Faced With Birth Control Mandate, Local Catholics Say Religious Freedom Is At Stake
Speaker, parishioners discuss the clash between the Catholic Church and Obama's Affordable Care Act.
Photos
As the Supreme Court discussed the legality of the Affordable Care Act this week, Catholics gathered in Northbrook to discuss its ramifications to their faith.
At issue is the clash between the Catholic Church’s stance on contraception and one of the guidelines of the act championed by President Obama: a provision that would require health insurance providers to cover contraception and sterilization procedures at no cost to the patient. The provision does not exempt employers with a religious affiliation who hire people with diverse religious backgrounds — like the hundreds of schools and hospitals run by the Catholic Church nationwide. After Catholic bishops spoke out in opposition, Obama said that insurance companies, not religious organizations, would shoulder the cost. But Catholic leaders have not been satisfied with that answer.
Requiring the church to offer birth control coverage at all is a violation of its religious principles, say Catholics like Carl Scheeler, director of religious education at Visitation Parish in Elmhurst and the speaker at a Tuesday night gathering at St. Norbert Church in Northbrook. According to Scheeler, the Catholic Church teaches that contraception is morally wrong because sex should happen only within the framework of marriage and with the goal of procreation. So to ask the church to offer birth control free of charge — even if the money doesn’t come from church coffers — is to ask its leaders and congregants to violate their conscience, he says.
“I think politicians tend to see a problem like this as, ‘Well, how much of your conscience can you violate?” Scheeler said. “You can’t violate any of it.”
“We either follow the law because we’re Catholic and we support laws and the government, or we don’t follow the law because we have to follow our conscience,” he added.
People came to hear Scheeler from as far away as Tinley Park, Orland Park and Palos Park. Many in the audience were members of their church’s Respect Life Committee, a group that advocates for anti-abortion policies both inside and outside of the church.
The lecture was organized by Emilia Yosick, a St. Norbert parishioner and chair of the Respect Life Committee for one of six subdivisions of the archdiocese of Chicago. Originally, she had asked Scheeler to lead a conversation with men about areas of society that affect a marriage. But when she heard about the birth control mandate, she thought, “We have to move, we have to move right now.”
So she asked Scheeler to change the topic of his speech, in hopes that it would mobilize more Catholics around Chicagoland to advocate against the Affordable Care Act.
“They don’t know a lot, and I think that was our main concern,” Yosick said. “We know other things are coming down the pike.”
In his speech, Scheeler talked about the Church’s teachings on contraception and religious liberty and how those relate to the healthcare act.
Although the church teaches that contraception is immoral, studies show that many Catholic women use birth control — a fact often cited by the act’s supporters.
“It’s the only issue where Catholics disagree with the church as extensively as they do,” Scheeler told Patch after his lecture.
Regardless of whether the church is right or wrong about contraception, Scheeler said that he felt the focus on birth control was distracting. The issue, he said, is much larger.
“If it was just about contraception, you’d have a hard time uniting the clergy,” he said. “All of the U.S. bishops have been strikingly united on this issue in a way that they have not been united in the past.”
That’s because what the mandate really amounts to, he said, is a violation of the constitutional right to religious freedom. And if the Supreme Court rules that the act is legal, the consequences could be huge, he added.
“The Catholic Church has an immense health care infrastructure. Our capacity for civil disobedience far exceeds anyone else’s,” he said. “And I think that we would have a lot of institutions cooperating with us.”
Father Bob Heinz, pastor of St. Norbert Catholic Church, said that the church provides health insurance to its employees through the archdiocese. While Illinois law mandates that employers offer some form of birth control coverage, the archdiocese is currently taking advantage of a federal tax shelter that preempts state mandates for religious institutions.
Heinz said that while the birth control mandate would not directly affect his church or the affiliated school, since the archdiocese handles health insurance, the issue was certainly on the minds of his parishioners.
“A lot of people have been talking about it,” he said. And like Scheeler, he believes that Catholics’ civil liberties are at stake.
