The Obama administration is now telling liberals that it is not backing down on its new health-care mandate, even as it coos of compromise to religious groups appalled by it. These messages may seem to be contradictory, but actually the administration has been quite consistent: Nothing it has ever said on this issue has been trustworthy.
Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, has been the leading misleader. The administration, recall, has decided that almost all employers must cover contraception, sterilization, and abortifacients in their employees’ insurance plans — even if those employers are religious universities, hospitals, and charities that reject those practices.
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So she has tried to make the mandate seem more moderate than it is. In USA Today, she writes that “in the rule we put forward, we specifically carved out from the policy religious organizations that primarily employ people of their own faith.” Taken at face value, this statement would seem to imply that Notre Dame could escape the mandate if it fired its non-Catholic employees. That policy would be outrageous: What gives the federal government the legitimate authority to tell a religious institution how it should structure its mission? But in fact the administration would make the university jump through several more hoops. It would also have to expel its non-Catholic students. And even these changes would not be enough, since the university would continue to do much more than attempt to inculcate religious beliefs in its students — which is another test the administration requires for the exemption to apply.
Sebelius says that three states have religious exemptions as narrow as the one the federal government has adopted. The notion that the federal government is imposing the model of three very liberal states — New York, Oregon, and Vermont — on the entire country is not comforting. But even in those states, some employers have been able to sidestep the mandates by, for example, organizing their insurance under federal regulation, which until now has not overridden conscience. The new mandate eliminates that escape route.
Joel Hunter, one of Obama’s pet pastors, says “this policy can be nuanced.” (“I have come to bring nuance,” as Matthew 10:34 does not say.) He is wrong. Either the administration will back off, and allow religious organizations to follow their consciences, or it will not. If it chooses the former course, it may still find a way to increase access to contraception — which is not especially scarce, by the way — but it will have to replace its current policy, not just “nuance” it.
Two bills in Congress would reverse the administration’s policy. Senator Roy Blunt (R., Mo.) and Representative Jeff Fortenberry (R., Neb.) have legislation to protect conscience rights generally. A bill from Senator Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) would allow religious groups to refrain from providing sterilization and contraception. Both bills are praiseworthy, but both have drawbacks. The former, broader bill might allow liberals to conjure up hypothetical scenarios — what if a pharmacist decided he had a moral objection to painkillers? — rather than address the administration’s hostility to religious freedom.
The narrower bill, on the other hand, would leave conscience rights weaker than they were at the start of the Obama administration. Before Obamacare, a businessman had no obligation under federal law to provide health insurance covering anything he considered immoral. Whether his objection was moral or religious did not matter, and nor did whether his organization met criteria an administration in Washington, D.C., had established. Leaving these matters to individual consciences and free labor markets has worked fine, and not seriously impeded anyone’s access to needed medical services. Any “compromise” the administration offers should be measured against this standard: the standard of the pre-Obama American tradition of religious freedom, a tradition that has constitutional protection even if it lacks the administration’s sympathy.
editor’s note: This article has been amended since its initial publication.
Kathleen Sebelius is an unprincipled politician who puts her far left ideology above everything else, including the truth. She is the former Governor of Kansas who repeatedly came to the defense of a doctor who performed questionable late-term abortions, not for the poor and the lost, but for those who could afford his very high fee. In fact, she, with the help of the liberal media and other pro-abortion advocates, led the vendetta against the prosecutor who attempted to bring a man who slaughtered full-term babies for $5,000 each to justice. And she is the former Governor of Kansas who went on national television following a natural disaster in her state and claimed they were without sufficient emergency responders and equipment because war-mongers in the Bush administration had sent their personnel and equipment to the Middle East. Of course, we later found out that was a lie, but Kathleen Sebelius didn't care. She was determined to transform a tragedy into a political opportunity and the truth wasn't going to stand in her way. We shouldn't be surprised at her behavior as HHS Secretary, as she behaves no differently in that capacity as she behaved as Governor of Kansas. As a far left liberal.
I will try this again. You must be a Kansan as I am. How this evil personafied ever became govenor in my wonderful state is beyond me. The two examples of her liberalism are always on my mind whenever I think of her (shudder).
Would there be an equal hue and cry if instead of Bishops leading this protest it was a group of leading Imams? If instead of contraception the issues were clitoridectomy or the wearing of the burqua?
Are we to be ruled by theocrats from Rome, Mecca or elsewhere?
Or are we our own masters in a free republic founded on a separation of church and state?
I have an idea: why don't our linguini-spined American bishops excommunicate this apostate, Kathleen Sibelius, publicly, on EWTN? This would show the Obama Regime the electorial power of America's Catholics, rally more of the faithful to oppose these insane regulations, and in the process of doing all this, inject some steel into the backbones of many of our clergy, high as well as low.
