights are based upon our God-given human dignity which requires our acting as moral agents in the exercise of those rights. Thus the only true rights are so-called "negative" rights. The Declaration of Independence states that we have the God given rights to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

When we exercise these rights we are expected to do so without imposing ourselves on our fellow citizens. Thus, we have the right to free speech but not the right to force anyone to listen. This leaves everyone else in society free moral agents who may listen or not listen to what you have to say. The rights are "negative" in the sense that no one needs to give up anything for me to exercise my right, they just have to leave me alone.

A positive right is one that others must provide to you if you are unable to provide it for yourself. For example, you have the right to an education until you are 18 years old. If you cannot afford an education, you will be given one for free. Notice that someone else in society will need to pay for your education. They have no choice in the matter, they can not simply just leave you alone. You have imposed your demand for a right to an education upon them. Now the right to a minimal education is pretty uncontroversial and involves no deep moral issues.

Abortion is permitted in the United States. You might agree with abortion or not, you can argue against it. However, the pro-abortion position is that abortion is a "positive" right.

The pro-abortion position is that if you want an abortion someone must provide it. Now you see that this would force others to take part in something with which they deeply disagree. Both parties are acting immorally. The person enforcing the "right" is immorally coercing someone else to do their bidding and the person being forced is no longer an independent moral agent but rather the servant of the holder of the so-called positive "right."

Likewise, we have free speech and freedom of association. The Christian high school has the right to teach as it wishes. In fact, to be a proper moral agent, it must teach as it believes and the student must believe what he understands to be true.

The public university can only review the credentials of students based upon such objective criteria as factual knowledge (i.e. what is the theory of evolution?). The public university may not discriminate against the student based upon what the high school taught or the what student believes about the theory of evolution (i.e. is it true?). In trying to rule on the content of the courses rather than the particular facts conveyed in them the public university is attempting to force them to become agents of the state rather than letting them be free to act as their own moral agents. True freedom is moral.

From these two examples we see that the prevailing political and legal philosophy is set against the Catholic understanding of law and government and aims to marginalized and exile those who hold these beliefs. It didn't take long after the founding of the CLSA and this blog to find prominent examples of how far our society has strayed from its foundations.