Catholic Bishop: Obama Administration Birth Control Requirement Is 'Assault On Religious Liberty'
I hope the Obama administration stands firm on this one. It was only a matter of time until the church upped the political ante, and of course a low-life like Newt Gingrich is only too happy to jump on the bandwagon. The American church's hierarchy climbed under the covers with the right wing decades ago, and they're all too happy to tear down the Democratic candidates on command:
During church services on Sunday, Catholics around the country were read a blistering letter assailing the Obama administration for an "assault on religious liberty" in the form of a coming requirement that most church-linked organizations - among them hospitals, schools and universities - offer birth control coverage as part of their health care plans.
Despite strong lobbying from religious groups, the Health and Human Services Department announced earlier this month that most church-linked groups will not be exempt from the requirements - which also mandate that no co-pay be charged for contraceptive services - though they will have an extra year to comply beyond the August 1 deadline.
Churches themselves (along with any other employer that is explicitly focused on offering a religious message, and which primarily employs those who believe in that message) are exempt from the requirement.
Religious groups were outraged by the decision - saying it forced employers at church-linked organizations to violate their conscience - and on Sunday Catholic leaders took their complaints directly to parishioners. As Business Insider reported, similar letters were read in churches around the country complaining that "the Obama Administration has cast aside the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, denying to Catholics our Nation's first and most fundamental freedom, that of religious liberty."
In an appearance on "CBS This Morning" Monday, Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich brought up the letters, using them as an opportunity to attack both the Obama administration and Republican rival Mitt Romney.
"The Obama administration has just launched an attack on Christianity so severe that every single church in Florida had a letter read from the bishops yesterday all across the country - Cardinal [Timothy] Dolan was leading an effort to explain that, literally, freedom of religion in America is now being attacked by Obama," he said. "The Romneycare does the same thing. Romneycare has tax-paid abortions. Romneycare put Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in America, in the bill. No right to life group's in the bill. Planned Parenthood is. Romney himself approved taking away a conscience clause from Catholic hospitals."
(As Hotsheet pointed out earlier this month, Gingrich's comment that Planned Parenthood is part of the health care law Romney signed as Massachusetts governor is misleading, and Massachusetts law mandated that the health care law cover abortion.)
In explaining the decision to require birth control coverage for chuch-linked groups, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said that "Scientists have abundant evidence that birth control has significant health benefits for women and their families, it is documented to significantly reduce health costs, and is the most commonly taken drug in America by young and middle-aged women. This rule will provide women with greater access to contraception by requiring coverage and by prohibiting cost sharing."
They can be angry if they wish. If, however, they get government funding it is just impotent rage. Don't want to be told what to do? Get off the government dole.
I guess without any way to promote that, I'll just say "yeah." They can feel free to not partake of "faith-based" funds that come from non-religious taxpayers.
And start paying income and property taxes, they've been a drain on the system for far too long.
The first casualty of republicanism is the truth.
Party politics are not only undemocratic, they are antidemocratic.
Churches are free to stay out of politics. That applies to Christians, Jews, and Muslims, all the other religions that don't play nice, and the ones that do play nice. The separation of church and state is universal and essential in a democratic republic.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
I can't imagine that opposing "birth control" is a winner for the GOP.
The only voters that get fired up (positively) over something like this never would of voted Democrat anyway. If anything, it would COST them voters.
* There are two types of Republicans: millionaires and suckers.
"Mugsy's Rap Sheet": Recording history for those who seek to rewrite it.
... is made up of celibacy people who don't have sex (technically) make up the rules for the people who do have sex? How fucked up can you get!
When considering what is right or wrong, the Catholic Church is not high on my list as an authority.
weren't receiving tax breaks/exemptions, involuntarily-subsidized by nonbelievers, their whining might not be so easily, and rightly, ridiculed.
Let's use the perfect term here, it's God's Will that this birth control requirement be implemented, surely these supposedly pious believers AKA screeching idiots, don't think they know better than God, do they?
Oh, that's right, they don't think they know better than God, they think they ARE God.
If you take their position to the end of the thought it would mean that any religious person who owned a business of any kind could require all of their employees to abide by the teaching of their church whether they themselves did or not and in spite of the employees being of a different denomination or even no denomination. I do not think the words religious liberty mean what the Bishops think they mean.
fuck religion
Funny thing is the Catholic church did nothing to stop the priests from assaulting little boys, but offering free birth control to those that want it is an assault on the Church. Fuckem.
if giving someone a condom is against your religion you might want to revaluate your religion.
"I hope the Obama administration stands firm on this one."
Too late, I think. The administration has clarified the policy, stating that the church can deny covering OC for Catholic employees, which I assume is most. The policy still stands, as written, for all employees of Catholic hospitals.
