Posted on 02/11/2012 6:51:35 AM PST by NYer
.- Evangelical and Jewish leaders declared their solidarity with Catholics on Feb. 10, as the Obama administration sought to quell controversy over its policy on contraception and religious ministries.
“Stories involving a Catholic, a Protestant and a Jew typically end with a punch line,” wrote Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington, D.C., Prison Fellowship founder Charles Colson, and Manhattan-based Orthodox Rabbi Meir Soloveichik in a Wall Street Journal editorial.
“We wish that were the case here, but what brings us together is no laughing matter: the threat now posed by government policy to that basic human freedom, religious liberty.”
They criticized Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius for her Jan. 20 decision on religious employers' coverage of contraception, saying the rule “stands the First Amendment on its head.”
“Instead of encouraging the different faith communities to continue their vital work for the good of all, the Obama administration is forcing them to make a choice: serving God and their neighbors according to the dictates of their respective faiths – or bending the knee to the dictates of the state.”
The Jewish and Evangelical leaders joined Washington's archbishop in opposing the administration's attempt to require religious ministries – including schools, hospitals, charities, and media outlets – to subsidize contraception, sterilization, and abortion-causing drugs in their health plans.
Only ministries that primarily served and employed members of their own faith, for the sake of promoting “religious values,” were to be held exempt from the rule.
After three weeks of uproar, led by over 170 Catholic bishops, the administration announced a new policy on Feb. 10.
In place of the policy forcing many religious ministries to purchase plans covering contraception and sterilization, the new rule shifts the burden to these institutions' insurance providers – requiring them to offer the “preventive services” without a co-pay.
The administration claimed that under the new policy, “religious organizations will not be required to subsidize the cost of contraception.”
But critics said the administration was only shifting the subsidy, by forcing religious employers to contract with insurance providers offering the controversial services.
Catholic League President Bill Donohue responded to Friday's revised rule by predicting the president would soon see Catholics “team with Protestants, Jews, Mormons and others to recapture their First Amendment rights.”
Friday's editorial from Colson, Soloveichik, and Cardinal Wuerl offered a preview of that prospect, as they explained that the administration's attempt to mandate contraception coverage was not just offensive to Catholics.
“Coverage of this story has almost invariably been framed as a conflict between the federal government and the Catholic bishops,” they observed. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”
“Under no circumstances should people of faith violate their consciences and discard their most cherished religious beliefs in order to comply with a gravely unjust law. That's something that this Catholic, this Protestant and this Jew are in perfect agreement about.”
Two days earlier, Colson co-authored a Christianity Today editorial with Beeson Divinity School Dean Timothy George, stressing Evangelicals' duty to unite with Catholics against the contraception mandate.
In their column “First They Came for the Catholics,” George and Colson said Evangelical Christians “must stand unequivocally with our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters. Because when the government violates the religious liberty of one group, it threatens the religious liberty of all.”
Employers who violate the HHS mandate, and who thereby fail to provide the coverage HHS deems necessary under Obamacare, incur an annual penalty of roughly $2000 per employee. More precisely, as I understand it, the base penalty is $2000 x (number of full-time employees minus 30), and the base is increased each year by the rate of growth in insurance premiums. So, for example, Belmont Abbey College (one of the two plaintiffs already challenging the HHS mandate), which has 200 full-time employees, is facing an annual base penalty of $340,000. Colorado Christian University (the other plaintiff) has 280 full-time employees and is facing an annual base penalty of $500,000.
Obama is clearly out of his right mind. I wonder if his real motivation is that he wishes someone had made sure his mother used contraception or had an abortion, because his own birth was such a terrible “punishment” for all the adults in his life.
This time, the wannabe is coming for the Catholics first.
PS. Constitutional scholar my @ss...
These folks are coming after believing Christians. A time is soon coming where, like smokers, Christians will have to congregate in the shadows...and worship against the will of political correctness adherants.
The time is coming. We will be marginalized, scoffed at by big name media personalites on places like HBO, and NBC. NPR will interview people who will call for the legal ban of Christian “bigots”...we will face jail and worse.
Do we not see where this is headed?
Obama isn’t out of his mind, but we are if we putup with this crap.
This thing has far reaching tentacles.
If he gets away with this ,no telling what will be next.
The Constitution means nothing to Obama nor to many of the members of Congress . Members of both parties.
Finally, after three years.
Obama has shown that he CAN unify the country.
He is chipping away at our freedoms, one at a time, and it all seems to be enclosed in the Obamacare package, that no one could read.
My questions: Where is Congress on this, bring the bill back up NOW. This is an emergency.
Where is the SUPREME COURT, why wait until June/July. Dammit we don't have time to wait. This is an emergency.
Oh, excuse me. Congress is busy/s on the "fast and furious" thingy, on which they won't do anything in the long run anyway.
While we are over here fussing about this subject, OBAMA is in another room making another mess for us to clean up. 11 more months of this, what's left?
God promises that He will heal our land if we humble ourselves before Him and seek His face and change our wicked ways.
All of this is being allowed to happen because Christians have not been obedient to 2 Chronicles 7:14.
I believe this is the beginning of a 2nd Great Reformation in America where Christians put aside their differences and shine the Light of Jesus in one accord.
Why do we have the Second Amendment?
Think we will ever find out?
“Obama is clearly out of his right mind.”
_____________________________________________________
I believe that Obama CLEARLY understands what he is doing because his motivation is twofold:
1. Get votes of the hard left.
2. Impose as much of his radical agenda as possible.
Pray for our nation!
I soooooooooooooooooooooooooo agree with you!!!
Let us pray and fast TOGETHER.
WE THE PEOPLE do have that right, but who is going to make the first move? Talk, talk, talk, all talk sounds macho behind keyboards.
That is who WE THE PEOPLE are now. Just talk.
The establishment knows this and the reason they can get away with anything.
Note: I am disgusted and sick of what we have become, yet I have to also remember that MOST good people are just trying to keep the cayotes away from their own doors, working and paying the taxes/bills. No time to fight or know what to fight against, just ask them.
The establishment has us so fractured. We are, if we are, fighting against many differant things, and not everyone on the same page, even fighting against each other. It is a MAZE, no one knows how to get out of it, we're stuck.
I know this sounds defeatist, but it is simply a fact. I still remain an optimist through the LORD JESUS CHRIST.
What I intend to do today is call my congressman(I live in NJ) and ask what he intends to do about this criminal president.
The fact that he knows what he’s doing does not preclude his being stone cold nuts.
Freepmail wagglebee to subscribe or unsubscribe from the moral absolutes ping list.
FreeRepublic moral absolutes keyword search
Good that people of various denominations are standing together to fight this. May more and more stand up!
Maybe, but, if we say he is nuts, that might remove some of the responsibility for his actions. At this point, I find him VERY responsible for what he is doing.
That is all we have left, other than the VOTE as weak as it is, for when they get to the power the voter is history. But still we try.
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.