The "Hobby Lobby case": What's it really about?

As part of the liberal-minded world erupts in tremendous anger over the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States Burwell vs. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. et al (going so far as the encourage people to engage in sexual relations inside Hobby Lobby stores and even to burn the stores down), it might be good to take a breath and consider what is really at the heart of the matter.

Though many of those dissatisfied with the decision of the Supreme Court claim the decision restricts access to contraception and harms women's overall health, Katrina (a.k.a. the Crescat) rightly points out, "you are not going to die from not having sex." More to the point, contraception was not the issue of the case, as the decision clearly states.

Of the twenty (20!) different forms of "birth control" required under the HHS mandate (which was not passed by the Congress and is not actually part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act), Hobby Lobby willingly paid for sixteen (16!) of them.

Here we should pause to ask an important question, which Katrina brilliantly asks:

So I ask – birth control of all things?! I mean of all the drugs out there that people actually need to survive, why something as selective as birth control. No one is going to go into heart failure, kidney failure or diabetic shock without their Yaz. So what the hell, people! I seriously don’t know how anyone can legitimately think free contraception is a dandy idea and a good use of tax payer and government funds. 

I could have asked every single one of my patients what drug they would love to have for free and I can guarantee not a single one of them would’ve said, “Hook me up with some free condoms and pills, please.” Has anyone in our administration ever even met a sick person or someone suffering from a chronic disease and asked them what medications they would like Uncle Sam to foot the bill for?

The government has not yet offered to pay for my arthritis medicine, which I need to move each day. Why? No one will - or, perhaps, can - answer her question.

Back to the case in question. The four forms of contraception to which Hobby Lobby objects (one device and three medicines) do not prevent conception, but instead prevent the implantation of a fertilized egg; this is not contraception but abortion, as even the Obama administration has admitted.

N.B.: The issue before the Supreme Court was not contraception, but abortion and the free exercise of religion (even if the media and liberal politicians maintain otherwise, as only someone who has not read the decision could do).

So the rhetoric of the "war on women" goes on, despite the fact that a majority of the decisions that led to the declaration of the HHS mandate as unconstitutional were given by female judges:

All of this is irritating and frustrating because it is dishonest, immature, and illogical, but more troubling to me are arguments that go along the lines of this meme:

This is another immature and illogical argument, but one far more dangerous because of its lie and deception.

On a friend's Facebook page yesterday, I showed the error of this meme:

So far as I can tell, Islam does not accept abortion as morally licit. At the heart of the Hobby Lobby case was not contraception, but abortifacients. That being the case, inserting "Islam" in place of "Christian" - or even along side it - wouldn't actually change anything.

While it may be true that some Christians would be opposed to the above scenario, I do not think I know any of them. Certainly, the Catholic Church advocates for the free exercise of religion in general and not only of her own, as was clearly stated with the Second Vatican Council's declaration Dignitatis Humanae.

I have never before quoted anything from Joseph Smith, founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (a.k.a., the Mormons), but this quote seems especially apt here:

If it has been demonstrated that I have been willing before Heaven to die for a 'Mormon,' I am bold to declare before Heaven that I am just as ready to die in defending the rights of a Presbytarian [sic], a Baptist, or a good man of any other denomination; for the same principle which would trample upon the rights of the Latter-day Saints would trample upon the rights of the Roman Catholics, or of any other denomination who may be unpopular and too weak to defend themselves.

The issue at hand is the free exercise of religion - of any religion - as protected by the First Amendment. I am unaware of any religion that claims the use of abortifacients on religious grounds.

News round up - April 22nd

Here are several news stories you may have missed:

• At least 9 people were killed and 35 people were wounded (including 5 children) in Chicago of the Easter weekend.

• The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act - a.k.a. Obamacare - may be responsible for a drop in sales at the Quincy Mall.

• Kenneth and Helen Felumlees were married for 70 years and died 15 hours apart. Not that long ago, doctors would have said that Kenneth, who died after Helen, died of a broken heart.

• Government waste is worse than you thought: The Department of Health and Human Services has spends $123.2 million each year on e-mail for its employees.

• Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood whom President Obama asked God to bless, called for "no more babies" because it is "more practical and more humane" for women not to have babies. And still people support Planned Parenthood.

• More than 50% of babies in France and Sweden are born to unborn mothers; in the U.S., 41% of babies are born to unwed mothers. The percentage is better, but it is still far from good.

•  The Prime Minister of Great Britain, David Cameron, has been accused of fostering divisions after he called Britain a "Christian country." Similar accusations will soon be made within the United States of America.

