Kamala Harris, Democratic Senator and presidential candidate, is not fond of liberty. A few days ago, she called for “banning right to work laws” in order to remove “barriers to organized labor being able to organize and strike.” “Right to work” laws are about one thing: Not forcing people to join unions. That is, not limiting a little thing called freedom.

For the record, I write that as a former union member. Having a politician who has never lifted anything heavier than her smartphone talk about “barriers to organizing” makes me queasy.

This is only the most recent example of Senator Harris’s distaste for liberty. What’s worse is her distaste for religious liberty. Even while she uses the state to promote her own religion.

Anti-Catholic Harris

For example, there’s her obvious anti-Christian bigotry. She doesn’t want Christians to have the same liberty to live by their beliefs that she has to live by hers.

Look at her questions to federal court nominee Brian Buescher. “Were you aware that the Knights of Columbus opposed a woman’s right to choose when you joined the organization?” she asked. “Have you ever, in any way, assisted with or contributed to advocacy against women’s reproductive rights? Were you aware that the Knights of Columbus opposed marriage equality when you joined the organization?” 

In other words, if you belong to a religious organization that believes in the right to life, you’re unqualified for a federal judgeship. If you give money to a pro-life group, you’re unfit to be a judge. Even if you’re an atheist, you’re unfit. And if you believe that marriage is the union of one man and one woman — well!

Harris isn’t stopping. Her chilling “Do No Harm” act would limit the exercise of religious liberty outside the walls of a church. That liberty has “been understood as personal, relating only to individual believers and to a limited class of associations comprising or representing them,” she claims. It only protects “an ‘inner sanctum’ of personal religious faith.” 

That’s a unique reading of American history. It’s also absurd. Living-out one’s faith in public life is as old a principle as the Puritans and the Huguenots and the Quakers and the Catholics and the Baptists. Perhaps Senator Harris isn’t familiar with them. Of what other aspects of our heritage is she unaware? Like the idea that our rights come from the hand of our Creator, not the anointed, the chosen, the self-appointed leaders of the cattle. Er, I mean, the people. Has she forgotten the Declaration of Independence’s “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights”?

She’d say no. If you’re a Catholic pharmacist and don’t want to sell contraceptives that can cause abortion, you can lose your license. An orthodox Jewish florist who doesn’t want to serve a same-sex wedding? You’re out of luck.

Anything associated with God is tainted. Appealing to His authority thwarts the will of — whom? The lawmakers whose servants Harris believes we must become?

About Religion

Perhaps Harris simply needs a bit of education about religion. Whatever motivates a person is grounded in that person’s faith. That’s true of everyone. Even agnostics and atheists, not just Christians. That faith might be faith in the God of the Bible, which might be strengthened by the sound use of reason, science, and common sense.

The faith might be belief in oneself and one’s own judgments, wisdom and understanding. Or in reason. And science. And common sense.

Harris’s faith seems to be all of those together. And that faith is, by definition, religious. As a religion, it offers an account of human nature: man is good and only society keeps him from being perfect. It offers an account of salvation: man can redeem himself without benefit of God’s aid. And it offers an account of God: He doesn’t exist, or is unconcerned with how people live, or is only there for their comfort.

These things seem to compose the faith of Kamala Harris and her anti-Christian friends Mazie Hirono  and Bernie Sanders, as well. And they’re as serious about their faith as any devout Christian or Islamic extremist. 

That scares me. Having religious fanatics like them in the Senate — or the White House — could result on a theocracy. With them as the gods.