One wonders how long the Catholics will take to realize their newfound wimmins-hating buddies the teahadis are directly descended from the John Birch Society, which was still passing around darkly-conspiritorial smears about the Pope last I checked...
Either that, or somebody will point out that this is EXACTLY the sort of "imposing religious law on MERRIKANS" shit that they love to scream about.
As the great iconoclast offerred up in one of his HBO specials, if the churches, including that monstrous and deluded band of papists, wish to be part of the discourse with the citizens then they should pay the admission price -- a.k.a., taxes. Otherwise, they should retreat to their denizens of deceit and STFU.
"Secular humanism -- a fearless, realistic world view replete with doubt and scepticism that attempts to attain an unachievable state of equilibrium between and among the human qualities of reason, intuition, imagination, memory, ethics and common sense.
* Jesus was baptised by His cousin, John
* Jesus went into the wilderness and was thrice tempted by Satan
* Jesus overcame the temptations offered by Satan
* These people are afraid of the temptation that contraception offers to them
* They want to take away the temptation, rather than overcome the temptation
* That is not " Christ like"
And so it goes...
Show me a monotheistic god worshiper that is "Christ-like" and I'll have to double-check which planet I'm on.
"I hope the Obama administration stands firm on this one." Hahahahahahaha! Good one! 0bama! "Stands firm"! Hahahahaha!
The only question is how much he's selling his capitulation for.
The lefter I go, the righter I get...
With the "base" behind him so strongly, as you've just displayed, why wouldn't Obama stand firm?
The hard headed never learn.
to paraphrase the great George Carlin
If you want to voice your political opinion pay your entry fee!!
It's called "TAXES"!!!!
so simple, yet so perfect a description of the guy.
me-oww!
If the churches are so interested in getting involved in the political lives of their parishioners and the nation maybe the nation should begin taxing them like anyone else, we sure could use the extra cash on the balance sheets. If they stop being solely religious organizations and enter into politics then they should be treated like what they are and taxed.
It's your fucking pedophile priests and the BS they get away with. Until your religion strings a few of 'em up as examples of what not to do, anything from your mouth is an assault to my sensibilities. Fuck off.
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
Here in Illinois, it is illegal to discriminate against LGBT's---but the Catholic Church didn't see it that way, claiming they had a special "exemption" to violate the law when placing foster children because they had an "existing business relationship" with the State:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/15/illi...
The arrogance of these haughty and condescending frauds is astounding. Taxpayer money had to be wasted bringing these bullies to heel because they felt that their rigid dogma and corrupt form of spirituality superseded state law. Excuse me, but nobody, including the Catholics gets an exception to freely discriminate based on your "beliefs" and violate state law.
And you wonder why these 13th century relics have such a problem.
"We will find fulfillment not in the goods that we have, but in the good we can do for each other."
Robert F. Kennedy
The unspoken subtext is the acknowledgment that despite professing belief in an omniscient, omnipotent god that created all of creation and is the symbol of limitless perfect love, they're bizarrely concerned with earthly matters, most especially: cash.
Why do these organizations have 'employees' in the first place? Cause fundamentally they are businesses.
Let me get this straight. I, as a baptized Catholic, only have to renounce the church to be allowed to get the coverage? That is the church flaw. I left the church when they openly supported the re-election of GW. Anti-woman, anti-choice, anti-human, anti-everyone, that's the Catholic Church. I remember when there was
an honest feeling of reform, of doing good. That ended a long time ago. Powerful GUYS holding onto their power. That is what corporate religion is about. Real spirituality is about compassion and helping those in need, not in controlling everyone, not denying American children food (stamps) because their parents arrived here "illegally," as we are now doing in Kansas. That is Christianity for you and way to go, oh so religious Governor. The truly religious are not about greed and power and control.
is that GAWD told him to do it. If it worked for the BushShitter, it will work for Obama.
Their homeworld was a place called Earth, located in an uninteresting part of the galaxy. They had an expression: pride goeth before a fall. Their pride was their undoing. I know. I was there....They did not listen, of course. Arrogant men never do.
.
TAX 'em high and TAX 'em heavy!
.
Starve the WAR Beast...
... Save the World.
.
John 11:35 Jesus wept.
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Starve the WAR Beast...
... Save the World.
.
Nowhere in the HCA does it mandate Catholic women 18 yr - older MUST take birth control pills...
... Yet the RCC hollers from high hell that offering it to women, Catholic or otherwise, infringes on Rome's ability to rule America from the pulpit.
Now, what was that about Church and State?
If the Church wishes a seat in State, shouldn't THEY pay their taxes...
... As Christ said, "Render unto Caesar..."
I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.
.
Starve the WAR Beast...
... Save the World.
