Bush said that in addition to beginning-of-life issues, "we better start focusing [on] the end-of-life issues as well. He said he intervened on behalf of Terri Schiavo, the incapacitated woman who faced euthanasia at the direction of her husband.
He lamented that religious freedom is "under attack in ways we have never seen before, whether it is the Obama administration or just the general culture. … There seems to be attitude when the prevailing government policies runs headlongs into the views of the faithful, the faithful must yield. I’m reminded what [former Secretary of State Hillary] Clinton said, when people that have religious beliefs, they run into conflict with a woman’s right to choose for example, that the people that have religious conscience have to get over it, have to take a step back. Well, in a big diverse country we need to make sure we protect not the right of having religious views but the right of acting on those views."
"This conscience should also been respected when people of faith want to take a stand for traditional marriage in a country like ours," he continued. "We should recognize the power of man and a woman, loving their children with their, all their heart and soul as a good thing, as something that is positive and helpful for those children to live a successful life. And while there are people that disagree with this, we should not push aside those that do believe in traditional marriage. I for one believe it is important and I think it has to be important over the long haul irrespective what courts say."
And today we celebrate...
