Join the Patriot Report http://patriotpost.us/headlines/
The Foundation
“Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between church and State.” –Thomas Jefferson, letter to a Committee of the Danbury Baptist Association, 1802
For the Record
We’re not buying what the president’s selling
“[I]t would be a mockery of the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment if, for example, the Catholic Church were required by law to freely provide such ‘health care services’ … as contraception, sterilization and pharmacological abortion — to which Catholicism is doctrinally opposed as a grave contravention of its teachings about the sanctity of life. Ah. But there would be no such Free Exercise violation if the institutions so mandated are deemed, by regulatory fiat, not religious. And thus, the word came forth from [Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen] Sebelius decreeing the exact criteria required…. Criterion 1: A ‘religious institution’ must have ‘the inculcation of religious values as its purpose.’ But that’s not the purpose of Catholic charities; it’s to give succor to the poor. That’s not the purpose of Catholic hospitals; it’s to give succor to the sick. Therefore, they don’t qualify as ‘religious’ — and therefore can be required, among other things, to provide free morning-after abortifacients. Criterion 2: Any exempt institution must be one that ‘primarily employs’ and ‘primarily serves persons who share its religious tenets.’ Catholic soup kitchens do not demand religious IDs from either the hungry they feed or the custodians they employ. Catholic charities and hospitals — even Catholic schools — do not turn away Hindu or Jew. Their vocation is universal, precisely the kind of universal love-thy-neighbor vocation that is the very definition of religiosity as celebrated by the Gospel of Obama. … The contradiction is glaring, the hypocrisy breathtaking. But that’s not why Obama offered a hasty compromise on Friday. It’s because the firestorm of protest was becoming a threat to his re-election. Sure, health care, good works and religion are important. But re-election is divine.” –columnist Charles Krauthammer
Editor’s Note: Obama’s “compromise” is nothing of the sort. The mandate still stands for religious institutions to provide health insurance that covers contraceptives (including abortifacients), but they don’t have to pay for that part — the insurance companies do. Either he’s not smart or he thinks we’re not, because that isn’t how things work in the real world. That’s why the Catholic Church and others have rightly rejected his attempt to pull a fast one.
a12iggymom's Blog 