•  Two school districts in Illinois are being sued for failing to protect a child from sexual abuse.

• Michael Egan, previously a child actor, has filed lawsuits alleging sexual abuse when he was a minor against director Brian Singer and Garth Ancier, Gary Goddard, and David Neuman. Egan says there is a "sex ring" in Hollywood through which minors are abused. You may recall that Corey Feldman made the same claim some years ago. Egan says additional lawsuits will be filed in the coming weeks.

A news round up - March 30th

• MSNBC host Joy Reid implies Catholics on the Supreme Court cannot be trusted. And you thought anti-Catholicism was dead.

•  Young men attending university in North Korea now have a required hair style.

•  A man from the north of Italy spent part of yesterday on the dome of the Basilica of St. Peter protesting Italy's economic situation. This was his fourth time doing so. How does that happen?

• The Shroud of Turin will be displayed for public veneration between April 19 and June 25, 2015 in Turin.

• Since the civil war broke out in Syria in 2011, 98 churches, 1,900 mosques, 1,600 schools, and 60% of the nation’s hospitals have been at least partly destroyed. 

• Each year in San Francisco 16,000 children are born and 18,000 are aborted. Welcome to the culture of death.

• President Obama has delayed, yet again, the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Art. As Timothy McCartney said: 

When Obama is done with all his unilateral amendments and delays, all that is left of the bill is forcing nuns to buy birth control.
— Timothy P Carney (@TPCarney) March 26, 201

Curiously, the new deadline is on the "honor system."

A news round up - March 12th

• Police arrested two suspected burglars in Missouri by following their footprints in the snow, one of whom escaped through the squad car window before being captured again.

•  The White House isn't very concerned about Senator Dianne Feinstein's (D-California) accusation that the Central Intelligence Agency violated the Constitution by spying on a Congressional computer network.

• After a thorough police investigation Archbishop Nienstedt will not be charged following an accusation that he inappropriately touched a boy while posing for a Confirmation picture.

• Pope Francis is not the first Pope to ride a bus.

•  The Deputy Administration of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which runs www.healthcare.gov) has testified that the agency is not collecting data on how many formerly uninsured people are signing up for insurance under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

• It goes a bit worse, though, if you can imagine. Two surveys indicated that only 10% of the previously uninsured have signed up for a plan, and of those only half have paid for their insurance.

•  In more ACA news, the exchange set up in Maryland is the subject of a federal investigation.

•  But wait, there's more! President Obama has no suspended the individual mandate portion of the ACA until 2016. With so many waivers and extensions continually be given by the President, one must wonder why he is so adamant that religious organizations must violate their consciences to dispense abortion-inducing drugs and contraceptives.

• This must be the day for ACA news. President Obama is now urging citizens to drop their cable and cell phones in order to be able to afford to pay for their now required insurance (though now, given the above, it isn't so mandatory). Keep in mind, however, before the ACA insurance costs were more affordable.

•  The United States House of Representatives today passed the Equitable Access to Care and Health Act that would amend the ACA and strengthen protections for religious liberty. It now goes to the Senate where it must be acted upon before the end of the month.

• A group of 200 Catholic employers has filed suit challenging the HHS mandate.

•  Caverswall Castle, in Stafordshire, England, is up for sale. It comes with a moat. And a dungeon.

•  Though Pope Francis remains immensely popular among American Catholics, there seems to be no "Francis effect" in the United States affecting the number of Catholics who worship at Holy Mass or confess their sins.

A news round up - March 3rd

•  Bypassing the Congress, President Obama has eased U.S.A. immigration laws regarding foreigners linked to terrorism while closing borders to those fleeing from terrorism.

• A self-styled "gay conservative woman" has written an excellent op-ed in The Washington Times in which she explains her support for the legislation Governor Brewer vetoed last week in Arizona. She notes that "Of all the people in the world who should understand the scourge of living under constant threat of losing life, liberty or the ability to make a living because of who you are, it’s gays. It has been disgusting to watch supposed gay “leadership” drag young gays and lesbians through an indoctrination that insists that in order to have equality, you must force other people to do your will, make them betray who they are, and punish them if they offend you." Please, read the entire piece.

