The Wrong Type of Values

Townhall.com ^ | July 4, 2014 | Erick Erickson

[Kaslin]

When the rights of individuals clash, both sides should be willing to step back and recognize that both have rights. When in conflict, neither side is truly winning nor losing. Each gets their rights and can disagree. But the political left in America has decided its rights and values are the only acceptable ones in our republic. That they lost in the Supreme Court this past week has sent liberals in America on a weeklong hysterical binge of fact distortion and fabrication.

Last Monday, the United States Supreme Court ruled that Hobby Lobby's owners do not have to provide four abortifacient drugs in its insurance plans. Liberals pounced on this ruling and decried it as discrimination against women, which it was not. They also alleged the Supreme Court had made it possible for Hobby Lobby to deny all forms of birth control coverage, which Hobby Lobby never asked for. The store provides coverage for 16 forms of birth control in its insurance plans. In fact, Hobby Lobby allows coverage for birth control prescriptions to be used for other issues, too. As many are aware, sometimes women are prescribed birth control for issues other than pregnancy prevention. Hobby Lobby's insurance plan covers and permits those prescriptions.

Hobby Lobby's owners are, however, Christians. They believe in the sanctity of life. So Hobby Lobby objected to the government's demands that it provide four medications that cause abortion. The four medications Hobby Lobby objects to are not prescribed for other maters. They are prescribed to induce the destruction of a child.

The Supreme Court ruled that a closely held corporation can, under legislation passed by Democrats and signed by Bill Clinton in the early 90s, avoid the government mandate because the government is able to satisfy its own requirement through means that do not impinge on the religious rights of Hobby Lobby's owners.

In other words, Hobby Lobby's female employees can still get access to abortifacient drugs without Hobby Lobby having to pay for them. The government had already given ample exceptions to its own mandate, which the Court took as evidence that there were other ways to carry out the mandate without burdening the religious convictions of Hobby Lobby's owners.

What is so striking in this case is that the left has spent the last decade demanding American corporations maintain high ethical values and treat their workers with dignity. Hobby Lobby should be a model for other corporations. The business closes earlier than its competitors so its workers can go home early to their families. The business pays well above minimum wage. It promotes its workers internally more often than it brings in outsiders to take jobs. Hobby Lobby closes on Sundays and most holidays so its workers can be at home with their families.

In fact, Hobby Lobby exhibits the behavior the left has demanded of businesses for years. It provides generous pay and benefits, including an excellent retirement plan and health care benefits. But Hobby Lobby is a closely held business. It is not publicly traded on the stock exchange. Rather, it is owned by one family -- the Green family. David and Barbara Green and their family are committed Christians. Christians believe in a doctrine of vocation -- they believe their job is another form of ministry through which they can glorify God. The Green family made a conscious decision to operate Hobby Lobby as not just a business earning a profit, but as a ministry to preach the Gospel. Their business advertising quotes scripture. Their workplace rules are designed to support families. But because they are Christians, they are pro-life and do not want to be complicit in aborting children. Their values reflect that, too.

Unfortunately for the Green family, that one value means their entire company is an abomination to the left. Their generous pay, work hours, and benefits are all for naught because of four prescriptions they refuse to provide. Their religious values conflict with those of the left, and, but for five votes of the Supreme Court, they would pay a substantial price for having the wrong values.

The peddlers of tolerance will tolerate no dissent on this issue.

[gattaca]

Great article.

[T-Bird45]

Agreed and the best thing it does is fully illustrate how liberals have made abortion their secular sacrament, a shibboleth by which you can easily know them.