WE HOLD THESE TRUTHS (Video) A Catholic Priest Who Doubles as a Successful Hip-Hop Artist? That’s This Guy

Remember Fr. Pontifex, the successful hip-hop artist who responded to Jefferson Bethke’s “Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus” phenomenon (we profiled him in February)?  He’s back with a new, freedom-filled spoken-word video. In the clip, entitled “We Hold These Truths,” the faith leader stands up for religious freedom and rails against the Obama administration’s contraceptive mandate.

"We Hold These Truths" is a video that we felt needed to be produced in order to clearly state the main issue in regards to the (HHS) Health and Human Services Mandate. The main issue is Religious Liberty. The mandate, as it stands right now, violates the Constitution and specifically the 1st Amendment. We have a right to the free exercise of our religion without violating our consciences. Every American should see this as an important issue. It is not a Catholic issue. It is an American issue. Join the movement at http://phatmass.com/action

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/spiritjuicestudios

Twitter: https://twitter.com/spiritjuice

Video website: http://www.spiritjuicestudios.com

Fr. Pontifex: http://frpontifex.com

Music by Tony Anderson (used with permission): http://www.soundcloud.com/23violins

Behind-the-Scenes Photography: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150626550933821.399756.18127784382...

Directed, Shot & Edited: Rob Kaczmark
Lyricist: Fr. Claude (Dusty) Burns aka Fr. Pontifex
Producers: dUSt, Danny Hidalgo, Kyle Escamilla, Rob Kaczmark
Re-Recording Mixer: Manuel Lopez III

Special thank to St. Thomas More and Rev. Charles Fanelli, Pastor for allowing us to film in the church. http://www.stthomasmorechicago.org

Lyrics:
At this time in America we've come to the crossroads
Standing with our religious freedom and what we have been told.
We hold these truths to be self evident all men created the same
Endowed with certain unalienable rights that can't be taken away
They cannot be taken away by man, they were given by the creator
God almighty in Heaven, greater than any legislature
No system, No policy, No mandate has the power
To trample on our conscience and rob us of what is ours
Things that violate health, we are told we must provide
Using faulty percentages to justify conquer and divide
This is not about one issue that we need to just let go
It's not simply about contraception but about government control
A Year to comply? A Year to deny?
A Year to turn the other way and let our conscience die?
A Mandate that violates the corporate conscience of our faith
And once this door is open every religion and creed is at stake
Every American should see this as a threat to our country's foundation
Religion doesn't make us second class, settling for an accommodation
Our conscience is sacred; our freedom of religion is a treasure
Handed to us by Soldiers who fought and sacrificed beyond measure
The 1st amendment protects the free exercise of Religion
To exercise our freedom without living a contradiction
As faithful Americans we HOLD THESE TRUTHS
Life, Liberty and Happiness' pursuit
This isn't to be partisan or to endorse a candidate
This is about a plea to the administration to rescind this mandate
And as you deliberate for freedoms sake just remember
We get to use our rights and cast our two cents in November

Fr. Claude (Dusty) Burns
Aka Pontifex
2/24/12

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