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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.
This mandate is unconstitutional and can NOT be enforced.
Let’s evaluate Satan’s commitment to Separation of Church and State.
From the Catholic Catechism, regarding Revelations:
675 - Before Christ’s second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will unveil the “mystery of iniquity” in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth.
No, this step is not big at all and it’s simply the next baby step of “progress”. It’s simply the point at which the frogs have begun to notice that the water is too hot.
I am related to at least one. The party means more to him than the Church.
Not sure this will unite Christians, but it will separate the wheat from the Chaff.
Those Christians who do not unite against this are mere murderers, as bad as the abortionists themselves.
This is what Obamacare has brought us so far and we arent even in to it good yet. The whole thing has to go.
Freep-mail me to get on or off my pro-life and Catholic List:
Please ping me to note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of general interest.
You'd think the Catholic Church would be at the head of list of those who know that when you make a deal with the devil, you ain't gonna come out ahead.
To the American Bishops, 'welcome to the battle, better late than never'. I hope you learn something from this.
that’s right. all I heard on Fox radio news was “contraception’ but I have become used to FRN lying and spinning for the left.
God’s Holy Church has faced many tyrants in the past...Nero,Attila,Henry VIII,Robespierre,Hitler..they’re all gone and we’re still here
-—neither the president nor his political team recognized the enormity of the mistake they were making——
Really? Are you bleeping kidding me?
The guy’s a Marxist. Sheesh.
-—Not sure this will unite Christians, but it will separate the wheat from the Chaff.
Those Christians who do not unite against this are mere murderers, as bad as the abortionists themselves.——
That’s my feeling.
Although, it seems that Odumbo has antagonized some RINOs, who seem to have taken the attitude, “I can punch my brother, but you can’t.”
Fox News on TV is becoming just as bad. They use the “HHS Contraception” mandate language. They also spread the misleading “abortion is only 3% of Planned Parenthood’s services” lie when covering the Komen debacle. I am using the term “HHS Abortifacient mandate” when discussing this issue in the social networking world. The Left wants to make it sound like we want the government to go crashing through homes and confiscating ladies’ birth control pills. No, we just don’t want babies killed, and we don’t want the state to force people to violate their Conscience.
Fixed it for you
Actually, while the Obama policy is evil and must be resisted and overturned, the article is a bit overwrought.
The Latin church will not need to close any institutions, just stop offering health insurance to their employees.
And possibly not even that: why not find or start insurance companies in all 50 states that will offer policies legal under those state’s laws, but which violate the Federal mandate? Let HHS have the burden of suing to take away folks’ health insurance to enforce their unconstitutional regulation. Or, cancel all employee health insurance and offer medical care to employees of church-run institutions at church-run hospitals within the bounds of church teaching.
Thanx. Could not have said it better.
“HHS abortifacient mandate” is a better description: it captures the Orthodox objection as well as the Latin.
Indeed they have. They have been pushing on this since the days of Margaret Sanger and TEDDY Roosevelt. Now they see their chance and are taking it come Hell or the high water of the Baptismal Font.
Remind that “cradle Catholic” that eternity is forever.
or so I would guess.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions in sinful minds.
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