“It’s really my right as an American citizen to have religious freedom,” he said. “I thought I was given the right to practice my faith.”
During oral arguments in the Supreme Court this week, justices questioned the legality of the health care act’s mandate that each individual must have insurance coverage. They also questioned whether the whole act could stand without that provision. Now, they will meet in closed session for up to three months before reaching a verdict on the Affordable Care Act.
Regardless of how the Supreme Court rules — and even if the health care act is struck down, Scheeler said Catholics should not consider the battle won.
“We cannot forget what’s happened because it’s an indication of what will happen, too,” he said.
Todd
8:01 am on Thursday, March 29, 2012
I dont buy it. Religious freedom is not the right for a boss it impose his views on workers.
Think people what this idea may entail in its logic.
What about paying for doctor visits on the day of rest? What if your boss is from another religion that thinks sickness is gods judgment?
Jim Flynn
10:46 am on Thursday, March 29, 2012
What is wrong about an employer imposing his religious views on his workers ? It is his company. I am sure that there would be a doctor close by that does not feel sickness is God's judgement. The patient could go to another doctor. What if all Catholic Hospital's were to close would that have an impact on health care ? The Catholic Church has already said they would close all their hospitals rather than conform to the law. What then would happen ?
Donald J. Brayer
11:05 am on Thursday, March 29, 2012
This certainly is about religious freedom in America and the right of individuals not to be forced to violate their consciences. Regardless of whether an employer provides free birth control, sterilization and abortifacients, all of those are still available from other sources to employees who want them. The great tragedy is that government has assumed the power to tell us what parts of our conscience we must violate. If this power grab goes unchallenged, many more dictates violating freedom of religious belief and conscience will follow. One would think that would bother all Americans - religiously inclined or not.
John Smith
12:46 pm on Thursday, March 29, 2012
If the Catholics are really that concerned about women using contraception, why are they not interrogating the 80-90% of married Catholic women who are either not pregnant or have fewer children than one for every year of marriage? Since the Catholic bishops are so concerned about the evil of contraception, I should think that they would be subjecting these apostate women to the Inquisition to make sure that they're not using contraception! To do otherwise only exposes the hypocrisy of their position.
Jim Flynn
1:12 pm on Thursday, March 29, 2012
The Inquisition end five centuries ago. It would not matter if all the lay women were apostate. It is not the job of the Church to force anyone to do anything that is why we are all sinners. Even if 100% of married Catholic women were using contraception. Why has that to do with the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. Priest's do not use contraception.
Donald J. Brayer
1:14 pm on Thursday, March 29, 2012
John,
Perhaps you should read the article again. Catholics are not advocating forcing anyone (Catholic or not) to refrain from contraception. It is just their teaching that contraception interfers with God's plan for procreation and the continuation of the human species (i.e. sex is not a recreational activity to be engaged in without consequence). Secularism (the new State religion) is trying to force sex without consequence on all of us. That is the new Inquisition. You must comply with the new State religion and its moral (amoral) teachings, or suffer the consequences.
I believe most Americans want to maintain their freedom of consciense - not just Catholic Americans.
Thank you for listening and God bless you.
Lauren parker
9:06 am on Friday, March 30, 2012
excellent comment John S
Lauren parker
9:20 am on Friday, March 30, 2012
religiously-affiliated institutions already offer birth control coverage to millions of secular women who work in their hospitals or teach in their colleges because their First Amendment amendment rights don’t allow them to pick and choose which laws they want to follow. As the Supreme Court concluded in 1990′s Employment Division v. Smith, if religious organizations can ignore regulations they disagreed with, then “the professed doctrines of religious belief [would be] superior to the law of the land, and in effect…permit every citizen to become a law unto himself.”
