Last night in Washington, D.C., my friends at the Catholic Information Center held a panel discussion with Jim Capretta from the Ethics and Public Policy Center, Richard Doerflinger from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Kyle Duncan, from the Beckett Fund for Religious Liberty. It is worth watching and you can do exactly that thanks to CSPAN: Link here. Start your day with it, bookmark it for lunch, have it on in the background, or at least pass it on.
Nothing to do with religious liberty.
Everything to do with organizations coercing and victimizing employees who don't adhere to their employers' narrowly held religious doctrine.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI notice that "keep your rosaries off my ovaries" has now turned into "Rosaries ought to be illegal, because my ovaries don't like beads -- and after all, my ovaries should have right of way (even on Catholic church property)".
If you don't like the Catholic church's policies, then you're welcome to apply for employment at a company that you find more 'competitive'.
The idea that the Catholic church should be forced to adhere to secular humanist values is nonsensical. No wonder the New York Times is running articles about how other nations have better Constitutions than we do, and after all it's really normal to change your constitution every 20 years (hint hint!)
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIn 1996, conservatives forced my college--a Quaker institution, which believes strongly in pacifism as a religious tenant--to allow military recruiters on campus. Apparently, back then, conservatives had no interest in defending religious conscience. Or, more likely, conservatives only defend religious conscience when it benefits them politically.
Which is why there was no hue and cry in the 28 states THAT ALREADY HAVE THIS MANDATE for health insurance. Because back when all those red states put these laws on the book, there was no politically advantage to demagoging this issue.
I thought the Catholic Church was all about shame. Catholic politicians behaving so crassly, and the right-wingers suddenly deciding they care about religious conscience, should be feeling some of that just about now.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhile it would help to know just what college you refer to so that I could look up details of the event you mention, I would tend to think that is was wrong then and wrong now. I suspect they would likely have been free to refuse if they 'simply' refused to accept federal student loans and grants like a very few colleges have done.
Sadly, the Feds have seen fit to bribe institutions into surrendering their principles in some cases. Another insidious effect of having the Government too involved in our day to day lives.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse