Count Republican strategist and CNN contributor Mary Matalin among the growing list of prominent voices speaking out against recent attacks on religious liberty. The issue, Matalin says, “is political, obviously…but this is moral to me.”
This was “a frightening turn of events,” she said regarding HHS mandate, “when the full force of the government can assault the church.”
And so, Matalin has joined a new organization called Conscience Cause — a 501 (c)(4) whose declared mission is to, “urge Congress to pass legislation to protect religious freedom by stopping the implementation of a Department of Health and Human Services regulation which would compel people and organizations to pay for drugs and services that violate their faith.”
“The larger effort,” Matalin tells me, “will be to [do] a petition signing.”
“We will be doing targeted earned media. We’ll be doing paid advertising. It’ll have tactics that will resemble a campaign,” she said.
Matilin credits former RNC chairman Ed Gillespie for the idea. “It was his brain child,” she averred.
Along with Gillespie and Matalin, the multi-faith coalition includes other members such as New York Rabbi Meir Yaakov Soloveichik and Philadelphia Rev. Joe Watkins.
The group is also non-partisan. “This is the most serious attack on our human, constitutional and religious rights that I have ever heard of,” said Ray Flynn, former Mayor of Boston, former Ambassador to the Holy See serving under President Bill Clinton, in a statement. “All Americans concerned about freedom and the protection of our religious values, must speak out and get involved in this critical debate.”