Micheal Nelson
11:33 pm on Monday, April 23, 2012
Sorry, no. The local archdiocese usually self-insures. Most Catholic hospitals self-insure and offer services to the local diocese as well as walk-in anyone. Most Catholic universities self-insure or work with the local Archdiocese for a larger insurance pool. If you want to work for them in any capacity, and want employer health insurance, you are not going to be offered contraceptives and abortion services. You can of course choose to work at the secular hospitals anywhere if you feel so strongly about choosing to kill your own babies for free. Obviously you shouldn't work for the Catholic Church if that's the case. Such contraceptive and abortive services are available for free in every state in the nation, so if it's that imperative to the individual, someone can get it everywhere.
The sad part about the nation and even the "cafeteria catholic" people choosing to ignore the Church's teaching is, the Church offers a beautiful method of family planning called Natural Family Planning which works better than any other method for having children exactly when you want them and not when you aren't ready yet. My newlywed wife and I are in year 4 of that and very happy with our perfect results.
McCloud
4:02 pm on Saturday, March 31, 2012
Lauren, you sound like a legal beagle in need of a rabies shot.
cathy
4:02 pm on Sunday, April 1, 2012
Why isn't the Catholic Church speaking out so strongly about people going to war and killing people in other countries. Isn't that of the 'big ten'? Though shalt not kill? Why aren't the bishops AND all of you who think it's ok for the Church to pick and choose what government rules it follows, whining and complaining how the government mandates that humans go kill other humans? Breaking one of the big ten.........that would seem like a much more noble and worthwhile cause.
Bridgette
4:43 pm on Sunday, April 1, 2012
Cathy~ I'm not Catholic, but in regard to your "Big Ten" remark, all of God's ways are noble and important, not just the "Big Ten". None is more worthy then the other.
The way I see it is the reason why the church feels so strongly about this is because it's just another way the government can weasel their way into our society forcing a more secular lifestyle on people that have strong views on many different moral issues. It can be compared to gay marriage rights or the act of abortion. One law can lead to another and another and another and then before you know it all of your religious rights have been violated.
Micheal Nelson
11:23 pm on Monday, April 23, 2012
God feels so strongly about His Laws that he wrote them in stone. "Thou shall not kill" means no war, is of course one of the items discussed when the local Archbishops and Popes speak and write to the presidents of any nation. Look into it beyond than your own limited knowledge and you will find quotes that popes have discussed ending wars with presidents.
Killing your own unborn baby is what abortion amounts to, what the morning after pill amounts to and what contraception amounts to. You are preventing the life of your child which should have been conceived. The woman's choice was to have sex. Then she chose to have her own baby killed. Shocking horror!
cathy
5:49 pm on Sunday, April 1, 2012
Bridgette, I could not disagree more. No religious right is being violated. It's quite the opposite, the church telling the government it is above the law. We have 3 branches in government, not a 4th called the catholic church. They have no right to tell employees that do not share their beliefs they must follow the beliefs of their employer. That is ridiculous. And as far as one law leading to another, I guess making African Americans whole people and not just 2/3 of a person and giving us darn women the right to vote was the start of all this violating madness you speak of!
Bridgette
12:45 am on Monday, April 2, 2012
Cathy,
I respectively didn't see any remarks in my reply concerning the civil rights movement or a woman's right to vote. Comparing someone's religious views on birth control to racism is not even worth replying to.
cathy
7:58 am on Monday, April 2, 2012
Sorry Bridgette, I can make a clearer line for you. Things change. People change. Concepts change. Laws change. Saying that gay marriage is a violation of YOUR religious rights is inaccurate. You can not impose your morals on others just because you think they are correct, just as they did with women and voting or the original standing of African Americans as citizens. Women voting/people as 2/3 of a human=ideology being imposed that is flat out WRONG.
Micheal Nelson
11:47 pm on Monday, April 23, 2012
Sorry Cathy, (below) Lets make it clearer to you. God and His Laws do not change. He wrote them in stone. What is wrong is trying to call it gay "marriage" is the word "marriage" there. Marriage was started by God when He made Eve for Adam, in the same natural way as every animal needs male and female to procreate. Marriage is the base building block of the family, which is the basic unit of all human society. Without male + female x procreation you have no family, no future, and no marriage.
