The U.S. Supreme Court recently provided a ruling to uphold the Affordable Care Act (otherwise known as Obamacare), failing to stop the Health and Human Services contraception mandate. This act greatly affects American health care — with implications that go beyond what first might be evident!

Since the beginning of the year, we’ve provided insight, news and analysis regarding the intense battle over religious liberty — the freedom to practice our faith in accordance with the teachings of the Church. But many in the secular media — and, unfortunately, too many Catholics — have criticized those who are in opposition to the HHS mandate.

For Christians, however, the central purpose of political activism in a free society is to create a safe environment for people to love and serve God and one another. Freedom is worth having; therefore, it is worth defending. The National Catholic Register supports the same freedom of this basic Christian concept — to create a safe environment for people to love God and to be able to practice their religion as they see fit.

It pains me to say it, but we sharpened the knife that is now sticking out of our back. Any accommodation or common ground that is found with progressives is akin to accommodation or common ground found with Satan.

Click on the link below to see how we (The Catholic Church) helped create the man who now betrays us.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2910038/posts

I am curious to see if Catholic hospitals will refuse to trash their belief in the sanctity of innocent life.

It’s about to get real. Does the Catholic leadership mean what it says, or will it fold? If it folds on this question, Catholicism will be exposed as simply another big business using it’s religious status as a tax dodge.

There are big conflicts going on right now, both within and among religiously-affiliated institutions, both Catholic and non-Catholic, with different factions pushing for different levels or resistance to, or cooperation with, the anti-life government mandates.

As far as I know (and I would be grateful for correction or for additional information) the number of Catholic institutions actually participating in federal lawsuits against the Obamacare anti-conscience mandate is:

49

The following figures are approximate, but they're as good as I could get, combing through several sources:

257

- number of Non-Catholic, religiously-affiliated health care institutions in the USA

538

- number of Non-Catholic, religiously-affiliated colleges and universities in the USA

Number of these Non-Catholic religious institutions which have filed federal lawsuits against the Obamacare anti-conscience mandate is:

3

It seems to me that the Catholic leadership (100% of the bishops) who have voiced/written protests, and the Catholic institutions (49 institutions) which have filed lawsuits, are taking a lion's share of the heat and doing a lion's share of the work here.

Not that it's "enough," but it's MOST OF the resistance.

I would love to see other Christian (and Jewish) institutions step up and do something. Honorable mention goes to Richard Land of the Baptists, and Bishop Matthew Harrison of the Lutheran Church/Missouri Synod, who have made very strong statements against the mandates.

But who else? Who stands with us?

Do you sense my anxiety here?

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.