(Third Sunday of Lent (B): This homily was given on March 2, 1997 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I. by Fr. Raymond Suriani. Read Exodus 20: 1-17.)

"What religion will prevail in the 21st century?"

Today’s first reading was from Exodus, chapter 20. When I read that text of Scripture the other day in preparation for this Mass, I thought of Roy Moore:

Roy Moore is a Circuit Court Judge from Alabama. Last March he was sued in federal district court by the ACLU, the Alabama Freethought Association and 3 local residents. You see, to these groups and individuals Judge Moore is a horribly despicable individual. He’s a criminal of the most dangerous kind. Why, he’s a threat to every man, woman and child in this beautiful country of ours. Consequently, he must be stopped. At all costs, he must be stopped! Immediately--if not sooner!

His crime? Well, my brothers and sisters, it seems that this bold, brazen, horribly insensitive man has had the audacity--the absolute audacity--to display the Ten Commandments in his courtroom! Yes, I know what you’re thinking--how could he? How horrible! ‘Do not kill. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness.’ What subversive ideas! Especially that last one about not bearing false witness. God forbid we should remind people to be honest when they come into a courtroom! Heaven forbid! We wouldn’t want that! "Just come in boys and girls and perjure yourselves--now that would be much more acceptable!"

Thanks be to God, Judge Moore recently countersued his accusers. And, praise God, he’s got the governor of Alabama and many other good and influential people on his side in this dispute. Recently he was quoted as saying this: "I have the right to acknowledge God. Any law that forbids an acknowledgment of God is an infringement of my rights and creates a new religion--a religion where man follows only the rules of man and not God."

I would say that the good judge hits the nail right on the head with that simple statement. You see, there’s a battle going on right now in this country and throughout the world. The issue in dispute can be expressed in this way: Will we be ruled by God’s objective, moral law, or will we be ruled by our own, arbitrary law? I don’t have to tell you what side the ACLU is on. You know, those in the ACLU and similar organizations are fond of telling us that they are religiously neutral. That’s baloney! A religion is a system of beliefs by which you guide your life. Which means that everyone has a religion. Even atheists do--their religion is atheism. (That’s the belief system which guides their lives.) Judge Moore is absolutely correct in implying that the ACLU and similar organizations are actually promoting an alternative religion. They’ve rejected Christianity and the Judeo-Christian ideas upon which this country was founded, and they’ve adopted the religion of Secularism--which is a religion where the people in power make their own, arbitrary rules. And this is the religion that is dominating our country at the present time. We need to be aware of that fact. It’s the religion that’s prevalent in the government. It’s the religion that’s taught to our children through the media. No wonder many young people today don’t know how to distinguish right from wrong!

What religion, what belief system, will prevail in the twenty-first century? The answer to that question, my brothers and sisters, will determine the future of our country, and the future of our world. It might even determine whether or not we will have a future--any future--on planet earth. Needless to say, the stakes are very, very high.

The news of the recent cloning of a sheep over in England emphasizes the point. As Dr. John Haas said in a news release this past week, "Such a development carries with it the potential for good and evil, as is customary for most advances in technology." (Dr. Hass is president of the Pope John Center, a Catholic institute for the study of bioethics.)

Let me now take a moment to read you a bit more of this news release, because I think it’s very important that we as Catholics understand the moral issues involved here:

Dr. Haas noted that, according to medical reports, a significant benefit which could derive from this advance . . . is the cloning of animals to provide pharmacological proteins such as the blood clotting factor so critical for hemophiliacs. There is also the possibility, he said, that cloned animals could be engendered from genetically engineered cells, which would have organs with surface proteins similar to human surface proteins, thereby providing a potential supply of animal organs which could be transplanted into humans without the danger of rejection.

Raising an ethical concern, Dr. Haas explained, "the biological techniques that have led to the cloning of animals can also apparently be applied to humans, so that there might one day be individuals who have no parents or who could be engendered to fulfill the arbitrary criteria or the subjective desires of those who ‘manipulate’ them into existence. [By the way, that’s a good word: "manipulate." Some people mistakenly think that cloning involves creating new life. It does not. It involves human beings setting up the conditions which call upon the creative power of God.] Dr. Haas noted that in 1987 the Vatican formally judged human cloning . . . to be "contrary to the moral law, since [it is] in opposition to the dignity both of human procreation and the conjugal union."

[Another scholar said,] "If human cloning is an ‘inevitable’ risk, then society needs to provide guidelines, and perhaps legislation after mature reflection, that would support and encourage development of the beneficial aspects of [animal] cloning and minimize the risk--that is, a movement toward human cloning."

Dr. Ian Wilmut of Edinburgh, Scotland, who successfully carried out the cloning, has said that the technique should not be used on human beings and has said that the procedure for cloning humans should be made universally illegal as it currently is in England.

My brothers and sisters, do you see why it’s so important that we fight for objective morality in our world today? Do you see why it’s so important that the Ten Commandments, and God’s other commandments become universally recognized and accepted? Because if these things do not happen, then we’re on our way to Huxley’s Brave New World. Human cloning, and many other moral evils which we haven’t even dreamed of yet, will become reality. Someone, for example, in the scientific community will come along and say, "Dr. Wilmut, Dr. Hass, Pope John Paul II, you all tell me that human cloning is objectively wrong--that it contravenes God’s law. But there’s no such thing as God’s law. There’s no such thing as objective morality. I decide what’s right and wrong for myself. You say that human cloning is evil, but that’s just your personal morality. My personal morality says that there’s nothing at all wrong with it. Therefore, I will make every effort to do it."

Can we do anything to prevent such evils from happening? The answer is: Yes, we can do a lot. And we can begin right at home. In fact, we must begin right at home: by teaching our children--our young people--the Ten Commandments (as well as God’s other commandments). Parents, quiz your children today after mass. See if they know all ten. And we need to teach these precepts clearly to young people as commands from Almighty God himself! We need to say, "Children, these are the Ten Commandments. They are not, as some would like us to believe, the ten suggestions or the ten recommendations."

Then we need to promote and defend these divine commands out there in the world--in our schools, in our places of employment--wherever we happen to be. In this regard, we need to pray; we need to pray that we will have the courage of that wonderful judge from Alabama, Roy Moore. May the good Lord bless him. And may God bless each one of us, in our efforts to uphold--and live--his commandments.