That's the error in your analogy. Secular man can try to call such gay partnerships and unmarried living together partnerships a "something" and give it some kind of legal status if they like, but its not the same thing as marriage and should not have the same name/designation and special legal status as marriage holds.
Sodom and Gomorrah violated nature in ways so offensive to God that He removed them from nature. That's not my judgement, that's my passing on the word of God's past judgement and justice over such matters.
Jim Flynn
7:23 am on Monday, April 2, 2012
Most religions tell people what to do. Jesus tells his disciple to go out tell people the good news the Gospel. Most religions send out missionaries telling people what to do but at least in the Christian religion they don't force to do anything they just tell them what to do. The Church not only has the right to tell their employees what to do they are actually breaking the rules of their own religion if that do not tell their employees what to do. This right to tell people what to do is guaranteed to them by the first amendment, but also in this country you do not have to do what they tell you to do.
cathy
8:15 am on Monday, April 2, 2012
What about the people that don't believe in this particular set of rules and work for a Catholic institution? How does that not infringe on their rights? Didn't we leave England so we would not have this sort of controversy? Aren't we here to be free of the rule of Churches? I think the first amendment covers religious freedom for individuals, so they don't get discriminated against by the government. I have never understood it to cover an entire institution to tell people what to do, I thought it's purpose was opposite that. Even if it is for an institution, allowing people access to birth control does not violate anyone's practice. How does the fact that it is allowed access violate your belief? You are not using it. You are just imposing what you think is true on someone else. And Christians not imposing? HA! Did your history class miss the entire Roaman Empire?
Micheal Nelson
10:25 pm on Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Cathy, thats an interesting interpretation of history.
We who eventually became Americans left England so we would be free of the rule of Kings. Specifically kings imposing a particular religion as THE one state religion. Research the Church of England. Now, that name aught to give a hint right there.
The founding fathers very clearly set up a country governed as best they could design upon Christian principles and practices. If you doubt it then please read their journals and diaries etc. They did not want to designate any particular one Christian religion as THE US religion, and so we enjoy religious liberty yet today.
Where the Obama mis-administration is going wrong here is trying to regulate the Church ministries as if they are merely businesses employing people. They are in fact ministries the Church has done in service to fellow man (of all faiths or none) for approaching 2000 years, far longer than the US has existed.
The first amendment covers the Church's right to define what is a ministry and who is a minister, even employed by the church in a hospital or school. I have faith that the Supreme's will hammer the administration with this in June.
Jim Flynn
8:13 am on Monday, April 2, 2012
I would like to give an example of freedom of speech and religion. I am telling people what to do. I command everyone not to buy gasoline today. Most religions are also charities also providing people what they think they need. Food for an example but not what people want. If someone wants to kill someone they do not provide a gun to them. If someone wants to use contraceptives the church does not give out free contraceptives. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the HSS Mandate will force Catholic Hospitals to provide their employees with contraceptives. Which is against their religion not only to give people of their own faith contraceptives and is also part of their religion not to give anyone free contraceptives. If you want contraceptives go out and buy it yourself. If you want a gun go out and buy it yourself.
cathy
8:33 am on Monday, April 2, 2012
I don't really follow what you are saying but as far as the mandate goes, yes, they are wanting to change the laws so everyone has access to contraception. I don't think you have to get contraceptives under this law so it's not forcing Catholics to take it, it is allowing people who to believe in it, access to it.
Micheal Nelson
10:31 pm on Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Cathy, planned parenthood claims that they offer abortive services in every county in the nation. Contraceptives are now in the generic drug category which is fairly cheap. So anyone wanting them can get easy and cheap access no mater where they live. Any employee of the Church who wants such services is therefor not being denied access, the Church is simply not going to pay for such an offense to the laws of God. If the employee feels so strongly that they want free employer paid insurance to cover their killing of their own babies, they have the free market option to work for any secular firm or institution which offers it. I will bet their premiums will rise to pay for it tho, heh.
