Earlier today President Barack Obama announced a compromise on a feature of his health care bill that would prohibit religious institutions from denying their employees insurance coverage for birth control. Under the new plan, will be able to get free contraception directly from health insurance companies.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, who helped spark the firestorm of protest on the matter, sent out a statement today announcing that they were “studying” the White House’s “movement on religious liberty.”
The release noted that it was “too soon to tell whether and how much improvement on core concerns.”
“While there may be an openness to respond to some of our concerns, we reserve judgment on the details until we have them,” said Timothy Dolan, arch-bishop of New York and president of USCCB. “The past three weeks have witnessed a remarkable unity of Americans from all religions or none at all worried about the erosion of religious freedom and governmental intrusion into issues of faith and morals.”
Archbishop Dolan has been front-and center in these fights, and a piece in POLITICO this morning noted how he teamed up with former chief of staff Bill Daley to pressure the president on the matter.
“Today’s decision to revise how individuals obtain services that are morally objectionable to religious entities and people of faith is a first step in the right direction,” Mr. Dolan said. “We hope to work with the Administration to guarantee that Americans’ consciences and our religious freedom are not harmed by these regulations.
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I was raised as a Catholic. Or perhaps lowered.
Whatever. But seriously… I strongly disagree with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops statement, which denounces President Barack Obama’s attempts at compromise as “needless government intrusion in the internal governance of religious institutions”. On the contrary, the Bishops comments are themselves a needless religious intrusion upon the proper and legitimate functions of government…functions that serve to promote women’s rights, and equality, and fairness for ALL. No one is coming into our Churches and trying to tell parishioners what to believe. BUT If the Bishops want to start businesses that employ millions of people of varying faiths -or no “faith” at all- THEN they must play by the rules. Just because a religious group in America claims to believe something, we cannot excuse them from obeying the law in the PUBLIC arena, based on that belief. They can legally attempt to change the law, not to deny it outright. And if they want to plunge overtly into politics from the pulpit, then they should give up their tax-exempt status. Did I miss something, or when it comes to the “sanctity of life”, is every single righteous Catholic still a card carrying conscientious objector, refusing to take up arms, totally against the death penalty, and contraception in all its forms? Oh well, hypocrisy is often at the heart of politics, and politics masquerading as religion even more so. This country is an invigorating mixture of all the diversity that life has to offer, drawing its strength FROM that diversity. We need to work together to preserve, enrich, and strengthen this unique experiment – NOT to tear it down with poisonous, paralyzing, and un-Christian demonization of each other.