Cue the Protestant applause for Catholic Bishops? Not so fast. Not in progressive Protestant circles, anyway. Read more…
Women who stand in favor of religious liberty
By Helen M. Alvare & Kim Daniels
Like countless other women, we’ve been closely following the Obama administration’s attempt to compel religious institutions to provide contraceptive coverage in violation of their beliefs. And like countless other women, over the past several days we’ve heard House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and others repeatedly ask those who oppose the contraceptive mandate, “Where are the women?”
Here we are. Read more…
February 21, 2012 http://www.thepublicdiscourse.
An ancient example of resistance to a tyrant’s attempt to coerce violations of religious conscience provides an interesting perspective on resistance to the Obama administration’s recent healthcare coverage mandate. Read more…
By Robert W. Patterson
When Sen. Robert Kennedy campaigned for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1968, the father of 10 (an 11th child was born months after his assassination) provoked howls of laughter among reporters when he made it clear that he would neither welcome nor support a government birth control program. Read more…
February 10, 2012
The backlash provoked by the recent announcement of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services mandating all employers to provide insurance coverage for prescription contraceptives and sterilization is an encouraging sign that our nation’s collective conscience is still around. People of all political and religious persuasions rightly understood this as an attack on our God-given and constitutionally-protected right to religious freedom, and the recent reaction of the Administration gives us hope that this right can still be protected when we join together to voice our common concern. Its willingness to reopen the discussion is a helpful start to reaching a resolution, although the details of any such revision will still have to be studied and evaluated as they are made known. Read more…
from The Heritage Foundation
If it weren’t for Obamacare, we wouldn’t have this problem. By “this problem,” we mean of course the Obamacare regulation that forces health insurance plans to provide coverage, without co-pay, for contraception, sterilization, and what many people believe are abortion-inducing drugs. Read more…
By Susan Jones and Eric Scheiner
(CNSNews.com) – Would you go to jail–or even close down your hospitals and schools–rather than violate your religious faith, a Republican lawmaker asked religious leaders at a House hearing on Thursday. The answer, given under oath, was unanimous: They will disobey. Read more…
by Dr. Benjamin Wiker for Tothesource.org
The attempt by President Obama to try to force Catholic hospitals and Catholic universities to supply birth control and abortifacients to their employees has caused a great deal of alarm—both on the part of Catholics and Protestants. Read more…
Dear Friends,
The Sisters of Life join with the Catholic Bishops of the United States, and leaders of many other religious communities, in strongly objecting to the Department of Health and Human Services rule for “preventative services,” and the “compromise” announced by President Obama regarding religious liberty. We invite you to join us in prayer and fasting that our Nation may be protected from this great threat against liberty. Read more…
More from the USCCB Blog….
1. The rule that created the uproar has not changed at all, but was finalized as is. Friday evening, after a day of touting meaningful changes in the mandate, HHS issued a regulation finalizing the rule first issued in August 2011, “without change.” So religious employers dedicated to serving people of other faiths are still not exempt as “religious employers.” Indeed, the rule describes them as “non-exempt.”
2. The rule leaves open the possibility that even exempt “religious employers” will be forced to cover sterilization. In its August 2011 comments, USCCB warned that the narrow “religious employer” exemption appeared to provide no relief from the sterilization mandate—only the contraception mandate—and specifically sought clarification. (We also noted that a sterilization mandate exists in only one state, Vermont.) HHS provided no clarification, so the risk remains under the unchanged final rule.
3. The new “accommodation” is not a current rule, but a promise that comes due beyond the point of public accountability. Also on Friday evening, HHS issued regulations describing the intention to develop more regulations that would apply the same mandate differently to “non-exempt, non-profit religious organizations”—the charities, schools, and hospitals that are still left out of the “religious employer” exemption. These policies will be developed over a one-year delay in enforcement, so if they turn out badly, their impact will not be felt until August 2013, well after the election.
1. The mandate does not exempt Catholic charities, schools, universities, or hospitals. These institutions are vital to the mission of the Church, but HHS does not deem them “religious employers” worthy of conscience protection, because they do not “serve primarily persons who share the[ir] religious tenets.” HHS denies these organizations religious freedom precisely because their purpose is to serve the common good of society—a purpose that government should encourage, not punish.
2. The mandate forces these institutions and others, against their conscience, to pay for things they consider immoral. Under the mandate, the government forces religious insurers to write policies that violate their beliefs; forces religious employers and schools to sponsor and subsidize coverage that violates their beliefs; and forces religious employees and students to purchase coverage that violates their beliefs.
3. The mandate forces coverage of sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs and devices as well as contraception. Though commonly called the “contraceptive mandate,” HHS’s mandate also forces employers to sponsor and subsidize coverage of sterilization. And, by including all drugs approved by the FDA for use as contraceptives, the HHS mandate includes drugs that can induce abortion, such as “Ella,” a close cousin of the abortion pill RU-486.
by Fred Jackson
It appears President Barack Obama’s attempt to calm the storm over his policy of forcing even religious organizations to pay for contraceptives has failed to work. Read more…
President Barack Obama declared Friday he’s found a solution to the HHS mandate that he says will protect religious liberty but also ensure that women have access to free contraception, as he rushed to defuse an election-year issue that threatened to overtake his administration. Read more…
The Obama administration has been accused of telling Catholic military chaplains what they can and cannot say from their pulpits after the Army ordered Catholic chaplains not to read a letter to parishioners from their archbishop. Read more…
Never before in our U.S. history has the Federal Government forced citizens to directly purchase what violates our religious beliefs. The issue here . . . is the survival of a cornerstone constitutionally protected freedom that ensures respect for conscience and religious liberty. -Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston Read more…
by Jim Hoft
Last week Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan lashed out at the Obama Administration for forcing religious organizations to go out into the marketplace and buy a product that violates their conscience. The rule would force Christian organizations to provide free contraceptives, sterilizations and abortion drugs to workers even though this violates Catholic Church teaching. The new rules are so strict that most Catholic institutions will not qualify for an exemption. Read more…
By Michelle Bauman
A letter from 154 bipartisan members of Congress is urging the Obama administration to reverse a contraception mandate that religious employers say would require them to violate their consciences. Read more…
The Obama Adminstration is attacking religious rights by mandating that all health-care plans, even church-run one, must provide cover for abortion and contraception.
On January 11, the United States Supreme Court reproved the Obama Administration by issuing a 9-0 decision against the Government in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC (CaseNo. 10-553). It unanimously rejected the Administration’s cramped view of the religious rights of church congregations in regard to whom they employ as their ministers. An explanation of the case has appeared in MercatorNet. Read more…
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