Jim Flynn
8:39 am on Monday, April 2, 2012
The government wants to dictate to the Catholic Church Hospitals that the employees of the Catholic Church Hospitals have to be provided by the Catholic Church Hospitals with health insurance that gives them free contraceptives and free sterilization treatment and morning-after pills despite the fact that this violates the conscience of the Catholic Church. This means that when the government controls our healthcare, our access to it, tells us what we must buy, tells us to do things that are against our faith convictions, we no longer rule the government; the government rules us.
cathy
8:49 am on Monday, April 2, 2012
No it does not. If you don't believe in it, you don't have to do it. It allows for people who do believe in it access to it.
Jim Flynn
8:51 am on Monday, April 2, 2012
People who believe in contraceptives already have access to contraceptives all they need to do is to go out to buy contraceptives. Does it mean that because the Catholic Church Hospitals do not provide free contraceptives that people do not have access to contraceptives ?
cathy
8:56 am on Monday, April 2, 2012
Really? You don't know the answer to that? They are going to pass a law that mandates that all employers allow FREE access to these things. it would be a infringement of the first amendment to tell people who are not catholic they must pay for it.
Micheal Nelson
10:14 am on Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Cathy, you have it backwards. it would be an infringement of the first amendment for the govt to force a religious institution/church ministry to violate its own basic beliefs and practices. To force *secular* business across the nation to offer free access to their employees is fine for the govt to do. People have a choice then of whom to work for and pay for via that choice, and of course to use or not use such services. Forcing the church ministry to violate its principles (or not) takes nothing away from secular people working for secular hospitals and universities if they so choose.
The govt is trying to define what is a Church ministry as a "church owned business." that is their error which the Supremes have already hinted at will be the kingpin of blowing this particular HHS mandate or the whole of Obamacare out of the water.
Bridgette
9:18 am on Monday, April 2, 2012
You need to let it go Jim. Both sides have strong beliefs. I commend you for having class with out a hint of sarcasm in your answers. Well done!
Jim Flynn
9:21 am on Monday, April 2, 2012
Does that mean that as things are right now there is an infringement of the first amendment happening right now before the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act The Supreme Court will make known in June whether the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is Constitutional or not.
cathy
9:27 am on Monday, April 2, 2012
Bridgette and Jim, neither one of you have coherent, cognizant or even grammatically correct statements. You are just regurgitating things you have heard in your church and within your own social groups. Think for your selves, then think about humanity and actually caring for your fellow brothers and sisters. Open your mind and try to think about what loving one another actually means. Try practicing for all people, Bridgette, not just the ones you agree with. It's amazing the compassion and understanding you will experience. No more comments from me! Take care, peace, love.
Micheal Nelson
9:43 am on Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Cathy, I am not the greatest debater and am not always fully aware of all the best arguments on all sides of an issue. So I am happy to have a huge helpful resource to help me in making moral decisions especially. Seeking a greater moral system than whatever I can make up within my own mind I think of as a good thing. Believing in God I look to Him for a system to follow. God wrote down His laws for the mankind he created to follow. So I feel very comforted knowing I can look to Gods Laws for a moral system to edit my behavior against. It is not going to change no matter how the world changes. It didn't yield to ancient Rome's decadence and it will not yield to America's secular humanism, financial decadence and moral decay. Yes there is an objective standard of moral belief and practice, it is the ten commandments.
To quote the line from the movie “The Ten Commandments”, Charlton Heston (as Moses) says: “You cannot break the law. You can only break yourself against the law."
Micheal Nelson
9:43 am on Tuesday, April 24, 2012
You are welcome to choose for yourself, cathy, to pay for contraception and abortion services as part of your health insurance where you choose to be employed. Catholics make the choice to work for secular companies, most of which have health packages which also offer these services, using the Catholic employees money to offer it. And many of them make the choice to use such. that is their free-will choice to do so. It is of course sinful. And tragic when you realize they are killing their own helpless babies.
This has nothing to do with the very institutions of the Church themselves.