Enough with the kumbaya, touchy-feely dogma of the post-Vatican II church. Let's begin to act like the thinking, observing, believing, tough Catholics that were our grand-parents, those Catholics that defeated the Nazis, Imperial Japan, and eventually atheistic Communism. And for those "Catholics" to whom this may be too confrontational, there's always the Episcopals; I hear that they are looking for new members, frantically.
On The World Over this week there was a discussion of Kathleen Sibelius between Raymond Arroyo and a guest. She hasn't been to Mass in years and has excommunicated herself from the Church. In addition her Bishop has asked that Catholic Clegy refuse to offer her Communion.
I've read the US Constitution forwards and backwards, upside down, right side up, and in a mirror. Nowhere do I see the phrase that guarantees citizens the right to fornicate like rabbits without being responsible for the consequences. The bottom line is if you want to play then you've got to pay... I'm not going to pay FOR you.
"The narrower bill, on the other hand, would leave conscience rights weaker than they were at the start of the Obama administration. Before Obamacare, a businessman had no obligation under federal law to provide health insurance covering anything he considered immoral."
The even greater point that must not be lost in this debate - lest we accept capitulation on this particular point as a great battle victory and proceed to lose the war - is that the government should not have the power to tell anyone, individual or corporation, either to purchase health insurance or to tell then what has to be included in that insurance, immoral or not.
Obamacare itself is the issue. The violation of religious beliefs is only one manifestation of its wrongness.
This is a point I have tried to make at every chance I can. You have captured my sentiments eloquently and to the point.
Even if the administration backs down or a law is enacted from Congress, there is still this bureacracy that can threaten to impose an edict that disrupts any person's or organization's protected rights. Or the HHS could find an alternative measure to accomplish the same task, but at a time when there is less political backlash. The mere threat of this requires the victim to acquiesce, out of fear of having to pay for lawyers to overturn the decision. (The Catholic Church and the other amicus faiths can an ill afford the legal fight they now are waging, as it is.)
"Obamacare delenda est!" should be the motto that finishes each story concerning this particular edict and all the others that are surely to follow. Now is a great time to rally support from moderate Democrats in both houses to join Republicans in defending citizens against tyranny and eventually repealing the Act.
We absolutely must NOT capitulate on this issue. No tweaking will suffice. The primary issue before us is whether we are a free society, in which individuals may pursue their dreams and live their lives according to the dictates of their conscience.
Those who imposed Obamacare on us believe that government is rightfully our conscience. We see this in the hostilities mounted against social conservatives on all fronts right now. If we do not stand for our constitutionally protected right to live our lives according to our beliefs, we will have lost what I value most about being an American.
This administration is not to be trusted. Its actions are completely consistent with its totalitarian dreams. No compromise. A complete repeal of Obamacare is required, and nothing less.
For too long we have let the socialists demand a mile of our freedom, then "compromised" with then and declared a great "victory" when we "limited" them to "only" a half mile. Only to refight the battle for another "victory" a few months or years later, at the end of which we find ourselves miles in the hole. NO MORE!!! Time to push back. Time that THEY give ground in the "compromise". This should be the first battle of the restoration of the Republic.
Thanks for saying this - I was afraid no one else had realized the broader issue here. That's why Republican bills to "correct" this outrage only for churches is insufficient and, in fact, a bad idea. The violation of the individual's conscience is part and parcel of Obamacare, and an important argument in the election: if you want freedom of conscience, you MUST vote Republican. It's strange that Marco Rubio and others don't recognize the political opportunity that this latest case of Obama's overreach has put into their laps. Are they completely inept?
All good Christians should unite with the followers of Peter on this issue where the forces of darkness in the US government will use their full legal and regulatory powers to attack the Holy Christian Church.
If the government can tell us to kill unborn children then the government will tell us how to think, act, and fully do.
This is a fight of good vs. evil. It's quite clear the pandering politicians would lie, cheat, and steal in their quest to aid the works of the devil.
Never forget Satan tempted Christ when he said "if you bow down before me I'll lay the world at your feet."
The Obama administration has bowed down to Satan in their dark sacrament of abortion. They practice human sacrifice to appease the god of secular humanism.
The Soviet Union pushed state sponsored abortion on their people. Obama and his minions will do the same to the Church of Peter. This must be fought. And with the Holy Lord's blessings we will win. Why? Because on this we are right!
Note, this poster is a Lutheran and that is the faith that started the Reformation. However, on this issue we must be united with the Catholics. We must stand against evil.
Never forget: "Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death." Exodus 31:15
Whew, god must not have been watching when I went into work last Sunday... so glad no on KILLED me.
I love how people who hold rigid religious ideology to be truth somehow allow themselves to selectively pick and interpret the bible to suit whatever ill-founded belief they've managed to conjure up. How you don't explode from cognitive dissonance is beyond me.
Here's another favorite: Leviticus 20:13"If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads."
Cool, let's just kill all the gay people! It's defensible because the bible said it's OK.
