In one of Philip Roth’s early stories, a character says that “the Catholics” believe that Jesus Christ is God. The narrator notes that the character “used ‘the Catholics’ in its broadest sense—to include the Protestants.” Dan Diamond takes a similar approach in Politico, warning about evangelical Christian influence at the Department of Health and Human Services and using as his key example a man who is, er, Catholic.

We learn all sorts of shocking news about the Department. One of Trump’s political appointees has tweeted that she was praying for Trump’s nominee to head the Department and invited others to do so. Can you believe it?

David French has more on the subject. One passage from the Politico article deserves some more scrutiny. Diamond is trying to explain that the current HHS concern about the conscience rights of medical workers is much ado about nothing. He thinks he has a gotcha involving Matthew Bowman, who worked for the Alliance Defending Freedom before joining HHS.

During the Obama administration, Christian conservative groups had even hailed HHS for its efforts to enforce religious freedom, such as intervening in a lawsuit filed by an anti-abortion nurse against Mount Sinai Health System in New York. “Pro-life medical personnel should not be forced to assist abortions, and Mount Sinai’s new policy reflects that, thankfully, after Alliance Defending Freedom brought lawsuits and complaints to HHS,” Bowman said at the time, four years before he would join HHS himself.

All you have to do to see through the spin is read the quote. Bowman wasn’t saying that there was no religious-liberty problem here, and he wasn’t “hailing” HHS for taking an active role in solving the problem. He’s saying that ADF had to file lawsuits and complaints to rectify the situation.