Patriarchs Protest Birth Control
The Catholic bishops are using Orwellian double speak here - they pretend that the Government preventing Church run institutions from taking choices away from Non-Catholics somehow impinges on their religious freedoms. It does not.
Nobody is preventing them from practicing their religion in their churches. When they come into public space and pubic institutions then they must be subject to the laws and the rules that cover everyone, including them.
The church has already demonstrated that it can’t be trusted to obey the laws of our land by decades of covering up for pedophile priests, so it is no surprise that they would protest not being able to prevent non-church employees from gaining birth control. Boiled down to essentials that’s what this is about, patriarchs upset that they can’t dictate to female employees.
They are once again holding themselves above laws like the theocrat tyrants that they are and they think they are not subject to law like the rest of us. They are completely wrong, and it’s time to start examining all of their exemptions from laws if they can’t accept this compromise — let’s start with taxes.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops denounced President Barack Obama’s compromise over whether to require religiously affiliated institutions to provide contraception to female employees, saying the proposal raises “serious moral concerns,” according to a statement posted on its website late Friday.
“Today’s proposal continues to involve needless government intrusion in the internal governance of religious institutions, and to threaten government coercion of religious people and groups to violate their most deploy held convictions,” the statement said.
Under the new plan announced by Obama Friday, religiously affiliated universities and hospitals will not be forced to offer contraception coverage to their employees. Insurers will be required, however, to offer complete coverage free of charge to any women who work at such institutions. Women who work at churches, though, will have no guarantee of such contraception coverage — a continuation of current law.
It’s very noteworthy that almost all of the institutions in question here not only receive public taxes in one form or another, but also that the churches are exempt from paying taxes. If you receive tax dollars, you follow public rules.