Posted on 02/28/2012 11:30:39 PM PST by neverdem
The controversy over the HHS mandate is not a spat about wonkish detail or tribal privilege. It remains a struggle for the principle of religious freedom, the soul of civil society.
America’s Catholic bishops have overstepped: so say the editors of the Jesuit America magazine. Sure, they grant, the bishops were right to protest when President Obama required Catholic institutions to pay for insurance coverage of contraceptives, sterilizations, and abortion-inducing drugs. After all, they noted, the Church’s shepherds were backed up by liberal “Catholic journalists, like E.J. Dionne and Mark Shields, and politicians, like Tim Kaine and Robert P. Casey, Jr.” But now Obama has “announced a compromise solution” and regained the support of these figures. So what began as the Church’s struggle for its “freedom . . . to define” itself is now (according to America’s editors) a quibble over “fine points of public policy.” What was originally the bishops’ “defense” is now a “campaign.” They are being “wonkish.” They have gone “too far.”
The America editorial, like the President’s “accommodation,” seems premised on the idea that rhetorical ingenuity can alter the facts. But facts are stubborn. There was in fact no compromise, only a vague promise. And even if revised as the President promised it would be, the mandate would remain an assault on religious freedom and the rights of conscience. That is why, despite the predictable defections of a few liberal Catholic figures and editorial boards, the bishops have been joined in rejecting the “compromise” as unacceptable by prominent Protestant, Eastern Orthodox, Jewish, and Muslim leaders, as well as by hundreds of scholars representing a wide spectrum of political views—clergy and scholars including Stanford Law School’s great religious liberty scholar Michael McConnell, a Protestant; distinguished Jewish scholars Rabbi Meir Soloveichik and Rabbi David Novak; and the eminent Muslim...
(Excerpt) Read more at thepublicdiscourse.com ...
Nice to see that the Jesuits haven’t succumbed to such mundane trivialities as principle, Church teaching, obedience and modesty. /S
St. Ignatius was not famous for his good humor: he and Calvin were alike in that way. What he would do with these characters!
Ping!
The Jebbies are all about seeming ‘sophisticated’ to their liberal friends. That’s why the Bishops standing tall against this mandate embarrasses them.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.