Not going to lie, we've always disliked this sign. And we find the statement "keep religion out of our laws" to be much too facile. So much of our support for things like a social safety net is informed by Catholic Social Justice Teaching. https://twitter.com/JonFlan/status/1353042580494290944

Both Left & Right have to have a better understanding of how to integrate the thinking of religious voices in their midst. The Right has hijacked religion for their political ends. But response by some on the Left -that religious voices shouldn't be heard- is unsatisfactory, too.

The issue of abortion is complicated. It's complicated for Catholics, even Left-leaning, liberal Catholics who want to see it remain legal but also want to reduce its rates. Telling those Catholics to "keep religion out of their laws" is telling them to keep quiet.

That's hasn't worked for 48 years, and it won't work going forward, either. Now yes, we KNOW that the institutional Church has failed on this, too, esp. by aligning so closely with the evangelical Right that they ignore other preeminent moral issues.

But saying "keep religion out of our laws" is telling moderate and progressive Catholics to not apply their moral thinking to a whole host of issues, not just abortion, but yes, including abortion. It's not going to work and not going to break the impasse.

We like @JonFlan, and if we recall correctly, he was raised Catholic. So this thread isn't inviting people to give him a hard time. He's just echoing a point of view we often see by some on the Left...

And we'd invite him and those others to look a little deeper into why such statements are alienating to many liberal and progressive Catholics (and undoubtedly other liberal people of faith).