Churches will not pay for such services or allow such to be part of their insurance package for their own employees. Doing so would violate the very core beliefs and practices of the Church. To have a Church which paid for its employees to be able to prevent their own children and kill them easily if they came along? horror.
The government is trying to equate this issue with "employment" and "women's rights" as the issue. What it truly is is government forcing a Church to violate is own basic beliefs and practices.
Mark Nowak
5:54 pm on Thursday, April 5, 2012
We have all observed some Catholics stating how wrong it is that Catholic businesses (not the Church) would be forced to go against their beliefs and provide insurance that covers birth control. Further, I am beginning to read comments from Catholics stating that paying for any health insurance plan that provides birth control is forcing them to sin by indirectly subsidizing the payment/use of birth control.
Correct me if I am wrong but most health insurance companies provide birth control coverage. So, every Catholic who works for a non-Catholic business has been paying into a health insurance plan that most likely provides birth control coverage.
Before this issue became politicized, however, I do not remember the Catholic Church telling Catholics to forgo their company sponsored health plan or quit their jobs because they are sinning. I do not remember any Catholics stating that they can not participate in their employer's health care plan without sinning because birth control is part of the health plan.
Yes, I am aware that a majority of Catholics use birth control. I am just wondering where was the moral outrage of those Catholics now speaking out on birth control coverage in health insurance plans before all this got politicized.
MWN
Micheal Nelson
9:21 am on Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Mark, with a simple google search on "HHS mandate Supreme" I found this forum/thread and many others hits this week. In there I have read where the Bishops acknowledge they dropped the ball on this issue in the US since the 60's. So whatever happens this is a great blessing that the US Bishops are now fired up and will resume preaching the Catholic positions on this and related issues of sexuality. They now see the great sin of being silent and letting go the moral high ground on this issue. So they will retake it. The Catholic position has always been the same. Its been let lapse in instructing the members what are their morally right choices to make in the secularizing world around us, what is the Church's teaching which is based directly on Jesus teaching and God's laws in the 10 commandments. So, they get that and are going into long term action to get back where they should have been all along.
Not to worry, this is a 2000 year institution founded by Jesus Himself. This is not the first time there has been a moral crisis in a nation where the Catholic Church operates. You may have read about one or more of them, say, the Roman Empire perhaps?-)
Jim Flynn
9:02 pm on Thursday, April 5, 2012
People seem to be judging lay Catholics and whatever they say or do. The church teach's, preach's, commands it's faithful what to do. If every single Catholic is a hypocrite what has that have to do with the Catholic Church itself. The Catholic Church is not a Democracy. It Command's people what to do. The Organization of the Catholic Church has strict laws many of which are not followed by the members of the Catholic Church. It has the right to teach, preach, and Command, but in this country you do not have to do anything it commands whether a member of the Catholic Church or not. If you don't like it. Leave it. It is the rule of the Catholic Church not to allow contraceptives. Whether or not members of Catholic Church live that rule or not. The Catholic Church should not have to do whatever goes against it teaching. The issue is not about what Catholic people do. It is about the Church itself and what it commands.
Mark Nowak
10:39 pm on Thursday, April 5, 2012
I understand your point. The Catholic Church does not have to cover birth control. The Catholic Church does not even want President Obama's compromise for Catholic Church-owned businesses (not the Church) where the insurance companies would pay for the birth control coverage. So, for Catholic-owned businesses (not the Church) it is still morally unacceptable for the insurance companies to pay for birth control coverage since the Church views it as contributing/promoting the use of birth control which is a sin. Using the same logic does the Catholic Church consider it a sin if a lay Catholic uses their employer's health insurance plan that does cover birth control?
Note: I consider the Catholic Church and Catholic Church-owned businesses two separate categories given that the Catholic-owned businesses typically accept Federal monies (e.g. hospitals and Medicare) and are subject to the same rules/regulations as any other secular business.
MWN
Micheal Nelson
9:11 am on Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Mark, what you call a catholic owned business the Church has called a religious motivated ministry for centuries. Thru the west's dark ages the closest thing the world knew to a "UN" was the Catholic Church. Ran by sinners who made (and make) grievous errors as men will, yes, but Jesus put a sinful man in charge of the entire Church just days after he violated the most important commandment there is.
