Churches and other religious organizations provide huge benefits to American society by funding hospitals, charities and social service agencies. Any act by government that threatens those vital services should be cause for great public concern.
And so it is with the ObamaCare rule that religiously affiliated charities, schools, hospitals and so forth must furnish their employees with health insurance that directly or indirectly includes birth control. While many religious groups do not object to birth control, the Catholic Church certainly does, and the ObamaCare regulation, if not withdrawn, will force a number of Catholic institutions to choose between violating their beliefs and shutting down.
The archbishop of Chicago, Cardinal Francis George, recently spelled out in stark terms the threat that the Obama administration poses to religious freedom.
"This year, the Catholic Church in the United States is being told she must 'give up' her health care institutions, her universities and many of her social service organizations," the archbishop wrote in a newspaper that serves the Archdiocese of Chicago. "This is not a voluntary sacrifice. ... The [Department of Health and Human Services] regulations now before our society will make it impossible for Catholic institutions to follow their conscience.
"So far in American history, our government has respected the freedom of individual conscience and of institutional integrity for all the many religious groups that shape our society. The government has not compelled them to perform or pay for what their faith tells them is immoral. That's what we've meant by freedom of religion. That's what we had believed was protected by the U.S. Constitution. Maybe we were foolish to believe so.
"What will happen if the HHS regulations are not rescinded? A Catholic institution, so far as I can see right now, will have one of four choices: 1) secularize itself, breaking its connection to the church ... . 2) Pay exorbitant annual fines to avoid paying for insurance policies that cover abortifacient drugs, artificial contraception and sterilization. This is not economically sustainable. 3) Sell the institution to a non-Catholic group or to a local government. 4) Close down."
It would be devastating to our society's safety net for the less fortunate if Catholic-affiliated social service institutions were forced to shut down, and it would be a gross violation of First Amendment liberties if they could remain open only by violating their beliefs and conscience.
It is therefore essential that the administration back down from ObamaCare's contraception requirement.
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The United States has many religiously affiliated hospitals that provide excellent service to patients of all faiths.
Any guesses on the percentage of American Catholic women opposed to birth control? My guess...single digits.
The Catholic Church may be marching toward irrelevancy if they cannot/do not represent the views their constituency.
The Catholic Church will have to step up their game to win the race to irrelevancy, Republican theocrats are way out in front, it would appear.
It should be noted that the mandate included the abortion pill, something much worse than normal conrtraceptives. However, since the date it goes into effect is August of next year, the opposition will only intensify as the word gets out. Bad for Obamination's reelection, good for decent Americans.
And, whooopee!, we in Chattanooga now have a General Sessions Court judge from Soddy-Daisy who has NEVER, to my knowledge, EVER voiced ANY objection to the display of the decalogue in the town hall of that backwater burb, much to the offense of anyone obligated to visit that building whose beliefs are offended by christian gobbledyg**k.
So the march to a theocratic Amerika rolls on. If the Republican-led vote to take away women's rights in the workplace (which only lost by three votes out of 101) wasn't enough to wake you people up, then just continue to sit on your butts until the christofascist brownshirts break down your door and haul you off because you missed church two weeks in a row or you were caught with a package of Canadian birth control pills or you have a bumpersticker they don't like or you get a socialist newsletter in your weekly mail delivery or your Facebook page displays an atheist quote etc, etc, etc.
No organization, religious or otherwise, that accepts money from government sources should be allowed to discriminate against employees or patients when providing health services. The very act of accepting payment from government programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP takes them into the public arena, thus forfeiting the right to religious exemptions.
Consevative thinks he gets to say who is decent. LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL When all he does is call names, mislead people with false information, I don't think anyone will take conservative as an authority of ANYTHING!
PAY ATTENTION MEN! Unless you have a dog in this fight, or in other words, are a woman, I suggest you shut up. When 86% of the abortions done in 2009 were Christians, then clean up your own yard before judging others. When you declare that all unintended pregnancies are abortions, you are just plain decietful. My 4 unintended pregnancies are alive and kicking. But are counted as abortions! When you use those numbers to fool others, you are a liar. And if you really do not know what they are trying to pull, sit down, shut up, and get out of the way.
Hey Con, what size sacred sperm saver do you think you will need? Will you be wanting wings, or maybe all night control? LOLOLOL And don't forget we will need to regulate any removal and submission of your precious wigglers. Every cell is sacred.
This overreach is going to cost. Any infringement on our rights will be met with equal infringement on a man's freedoms. We are not taking this AT ALL! Do you remember where the last war against the woman took place? I do. And it wasn't in the streets.
Where do you people go to be so misinformed?
conservative said...
Where do you people go to be so misinformed?
The answer to your question, conservative, is Fox News
yaffay
And you believe everything Wolf Blitzer at CNN says? He guy is the biggest liar I know. When Paul Ryan introduced a new plan to make Medicare solvent you idol Wolf said it would kill 80,000 seniors. What a liar.
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