Keep railing against birth control. More atheists for our side.
Pope, Cardinal, & Bishop have sucked fascist dick for 100 years.
Indeed, these Lizards of God have, themselves, been the archetype for Fascism, dating back to the 9th Century and before.
Let them bleat.
Let them squeal.
Let them whinny and whine like the barnyard filth that they are;
...and let us enjoy the specter of these creeps as they slither through the slime of their own making.
No offense, I hope.
Ignorance is parent to religion.
Religion is parent to Hate.
Remembering Matthew Shepard:
http://vimeo.com/fuksnickityClam/matthew
weekly contributions, and get points or frequent flier rewards."
I don't think this is quite what Jesus had in mind.
"Your lips move but I can't hear what you're saying..."-------Roger Waters, "Comfortably Numb"
That they talked about this during services seems to me to disqualify the Church from all tax exemptions.
"Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell.” - Edward Abbey,
believes that their members will either 1) go against church teachings and demand birth control or 2) somehow be forced to use birth control. My own insurance company offers to pay for any number of services that I do not use (either because I don't want them or don't need them). Just because they OFFER a service doesn't mean that I will use it. They must have VERY low confidence in the their member's committment to the faith.
That's the thing… The Catholic priests/pederasts, who have gotten away scott free, have some brass ones to say THEIR teachings, as opposed to the teaching of Jesus. These rat bastards have strayed so far from that path they wouldn't know Jesus if he walked up to each and every priest and kissed them.
With the interference of all churches their tax exemption needs to be pulled immediately. These are true religious leaders any more than the Phelps family.
...about this. She doesn't know that I'm an atheist, and now rabidly anti-catholic, largely because of their doctrines around sexual accountability and the hypocrisy of pedophile priests.
I argue that the church has no right to stick its nose into the bedrooms and doctor's offices of non-catholics. The church is also not above the law.
This stuff is hardly the Glad Tidings of Great Joy.
In all my years of hearing the Gospel I never got the impression that Jesus was a prick.
BURN BURN BURN the church
And the people that covered up for child molesters.
If there's anybody left after that then they can offer their opinions.
Until then, shut the fuck up.
The Catholic Church is openly engaged in partisan politics. For far less, the Sierra Club lost its tax exempt status. Why does the Catholic Church keep that status?
There's nothing . . . absolutely nothing . . . half so much worth doing as simply messing around in boats.
Go fight your war on shrimp and periods you silly cultists. We'll be over here in the 21st century.
Leviticus 11:9-12
These shall ye eat of all that are in the waters: whatsoever hath fins and scales in the waters, in the seas, and in the rivers, them shall ye eat. And all that have not fins and scales in the seas, and in the rivers, of all that move in the waters, and of any living thing which is in the waters, they shall be an abomination unto you: They shall be even an abomination unto you; ye shall not eat of their flesh, but ye shall have their carcases in abomination. Whatsoever hath no fins nor scales in the waters, that shall be an abomination unto you.
Leviticus 20:18
And if a man shall lie with a woman having her sickness, and shall uncover her nakedness; he hath discovered her fountain, and she hath uncovered the fountain of her blood: and both of them shall be cut off from among their people.
It's not an assault on anyone. Follow the same rules everyone else has to follow.
"
They don't play the game, they shouldn't make the rules.
Am a lapsed Catholic. I do not have statistics, but I would guess that the majority of Catholic couples use contraception, whether actual contraceptives, vasectomy, or tubal ligation. I agree that the regulation of
what goes on in the bedroom of consenting adults is not the business of any church (especially those run by men who have never been married and cannot know the challenges of secular life) nor of the state.
It's okay to pop out bunches of kids, but too bad feeding, clothing, keeping a roof over their heads, and educating them. With what? An $8.50 part-time job w/ no medical benefits? In states w/ roads and bridges in disrepair, such as PA, where Democrats are begging Gov. Corbett (R) to address road, bridge, and public transportation issues? How will some kids/workers get to their jobs w/o public transportation? What about cuts to pre-school and other education by Gov. (R) Corbett? And this is not only happening in PA. The AK blog Mudflats has a post of 30 January 2012, w/ very valuable background and links, by Linda Kellen Biegel, entitled, "The War on Alaska's Public Schools--The Basic Outline, which is well worth anyone's reading if they are concerned w/ the future of public education in the U.S.A. http://www.themudflats.net/2012/01/30/the-war...
I thought most Catholics, at least in the US, do use birth control. They just ignore the church rule. Is the birth control using majority of Catholics just going to go along with this and be complete hypocrites?
I do know that all of the friends that I have had that were Catholics used birth control just like everyone else and they went to mass every week.
Then you may speak otherwise STFU. Uphold separation of church & state.
a106
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