While HHS Secretary Kathleen Sibelius continues her anti-faith pronouncements, many Catholics are finding the most recent decisions to be a “final straw.” The positions taken by the Obama administration does one thing quite clearly: it drew a line in the sand. It calls people of faith to finally, publicly to choose a side.
The pronouncement finally lays bare the fiction of a President and administration who claimed their support for “people of faith”. The stark clarity of the decision to ignore the cry for a conscience exception in the legislation calls every Catholic, indeed every liberty loving person of faith or no faith to see this two-faced administration for what it is.
I say, game on. The ball is now in our court and I pray the Church leadership and faithful amass in a crescendo of voices to reject the mandate and its unconstitutional actions.
Recently I was interviewed on a secular radio program for my thoughts on the mandate and I mentioned that there were at least four non-religious reasons all people should reject this mandate:
1. The mandate assumes that the abortion causing chemicals in some birth-control (a misnomer if ever there was one) products addressed in the mandate are not available for sale/distribution in a myriad of other locations. The idea that a woman is entitled to such products and would suffer undo harm without access is completely bogus.
2. The unconstitutionality of this mandate is patently obvious. By requiring employers-including those opposing such services/products-to violate their religious liberties is a travesty. If the rejection of such a basic liberty is accepted, all liberties are subject to dismissal. And that affects everyone.
3. The very nature of these services/products being mandated to be offered free of charge is an unreasonable financial burden. Again I wonder why these particular services/products are called out as special. Are there no other services equally devastating to women and men’s health that are not in dispute at all? And the requirement to make this all available at no cost whatsoever to the employee adds insult to injury for those organizations seeking conscience objections.
4. Many supporters of the mandate point to the non-profit nature of the Catholic institutions being affected by the mandate as a reason for their forced compliance. At the same time these individuals conveniently forget the millions of tax dollars given to groups like Planned Parenthood.
The Obama administration continues to initiate the battle against families, conscience and children. The moniker of Culture of Death seems increasingly synonymous with this administration and its leaders as Merchants of Death. The USCCB has it right. Like Joshua of old we cry out “as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord”. Game on.