• Just over two years ago, a gay hair stylist refused to cut the hair of one of his clients because she opposes same-sex "marriage" requiring her to find a new stylist. As the "LGBT community" rejoices over Governor Brewer's veto because of claims of discrimination, they acknowledge no discrimination in this case - there are likely others - and so betray a serious logical disconnect. We've not seen stories of bakers or others refusing to serve a homosexual couple because they were homosexual, but only those who refused service for the wedding; there is a great difference and this is not what happened with the hairstylist. This cries of bigotry and hypocrisy.

• Medicare is telling some people that they can stay in their homes to receive needed treatment, whereas the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare) requires them to go into a nursing home.

•  The Walt Disney Company will no longer help fund the Boy Scouts of America.

•  Hundreds of thousands of Jews gathered in Jerusalem to protest new legislation in Israel that would remove an exemption from mandatory military service.

•  Illinoisans have saved some $37 billion since electricity deregulation laws took effect in Illinois in 1998. One wonders what would happen in other industries were deregulated.

•  On Sunday, Pope Francis accidentally uttered an obscenity while speaking in Italian. The mistake he made - and immediately corrected - is an easy one to make given the laws of Italian pronunciation. The media has largely given him a pass on the error; one wonders what would have happened had Benedict XVI made the same mistake.

•  The Islamic terrorist organization Boko Haram killed at least 70 people in attacks over the weekend in Nigeria.

Hypocrsy for the National Day of Prayer?

In keeping with a proclamation of the President of the United States of America given May 1, 2012, we were to have observed a National Day of Prayer on May 3, 2012.  Maybe you missed it; I know I did.

The proclamation of President Obama read as follows:

Prayer has always been a part of the American story, and today countless Americans rely on prayer for comfort, direction, and strength, praying not only for themselves, but for their communities, their country, and the world.

On this National Day of Prayer, we give thanks for our democracy that respects the beliefs and protects the religious freedom of all people to pray, worship, or abstain according to the dictates of their conscience. Let us pray for all the citizens of our great Nation, particularly those who are sick, mourning, or without hope, and ask God for the sustenance to meet the challenges we face as a Nation. May we embrace the responsibility we have to each other, and rely on the better angels of our nature in service to one another. Let us be humble in our convictions, and courageous in our virtue. Let us pray for those who are suffering around the world, and let us be open to opportunities to ease that suffering.

Let us also pay tribute to the men and women of our Armed Forces who have answered our country’s call to serve with honor in the pursuit of peace. Our grateful Nation is humbled by the sacrifices made to protect and defend our security and freedom. Let us pray for the continued strength and safety of our service members and their families. While we pause to honor those who have made the ultimate sacrifice defending liberty, let us remember and lend our voices to the principles for which they fought — unity, human dignity, and the pursuit of justice.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim May 3, 2012, as a National Day of Prayer. I invite all citizens of our Nation, as their own faith directs them, to join me in giving thanks for the many blessings we enjoy, and I call upon individuals of all faiths to pray for guidance, grace, and protection for our great Nation as we address the challenges of our time.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this first day of May, in the year of our Lord two thousand twelve, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-sixth.

The reference to religious freedom the President makes, given the current move of the Administration to force Catholics and their institutions to violate their consciences, is particularly curious:

On this National Day of Prayer, we give thanks for our democracy that respects the beliefs and protects the religious freedom of all people to pray, worship, or abstain according to the dictates of their conscience.

In a second reference to religious freedom, President Obama invited the citizes of these united States to join him in thanking God "as their own faith directs them.

Why is it, then, that the Department of Health and Human Services, following the dictates of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, refuse to allow Catholics the freedom "to pray, worship, or abstain according to the dictates of their conscience."

It's time for the present Administration to be more honest.

The new Kulturkampf

Just over a year ago when the Attorney General of the State of Illinois first moved to force Catholic Charities out of foster care and adoptions, His Excellency the Most Reverend Thomas John Paprocki, Bishop of Springfield in Illinois, made reference to the Kulturkampf of Otto von Bismarck.  Writing in his column in the Catholic Times, he said:

I write all this because we are seeing a different but very virulent form of Kulturkampf gaining ground here in the United States. In our American context, this has been referred to as the “Culture Wars,” which, like Germany in the 19th century, promotes a secular view of the world and seeks to diminish the role of religion and restrict the influence of Christians in general and Catholics in particular. Prominent in this secular agenda are the promotion of abortion and assaults on the traditional understanding of marriage and family life [more].

Bishop Paprocki is not the only one to make this connection.

A couple of weeks ago, His Excellency the Most Reverend Daniel R. Jenky, Bishop of Peoria, said, in a homily that has been very much taken out of context:

Remember that in past history other governments have tried to force Christians to huddle and hide only within the confines of their churches like the first disciples locked up in the Upper Room.

