Posted on 02/09/2012 4:58:33 AM PST by Kaslin
When President Obama signed off on the new HHS regulations that demand every Catholic institution in the country not officially designated a "church" either shut down or offer its employees subsidized sterilization, "morning after" pills and all other forms of contraception, neither the president nor his political team recognized the enormity of the mistake they were making.
In attacking the Roman Catholic Church in America on the question of abortion rights absolutism, the president and his team had thought they were dividing women from Republicans when in fact they were uniting Catholics of all political persuasions in a single front instantly organized against this colossal and unconstitutional overreach.
Here are transcripts of interviews I have conducted with Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum on the issue as well as my conversation with Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix, all of which illustrate the widespread opposition to the president's decision.
Here is the exchange I had with the New Yorker's Ryan Lizza, which demonstrates that the Manhattan-Beltway media elite didn't know what had happened.
And here is my q-and-a with the Washington Post's E.J. Dionne from Wednesday's radio show in which E.J. and I debate whether the president is actually anti-Catholic. (This transcript is co-located with that of the exchange with Senator Pat Toomey on the subject.)
Of course the president is anti-Catholic. How could you not be when you endorse and support a policy that, if not revoked, will close Notre Dame, B.C., Georgetown and every other Catholic college and university in the land, as well as every Catholic elementary and secondary school, every Catholic hospital and clinic, and every Catholic social service agency that refuses to renounce core Catholic teachings?
Not anti-Catholic? Either the Church repudiates itself and its core teaching or it shutters its thousands of branches and severs its arms and legs?
I provide these links as a primer for any person of goodwill left on the left. The policy will not stand. You may not "get it" yet but even a passing effort will acquaint you with the facts: If carried out these regulations will result in a crushing defeat of the president and every even modestly vulnerable Democrat in the Congress. Catholics will not allow this to happen.
"We cannot --we will not-- comply with this unjust law," wrote Bishop Olmsted and many other bishops the week after it was released.
This is not just a Catholic issue. Supporters of the First Amendment's right of Free Exercise of Religion will rally to their Catholic friends regardless of denomination or lack of belief.
If there is any doubt in your mind where this is headed, read through my discussion with E.J. Dionne. E.J. is a thoughtful, serious liberal, a partisan Democrat of course, but a genuinely devout Catholic who is not only deeply troubled by the president's decision, but also vocal about it.
If you look at E.J.'s argument with me, you will also see that his halting defense of the president --a speech here, some subsidies he received decades ago-- simply cannot refute the charge of anti-Catholic animus as deduced from the effects of the policy.
If it looks like an anti-Catholic duck, walks like an anti-Catholic duck, and sounds like an anti-Catholic duck, then it is an anti-Catholic duck.
E.J. intuits this, but isn't yet to the position of resignation to the choice that faces him and every other Obama supporter who is either Catholic or a supporter of religious liberty.
Dionne bristled at the idea that this is a Bonhoeffer moment, but of course it is. The attack on the Catholic Church requires people of conscience to say no and to do so with passion and persistence.
My friend and Salem Radio Network colleague, Dr. R. Albert Mohler Jr., the president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, has very carefully laid out the background and the consequences of the president's decision here.
"[T]he decision of the Obama Administration is clear," concludes Dr. Mohler. "The edict from President Obama to religious institutions is this — violate conscience and bend the knee to the government, or face the consequences."
Everyone has to choose: The president and the power of the state or the Roman Catholic Church and the right of all faiths to be free in the exercise of their beliefs.
It’s all about laying the ground-work for socialism.
For socialism to be imposed, enemies must be neutralized.
The enemies of socialism are always those institutions that allow the people to help themselves. Government must be the fount of all good, and religion in general, and churches in particular, must be eliminated as a social force for good.
Wal Mart has been attacked for much the same reason, they do too much good for the poor, thus they are villified.
Health-care must be the province of government, the private sector simply cannot be the hero here.
Eliminating the charitable deduction is the first step to eradicating charities, and other institutions that compete with government to deliver benefits to the people.
If we are able to help ourselves then we don’t need government do we?
I hope the sheeple are paying attention. This is a huge over-reach by Obama and company, and overtly obviously unConstitutional. If this doesn't wake people up I don't know what will.
I understand Adolf Hitler used the fact that he was born a Catholic? to beguile the German people into he was a Christian when in fact he was more pagan or satanic. I believe the same can be said of Barak Hussein Obama II /Barry Soetoro—whoever /whatever it is.
Just why WOULDN’T this be a shock to the administration?
I can’t imagine a more Godless bunch than Barry’s Boys—can you?
Just why WOULDN’T this be a shock to the administration?
I can’t imagine a more Godless bunch than Barry’s Boys—can you?
Mohammad Soebarkah, thank you.
The Church, and by that I mean both Evangelical and Catholic, has rolled over for every other coercive government entitlement, so the commiecrats were probably a little surprised that they would bristle at this one.
It’s just a tempest in a teapot, though.
Most “christians” don’t care about it and will vote for the Obama0 anyway, because, after all, the “social good” done by coercive government entitlement surpasses the evil of collectivism.
Not only that, but the church continued to give communion to the unrepentant drunk, adulterer, polygamist, and murderer Ted Kennedy. And they continue to administer communion to all the hi-visibility, rabid pro-abortionist “catholic” politicians, basically all those in the DemonRAT party.
The 0bamunists know that and are counting on it.
They’re probably correct.
It won’t really hurt them in the long run.
If “The Church”, Catholic and Evangelical, really wants to put the rubber on the road, they would excommunicate any and all democrats in their congregations, since the democrat party vigorously promotes and espouses anti-life, anti-Christ, and anti-Church policies.
But that will never happen.
The church is too weak and too anemic to really stand for anything anymore.
Very bad move because the uproar will now afford moral support to INDIVIDUALS, such as small business owners, who also are being forced to choose between violate their faith by paying for their employees’ contraception, sterilization and abortion. Of course it will be great if institutions win this issue, but what about our individual religious freedom? We need to include that as part of this fight.
Of course the easy way is to kill 0bamacare.
-——I can’t imagine a more Godless bunch than Barry’s Boys—can you?——
Of course I can. That would be The Messiah’s girls. The Wookie, Hillary, Kathleen
One can only wonder if they will gather at the foot of his cross and cry
They didn’t just unite Catholics. They have united everyone from every religion who believes in the sanctity of life, and beyond that, they have united Constitution loving Americans of every stripe who believe that the First Amendment is NOT to be tampered with in any way, shape, or form by any government EVER.
The free exercise of religion is the REASON so many people came to these shores.
You don’t mess with that. You just don’t.
Rebellion is brewing.
Obama is simply against any religion or religious institution that does not conform to his rather peculiar Islamofascist viewpoint.
baraq is pulling his mask of to show his true muslim self.
Interesting that he is doing this before the election while running for a second term. He is acting like the election is already in the bag.
Hey DJ, EXAMINE your CONSCIENCE.
I talked to a “cradle Catholic” yesterday. He loves the democrat party more than he loves the Church. He said, “I don’t care much about that birth control stuff.” My thought was, if you don’t care about that birth control stuff personally, you still ought to care about the Church and its teachings.
If there's anything we've seen, the Left has patience -- they seem to have taken a bigger step in incrementalism than usual this time.
DJ does not know how to do such an examination, and he also thinks that such exercises are only for other people (e.g. conservatives).
The only standards that matter to DJ is the democrat party platform and DNC talking points. They are his catechism.
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