Religious morals shouldn’t dictate our laws

Often times when debate occurs about things like abortion, the death penalty, birth control or gay marriage rights, you can hear the outcry of “But the bible says!”. 

This argument will garner a lot of attention and ultimately might sway some votes. 

As a member of the Catholic church, I understand the stances on these topics. However, I can not condone some the actions of Christians or the members of the Catholic church about these topics. 

Everyone reserves the right to protest or voice their opinions, but when you do you must also be responsible for your influence. 

I’m not asking for Catholics or Christians to change their point of views or to stop standing for what they believe in. 

I am asking them to take into consideration that the laws we influence affect more people than the members of the church. 

While we should care about upholding our morals, we can’t force other people to follow them. America is predominantly Christian but that doesn’t mean we should forget or overlook the other religions in the U.S. 

One of most important teachings in the Bible is to “Love thy neighbor as yourself.” Matthew 22:39. So why do I find that we are often overlooking others’ needs or morals in favor of ourselves. 

If a different religion were more common within the U.S. Christians would want to be treated with compassion and tolerance for their views. 

We should be giving the same considerations to the other religions. Not everyone shares our morals and we don’t have to understand it but we need to accept it. 

Differing points of view are a fact of life and at some point, everyone has to get over it, even the church. 

Accepting differing points  of view are what make the U.S. a place that many people seek.

In the bible it does say that we should try and lead people in what we believe to be the right direction or lead them as well as we can towards God’s light. However, forcing them to participate in Christian beliefs is not going to convince them to join. 

Christian beliefs are important but so are the beliefs of every other religion. 

One religion is not more superior than another and no religion should be able to suppress the rights of another or use their morals to suppress the rights of any person. 

Whether a person is religious, they should not be held to someone else’s religious standards. 

Jewish, Atheist, Islamic and other beliefs are often forced to abide by laws that lean heavily i favor toward Catholic or Christian beliefs. 

I know super strict Catholics, relaxed Christians or Catholics and Atheists. 

None of them is better than the other based on their religions and absolutely none of their religious morals is more important than the other.