Historically during wars the church was a refuge where wounded citizens and soldiers came and whether there were doctors present or not the priests, nuns and lay Catholics did their best to heal them. That grew into Catholic hospitals before secular society developed hospitals and rich people (or groups of them) invested to found their for profit hospitals. It is not a profit motive for Catholics to do this, we are driven by Jesus commandment to "love others as you love yourself." We do this by serving our fellow man whether they are Christian, Catholic or not. We do it because WE are Catholic, not they.
Micheal Nelson
9:11 am on Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Orphans were brought to the Church and adopted out to good parishioners or good people of the local area. This continues today approaching 2000 year tradition. I myself was adopted and the adoption agency was the Catholic Church. I see it as a great blessing and turning what was probably a young couple's sin into a good life instead of my death.
I can't think of any other Catholic ministries which might be considered businesses in the modern world, but I do know the Church does not enter into anything anywhere with the aim to make money. That's kind of the point of being designated a "non-profit".
Jim Flynn
11:57 pm on Thursday, April 5, 2012
I do not know the official teaching of the church. It may or may not consider it a sin if a lay Catholic uses their employer's health insurance plan. It may sound wrong to us living in the U.S. But the Catholic Church does not care what the lay Catholic does, think or say. Catholic-owned businesses typically accept Federal monies and are subject to the same rules/regulations as any other secular business, but The Cardinals of the U.S. have said when these rules and regulations change they will close all of the businesses and institutions of the Catholic Church rather than having to comply to the HHS Mandate.
Jim Flynn
12:31 am on Friday, April 6, 2012
It seems that people direct their opposition to the church based on the people of the Catholic Church and it's stance on contraception. The Church along with leaders the Jewish faith and Protestant's say that this is about freedom of religion.
Jim Flynn
6:25 am on Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Hi Michael Nelson. I agree with you 100%. Are we are arguing about something, maybe you have confused with some else ?
Micheal Nelson
8:55 am on Tuesday, April 24, 2012
hey Jim, when I wrote that it seemed my post would go above cathys reply, like I was replying to Bridgette not cathy. so I added (below) to point at that. then later it flipped under cathys reply and above your next post. sorry for confusion... if I could edit it out it would be even more clear I was replying to cathy
Jim Flynn
6:49 am on Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Hi Michael Nelson. Wow ! You hit the nail right on the head. You said how I feel in an organized and well informed way. We need more people like yourself. would you be interested in the Stand Up For Religious Freedom group ?
Micheal Nelson
8:56 am on Tuesday, April 24, 2012
sure man. I do that already anyway, heh. Knights of Columbus ftw!
Jim Flynn
9:28 am on Tuesday, April 24, 2012
If there is anything you think I could do to help get the message out let me know. I need to be more informed on the topic than I am now. Peace and Thanks be to God.
Micheal Nelson
8:54 am on Thursday, April 26, 2012
Take heart. Even if the Supremes somehow leave some portion of the Obamacare plan in place, there is an ongoing effort to strike down this HHS mandate against religious institutions.
http://www.nationalcenter.org/NPA632.html
also: http://www.becketfund.org/top-ten-victories/
"Newdow v. Carey (2010)
In what the L.A. Times called one of its “most controversial opinions,” the federal Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit decided in 2002 that the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance were unconstitutional. Fast forward several years, and in 2010, the Becket Fund succeeded in convincing the most liberal federal court of appeals in the country to reverse itself.
Representing schoolchildren, their parents, and the Knights of Columbus, the Becket Fund fought to ensure that school children would continue to recite the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance and that future generations would understand from what source their rights derive—not the State, but a Source beyond the State’s discretion.:
Jim Flynn
11:07 am on Thursday, April 26, 2012
Thank You Michael Nelson and Thanks be to God. I feel as though God is using you as an instrument of his peace. I do take heart from what you have sent. I appreciate it very much.