In a display of its typical arrogance, Roman Catholic bishops — a group presiding over a pedophile priest scandal that has already cost the church $2.5 billion — rejected Obama’s reasonable deal on health insurance coverage for contraceptives. The Bishops, who are trying to impose their antiquated values on female employees who don’t agree with their sexist dictates, claim their objections are due to the White House not offering enough safeguards for religious hospitals, colleges and charities that object to providing such coverage for their employees.
What the Bishops truly want, however, is a sweetheart deal where religious people are given special rights in the name of religious liberty. They desire the creation of an unworkable legal system where religious people don’t have to follow the rules, have free rein to proselytize and violate the consciences of employees, and are exempt from the boundaries that unify society. This was made clear by the Bishop’s disastrous demand to allow private employers to shield themselves from the new health law:
Under the latest proposal, churches and nonprofit religious groups that object to providing birth control coverage on religious grounds would not have to pay for it. Women who work for such organizations could get free contraceptive coverage through separate individual health insurance policies. The institution objecting to the coverage would not pay for the contraceptives. Costs would be paid by an insurance company, with the possibility that it could recoup the costs through lower health care expenses resulting in part from fewer births.
The administration refused to grant an exemption or accommodation to secular businesses owned by people who said they objected to contraceptive coverage on religious grounds.
The bishops rallied to the defense of such employers.
“In obedience to our Judeo-Christian heritage,” Cardinal Dolan said, “we have consistently taught our people to live their lives during the week to reflect the same beliefs that they proclaim on the Sabbath. We cannot now abandon them to be forced to violate their morally well-informed consciences.”
No employee should be forced to “negotiate” their reproductive freedom and health options with a self-righteous boss who myopically elevates his own religious conscience above that of his staff. The idea that we carve out a separate legal system for Catholics, or people from other faith groups, is ludicrous and the antithesis what brings this nation together.
We are the United States of America and we should all be subject to the same laws. It is horribly divisive, and ultimately chaotic, for the Bishops to cynically propose that religious people, under the false premise of conscience, get to create the Divided States of America. What they propose is not all that different than Muslims proposing that they get to live under Sharia law within the confines of democratic state borders. Creating such islands of religious law — in all their slippery guises — is corrosive to society and should be adamantly opposed by responsible public officials.
Every last U.S. Catholic Bishop should be deported to the Vatican and then denied entry visas to Italy and the United States. The Catholic Catechism on birth control is a crock of utter s**t, having nothing real to do with the contemporary world. If Catholic businesses are hiring from the general public, it is none of the Catholic Bishops’ business what those employees do, in terms of their personal health care decisions. As long as the employees are not f*****g on the job, the Bishops have nothing to say about the conditions under which their employees f**k, or use birth control medications for off-label purposes.
I agree Scott. Catholick clergy are actually agents of and lobbyists for, a foreign state and should have to register as such. The Vatican and the religious have gotten away with preferential treatment for years.
I can only hope that this behavior continues to antagonize the romanist church from its more intellectually honest and ethically responsible members: leading to its continued marginalization in the world.
The use of the U.S. Constitution in an attempt to destroy the U.S. Constitution is flawed as no religion has a right to oppose people’s rights, even though they keep trying. It’s the opposition of people’s rights that helped create the previous atricle on this blog and certainly has many leaving their religious denominations behind.
The principle of “separation of church and state” only works one way. According to religious organizations and churches: You (the government) don’t meddle in our affairs and we ( the religious) will tell you how, when, where, and why you are going to do the things we want. It’s so simple. What’s the problem, already?
The President should NO LONGER try to satisfy these bigots. They have no legitimate reason to oppose this except to try to show their power.
Barak!!!!….”f**k ‘EM!!” You will never satisfy them with anything that you do.
The joke is that most Catholic women use birth control anyway.
How could we help the catlicks not to have to pay for birth control…thinking, thinking. I know! Let’s let men marry other men…there’s a win-win situation. I’m surprised they didn’t think of it. Now men can have all the sex they want without worrying about getting pregnat and abortion and all that nastiness.
To me, it all boils down to a very simple fact: No one is being forced to actually USE birth control. If a woman has objections, she is not forced to obtain and use it. If you have religious objections, don’t use it. But don’t force the rest of us to follow your dogma.
The problem with religions (most of them) is that they NEVER stop pushing. When they get enough power, as the Christians did many times in the past, their next step is to torture and kill people for not complying EXACTLY with the demands of the church. America’s own Salem Witch Trials is the perfect example. There are already some fundagelical preachers who want to kill all gays.
Wake up, politicians! Don’t give in to these jerks. Ensure adherence to our Constitution.