Openly Spoken by Powerful Politicians, This Phrase Is Dangerous

Not only scandalous to citizens of our nation, what I heard is dangerous to our culture, our nation, our world.

Mark the date, Thursday, April 23, 2015. Presidential Candidate, Hillary Clinton said, "Deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed."

I spent 20 minutes ensuring that it was not a sarcastic joke quote or news piece, checking sources, looking at bottom bylines, and actually listening to her honest, heartfelt address on YouTube. Believe me, the biggest applause came after delivering that line.

Forget the object of the sentence for a moment. It doesn't matter. We can all unite, no matter our beliefs, that when the means by which one's political views are to be achieved involves changing the religious beliefs of others, we must stop the message.

As Catholics, we can instantly unite with all citizens in our nation. A cherished right to the free practice of religion is under attack from a powerful political figure. We need to deny the validity of the statement, and we need to dialog with each other that under no circumstances should any political goal be reached at the cost of denying the right to religious freedom.

Let me assure you, at minute 8:50 in this video, the statement she made caused great applause to her extremely appeased audience and jaw drops from the fallout viral audiences.

I did hear her correctly... she just said religious beliefs need to be changed. I don't care if she's speaking about the other end of the world or in America, this statement is dangerous. Why? In an extreme, yet simple example, extremists in Iraq believe they need to change the religious beliefs of others too.

Here's the lead-in quote, "Far too many women are denied critical access to reproductive healthcare and safe childbirth. All the laws we've passed ("we" would include her, so she's referring to America at this point forward) don't count for much if they're not enforced. Rights have to exist in practice, not just on paper. Laws have to be backed up with resources and political will."

In this circumstance, it is clear, Mrs. Clinton says that achieving reproductive rights requires using resources and political will to change the right to religious beliefs of others.

"Rights have to exist in practice, not just on paper." I'm sorry, which rights? Rights to... what? Clearly not religious rights, since she urges the audience that religious beliefs must be changed. Using "resources and political will" to change the religious beliefs of others is dangerous. Excuse me, what resources? What political will? We have already seen, just in this past year, countless examples of political will being exerted on the religious beliefs of corporate executives, small business owners, and chain restaurants. Calling other US citizens to work towards certain political goals by changing the religious beliefs of others is dangerous.

CEO's of companies have lost their jobs by simply contributing money to a political cause. This Presidential Candidate is inspiring others to join her in what she will work towards: changing the religious beliefs of others. Something tells me this candidate will not lose her job over this.

As citizens of the United States, we must call out this extremism, and we must speak out against it to our representatives and our communities no matter their political beliefs. As citizens of the United States, we recognize the right to religious freedom, not the right to exert political will in order to change religious beliefs. Nowhere in the world should this be encouraged. Nowhere.

Attempting to keep this in perspective, I now believe Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton is only running this voracious campaign to drum up a political base. Going on fact - having viewed a few of Mrs. Clinton's speeches since announcing her candidacy - I believe that she is the political powerhouse meant to amass funding on behalf of the 2016 democratic national campaign, but not to be the actual nominee. This political strategy happens often - have a powerful, influential politician run early and run deep into the political party's root issues, and collect the funds that pour in from from the base that supports these extreme biased views.

Following the means suggested in this "inspirational speech," the cost may be religious freedom in our country. This is a very strong conclusion based on a quote made at a political action speech. It is, however, dangerous to religious freedom. There are hundreds of thousands of lives that have been lost in the Middle East based on such beliefs. Embedding this need to change the religious beliefs of others into our political system, into our citizens is dangerous.

How can we possibly hope to spread the word that this idea, this attitude must stop immediately?