President Obama has managed to do what few others have. In one short, bumbling press conference, he galvanized members of the various faith communities into a united voice for religious liberty.
At first, it appeared like the president was in the mood for a compromise on his mandate for health care coverage. It looked like he was about to exempt all religious organizations from paying for coverage that violates the consciences of religious organizations.
But upon further examination, the details were the same. The same abortifacient drugs and sterilization were being forced upon people. The Church still had to offer health plans that were abhorrent to their religious beliefs. The only accommodation was that the churches did not have to directly pay for them. In a sleight of hand move, the president was ordering insurance companies to pay for the benefits he deems they must have.
Unfortunately, some Catholic groups that depend on federal funds for their very existence had a knee-jerk reaction and endorsed the president’s “compromise.” The Catholic Health Association said it felt that the president had moved enough that they could live with his plan. Catholic Charities USA at first issued a statement praising the president’s action but one day later withdrew it and offered a more reserved statement saying it hoped they could work things out with the administration.
The U.S. Bishops took a little more time to study the details and finally said it was not in agreement with the president and still hoped that the whole mandate would be scrapped.
The issue is not so much the moral dilemma of abortion-inducing birth control pills and sterilization, but the recognition of religious freedom. People of faith in America have been guaranteed the right to be who they are and to follow their beliefs. The president’s direction is to curb some of those rights and tell churches how they should be behaving. This is the secular religion at its worst.
In a phone interview with Catholic News Service in Washington, Bishop William E. Lori of Bridgeport, Conn., chairman of the U.S. Bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty, echoed what Cardinal-designate Dolan said about the need for legislative action to enact a religious right to conscience protection into federal law.
“Our religious freedom is too precious to be protected only by regulations,” Bishop Lori said. “It needs legislative protection. More legislators, I think, are looking at it. There’s more bipartisan support for it. There should be a lot pressure exerted on Congress to pass it and for the president to sign it.”
Cardinal-designate Dolan, in Rome for the consistory that will make him a cardinal, said there are lawyers who have come forth and offered their services pro bono to help the Church pursue its inalienable rights.
The issue of religious liberty now has become a campaign issue. Republicans have jumped on the issue, promising to rescind Obamacare as soon as they win back the White House.
If the current administration prevails, it will only be a matter of time before abortion becomes the next “benefit” in everyone’s health care package even though it has nothing to do with someone being ill.
This is the slippery slope about which we have been warned about. First, it’s birth control. Then, it’s abortion, to be followed by mercy killing, etc. It doesn’t stop until we take a stand and say enough. That time is now!