In the late 19th century, Bismarck waged his "Kulturkampf," a Culture War, against the Roman Catholic Church, closing down every Catholic school and hospital, convent and monastery in Imperial Germany.

Clemenceau, nicknamed "the priest eater," tried the same thing in France in the first decade of the 20th Century.

Hitler and Stalin, at their better moments, would just barely tolerate some churches remaining open, but would not tolerate any competition with the state in education, social services, and health care.

In clear violation of our First Amendment rights, Barack Obama - with his radical, pro abortion and extreme secularist agenda, now seems intent on following a similar path.

Now things have come to such a pass in America that this is a battle that we could lose, but before the awesome judgement seat of Almighty God this is not a war where any believing Catholic may remain neutral.

This fall, every practicing Catholic must vote, and must vote their Catholic consciences, or by the following fall our Catholic schools, our Catholic hospitals, our Catholic Newman Centers, all our public ministries -- only excepting our church buildings - could easily be shut down. Because no Catholic institution, under any circumstance, can ever cooperate with the instrinsic evil of killing innocent human life in the womb [more].

On the Square, Leroy Huizinga recently wrote of The White House's Contraceptive Kulturkampf.  In this new culture war, he sees a difference:

Unlike the war waged against Catholics in the nineteenth century by Germany’s Iron Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, a devout pietist Christian, our battle has been joined not only by many of our Evangelical brothers and sisters but also by many Mormons, Jews, and others of good will [more].

Does Sebelius understand religious liberty? No.

On April 26, 2012, Representative Trey Gowdy (R-South Carolina) questioned Secretary Sebelius regarding certain aspects of religious liberty.  Please, watch this five minute interchange and pay very close attention:

Remember, Secretary Sebelius has been tasked with creating most of the regulations that come from the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, yet she does not understand religious liberty in this nation.

There are difficult days ahead.

Fr. Leo on the HHS mandate

I told you so, or the words of a would-be dictator

I was no supporter of the presidential campaign of then-Senator Obama, for a great many reasons.  Repeatedly I was aksed why I did not support his campaign and I offered many reasons why, not the least of which was that we had seen leaders who rose quickly through the ranks sheerly by their charisma throughout history before, and it rarely ended well.

I pointed out the various difficulties with his experience or lack thereof, with his personality and friendships, and with the direction he said he wanted to take this country, but in the end I settled on the simple and proven example of history.

With the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare), one of my former students asked me if it was to time to say, "I told you so."  I answered, "Not yet."

Yesterday when commenting on his decision to appoint Richard Cordray to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (the circumstances of the appointment are, quite frankly, irrelevant), President Obama said (with my emphases):

When Congress refuses to act, and as a result, hurts our economy and puts our people at risk, then I have an obligation as President to do what I can without them. I’ve got an obligation to act on behalf of the American people. And I’m not going to stand by while a minority in the Senate puts party ideology ahead of the people that we were elected to serve.

Those, my friends, are the words of a would-be dictator.  A President does not act alone.

And so, now the time has come: I told you so.

The Administration vs. Catholicism?

Recently Ken Blackwell asked, "Will [President] Obama Destroy Franciscan University of Steubenville?"

It is an excellent and a question brefore every Catholic college, university, healthcare facility and institution.

Blackwell concludes:

The Obama administration is also the most anti-Catholic administration in American history. Never before have tens of millions of Catholic Americans been forced to subsidize the killing of unborn children with their taxes—as they are under ObamaCare. But now they are also forcing Catholic institutions to take part in the destruction of innocent human lives and the maiming of others by paying for abortifacients and sterilizations. As Americans, we must defend our religious liberties--while we still have them. Steubenville is a little college, but there are those who love it!

I can't say I disagree.  The persecution is mounting and does not appear to be losing momentum.

CCI: HHS exemption threatens religious freedom

In a Letter to the Editor in the State Journal-Register, Zach Wichmann, Director of Government Relations of the Illinois Catholic Conference, addresses forthcoming changes in health care regulations, about which I posted earlier.

His letter follows, with my emphases and comments:

Headlines declared “free birth control for all” when the federal government recently issued an interim rule mandating health-care plans to cover sterilization and prescription contraceptives, including the abortifacient drug Ella. But an under-reported provision of the same rule proposed an incredibly narrow definition of religious employer for exemption from the mandate.

