The Obama Administration seriously “stepped in it” recently with its mandate that employers pay for insurance that includes free contraception, the “morning after pill” and tubal ligation. They seemed genuinely surprised that Catholic institutions objected. Then they brushed it off as inconsequential. Surely the Catholics would listen to reason and change their minds if they thought about it a little, right?
It is difficult to exaggerate the tone deafness this showed on the part of administration officials like spokesman Jay Carney, who dismissed a question in a press conference last week, saying the issue was not a Constitutional question at all but a “Women’s Health Issue”, and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sibelius, who though raised Catholic, likewise continued to insist there was only a Women’s Health concern.
By the way, if contraception and abortion are about Women’s Health, does that mean that pregnancy is a disease? But I digress.
It’s easy for the evangelistic Left to assume that everyone knows and agrees that contraception and abortion are good and logical solutions to vexing problems and to fail to see the problems posed by those “solutions” themselves. They are flippant and impatient with deeply held religious belief and seem to say people should just “get over it”.
But even though Protestants (including me) don’t forbid contraception, they are as alarmed as Catholics that the government under Obama takes such a cavalier attitude toward the tenets of Christianity, THE major religion of the United States. Maybe you’re uncomfortable with saying America is a “Christian Nation” but if you just look at the numbers, it is.
So why would Obama (who is a Christian! No, REALLY) be so very oblivious to the strongly held beliefs of Christians? Why would he and others in the administration be so easily blindsided this close to the election?
The ham-handed management of the issue continued during Obama’s “accommodation” today, which essentially continues to force Catholic institutions to pay for insurance that includes contraception, etc., but just not to say they are, which adds deceit to the other problems for the Church.
This led many to say “Since when is abiding by the First Amendment an ‘Accommodation’?”
Honoring Freedom of Religion means not just honoring the tenets of the majority (that’d be Roman Catholics), but of minorities as well. Christians, Jews and Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and hillbilly snake handlers, no matter who or how many, no matter how tin-hat crazy secular elitists might think they are, their freedom from government interference and coercion is guaranteed in our Constitution. And there’s a reason that Religious Freedom is in the FIRST Amendment. Losing it means losing freedom in your own head and heart.
I grew up Seventh-day Adventist. They believe God wants them to worship, not on Sunday like most Christians, but on Saturday, which they interpret to be the Sabbath of the 10 Commandments. I’m no longer a part of that communion, and it might be easy for those who do not see things their way to say the SDA’s should just “get over it” and join the rest of the world. But that’s not how faith works. Because tenets of faith are not ultimately provable, no person or government should be able to force another to violate their beliefs. The Obama administration brushed off 22 percent of the US population because the True Believers on the Left thought it was silly to be against contraception.
Obviously, not all Catholics abstain from birth control, but that’s not the point. The Church’s teaching is clear and should be protected from clueless, crusading politicians.
And just how clueless is the Obama administration? Two of the four Republicans still in the race for nomination are Catholic. The TV spots pretty much write themselves.
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