The Catholic Church’s teaching on the immorality of contraception and sterilization as a rejection of God’s life-giving design may lack popular support. However, our nation’s commitment to protecting the free-exercise of religion has led to long-standing conscience exemptions from mandates concerning abortion, contraception and sterilization in both federal and state law for health-care professionals, insurers and purchasers. President Barack Obama’s health-care plan, the Illinois Health Care Right of Conscience Act and the exemption of “church plans” in various federal laws are just a few examples.

But the newly defined exemption for religious belief is stricter than anything found in current federal law. Exemptions may now be unavailable to individuals or insurers and apply only to religious employers that meet the extremely narrow criteria of 1.) having the purpose of teaching religious values, 2.) primarily hiring persons who share the organizations’ religious tenets, 3.) primarily serving people who share those tenets and 4.) being a nonprofit as described in the Internal Revenue Code.

Under this proposal, an organization would not be “religious enough” if it served people of different faiths, failed to hire based on religion or did not restrict its mission to the teaching of religious values. As organizations striving to serve all people in need, Catholic hospitals, Catholic universities and Catholic social service agencies would be denied the exemption.

Astonishingly, Jesus Christ and the early Church could not qualify for the exemption. His ministry was not confined to members of the Church, nor did it consist only of preaching.

By ignoring individual conscience and attempting to determine which ministries of the Church are not “religious enough,” the federal government abrogates existing law and undermines the free-exercise protections of the First Amendment. Left unchanged, the final implementation of this provision will present an impossible dilemma: forcing the Catholic Church to either withdraw from public ministry or violate deeply held religious belief through the compelled provision of health insurance coverage for contraceptives and sterilization [which is precisely the goal of the newly defined criteria].

Illinois residents surely cannot accept this threat to religious freedom.

Making healthcare unaffordable, government style?

For a State already several billion dollars in debt each year, the Affordable Health Care Act will cost the State of Illinois an additional $1.3 billion per year.

The State Journal-Register has the story; for some reason I can't copy and paste the story.

Sister Mary Ann Walsh: HHS is trying to define what a religion is and does

Sister Mary Ann Walsh has a great post at the Media Blog of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops on the present course of action for the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act (with my emphases and comments):

When it comes to church-state relations, both church and government historically have watched to keep the government out of church business. The U.S. Constitution acknowledged the significance of the role of the First Estate, when it declared that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..."

It is a clear message that government must not stick its proverbial camel's nose under the church tent [this is the real meaning of the separation of Church and State]. Now, however, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has gone beyond nuzzling its nose where it does not belong. It has plunked itself right in the middle of the sanctuary. It is trying to define what a religion does and does not do [well said!].

This misguided move comes with a proposed HHS regulation to guide implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The regulation for the new health care reform bill demands that all health plans pay for contraceptives, sterilizations and education to use both.

In a tacit acknowledgement that this violates the Constitution's cherished respect for religious liberty, HHS provides an exemption for religious employers -- but with a catch. The church agency can only claim exemption if it primarily serves people of its own faith [which contradicts the very nature and mission of a church; what the exemption describes is more of a sect or cult than a church]. It also must meet other requirements, such as employing mostly people of its own faith.

This means HHS is setting itself up to determine what constitutes church ministry and who Jesus meant when he referred to serving "the least of my brethren."

Catholic hospitals, charities and educational institutions provide about $30 billion worth of service annually in this country. No one presents a baptismal certificate at the emergency room. The hungry do not recite the Creed to get groceries at the food pantry. Students can pursue learning at The Catholic University of America, Villanova or any other Catholic college without passing a catechism admissions test. The commitment to serve those in need, the sick, the hungry, the uneducated, is intrinsic to Catholicism. No federal rule (except now HHS's) says the church must limit its service to Catholics if it is to be true to its teaching. HHS doesn't get the parable of the Good Samaritan, who helped the stranger simply because he was in need.

Look at the numbers. Catholic hospitals admit about 5.6 million people annually. That's one out of every six persons seeking hospital care in the United States. Catholic Charities serves more than 9 million people annually. Catholic colleges and universities teach 850,000 students annually. Among those served are Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Muslims, atheists, agnostics and members of any other religious or irreligious group you can name.

For the time being HHS has given itself wiggle room, saying that the public in the next two months can suggest an "alternative" definition of a "religious employer." That's good because health care reform ought to increase access to basic care, not push religious groups to either violate their principles or abandon service to those in need whatever their religious beliefs.

Meanwhile, the sanctuary is getting crowded. It is time for HHS to remove itself.

Many of us warned that this was coming, but few people listened.