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Why Did President Obama Do This?

Posted by Jim_Daly on Feb 2, 2012 11:30:02 AM

Why did he do it?

 

Why has President Obama decided to force Catholic universities and hospitals to payobamahealthcare1.jpg for health insurance that will cover such services and drugs as sterilization, contraceptives and possible abortifacients for its employees, despite the Catholic church’s teachings against those practices?

 

Did he decide to do it in order to shore up the radical liberal base in an election year?

 

Or is he being deliberate in curtailing religious freedoms?

 

Either answer is very disturbing.

 

Cardinal-elect Timothy Dolan of the New York archdiocese responded bluntly to the announcement, which Catholic organizations will be forced to comply with in 2013:

 

In effect, the president is saying we have a year to figure out how to violate our consciences. To force American citizens to choose between violating their consciences and forgoing their health care is literally unconscionable...This represents a challenge and a compromise of our religious liberty.

 

The archbishop is precisely correct.Cardinaldolan60.jpg

 

This is a serious moral issue, and momentum is growing around the country to speak out and speak up about it – with some even threatening civil disobedience should the law withstand legal scrutiny.

 

I don’t blame them. What else can people of faith do when their conscience is flagrantly being violated?

 

So stated several Catholic bishops:

 

We cannot—we will not—comply with this unjust law. People of faith cannot be made second class citizens. We are already joined by our brothers and sisters of all faiths and many others of good will in this important effort to regain our religious freedom… In generations past, the Church has always been able to count on the faithful to stand up and protect her sacred rights and duties. I hope and trust she can count on this generation of Catholics to do the same. Our children and grandchildren deserve nothing less.

 

To be sure, this is not only a Catholic issue. It directly impacts all people of faith who believe in the sanctity and dignity of human life. Protestant organizations will similarly be forced to pay for drugs that may cause early abortions.

 

This is how the freedom of religious expression is lost in a culture. Rarely does it happen in a single instance. Instead, as we have witnessed and endured these last several years, it's lost bit by bit.  With this action, the Obama administration has taken another large bite out of this fundamental freedom.

 

 

NOTE: Paid for by CitizenLink, the public policy affiliate of Focus on the Family.

 

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Comments (17)
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Feb 2, 2012 12:56 PM Guest Theresa  says:
It is wrong! Period! I'll share it with others.
Feb 2, 2012 4:48 PM Guest terri  says:

Thank you, Jim for writing about this.  The main stream media will make this an issue of "women's health" and make the Catholic Church out to be the bad guy.  Catholics will need people of all faiths to support them in speaking out to their US Senators and Representatives and families and neighbors about this assault on First Amendment rights and religious freedom.  If this mandate is upheld in the courts, Catholics will need support when they close their hospitals since once again, the media will make the Catholic Church the bad guy.  You are right Jim, whatever Obama's motives are, none are good.  But maybe this will wake up people of faith to appreciate our Constitutional rights and hopefully, speak up to protect them.

Feb 2, 2012 5:18 PM Guest Pamela  says:
All of this causes me to wonder, as an employee of a private company are my health insurance dollars also helping pay for abortions?  If so, is there any way I can get into a health insurance plan that does not do so, or am I stuck?
Feb 2, 2012 6:48 PM Guest carole s.  says:
Why? Because it is the right thing to do. Because it is the sane thing to do.
Feb 3, 2012 6:33 AM Guest Pat M.  says:

I totally agree with what is said in the article that "We cannot—we will not—comply with this unjust law. People of faith cannot be made second class citizens".

I truly pray that all Christians stand up and speak out about this because standing up and speaking out against issues which violate our beliefs  and our right to religious freedom is the right thing to do. We cannot remain silent. Let us glorify our Lord and Savior!

.

Feb 3, 2012 6:23 AM Guest Ken  says:
Other demoninations have hospitals and will be hit with the same mandates and decisions.  It is time for God's people to return to the truth's of the Bible and be willing to stand up for them to our government or any other entity that tries to water it down.  For too long many denominations have wandered more and more toward the worldly desires in the name of attracting more people.  It is God's Holy word that will draw people to Him and it is time for Christians to believe that and to stand up for His truth.  And when we do we will see this country begin to turn back to God and once again be the blessed country we were.
Feb 3, 2012 7:58 AM Guest Robert C.  says in response to carole s.:
Since when is killing babies the right, sane thing to do?  As a biology teacher I often try to get my students to realize that it is at conception a human is born.  My prayer for you is that you will read up on the miracle of birth (or view an ultrasound of a child in a mothers womb) and come to see the beauty and wonder of life in it's earliest stages and come to know that we are "fearfully and wonderfully made" in the image of your Creator.  He loves you and me enough to send His Son to die for our sins so that when we meet Him after death, we will experience His love and not the wrath we deserve.
Feb 3, 2012 11:18 AM Guest mel  says in response to Pamela:
Yes, if you are in a private health insurance plan and the plan covers abortions, then your money will go towards abortions. Get over it. Thank God that you have health insurance because many Americans do not. If you don't like abortions, then don't have one. Simple as that.
Feb 3, 2012 3:04 PM Guest terri in response to carole  says:
Who determines what 'the right thing to do' is?  The government?  Yet most Christians believe abortion is wrong but our government says it is legal.  What is right then?  At one point in our nation's history, slavery was legal.  Was slavery 'right'?  Just because some people think something is right, doesn't make it right. (Hitler believed extermination of the Jews was 'right'....was it??)   The Catholic Church has good reasons why it believes birth control is morally wrong (read "Theology of the Body").  In fact, most Christian religions believed this same thing early in the 20th century.  If more people (Catholics included) understood WHY the Catholic Church believes this, they would be for it.  Read The Theology of the Body. And the First Amendment of the Constitution.
Feb 5, 2012 6:24 AM Guest Cecil  says:
In a wicked and perverse generation wrong is called right, goodness is called foolishness, and God is said to not exist. One day we will stand before a holy God and all nonsense will cease, but in the meantime Focus on the Family, God bless you.
Feb 5, 2012 4:39 PM Guest Susie  says:
Amazing how government screams separation of church and state EXCEPT when it wishes to interfere!
Feb 7, 2012 6:10 AM Guest Gail  says:
There is no end to sin with Obama and many of congress!!!!
Feb 7, 2012 3:42 PM Guest G. O'B.  says:

With all of the Catholic hospitals and institutions serving the

poor, unwed mothers, and those who are mentally ill to name just a few....

This government has targeted our Catholic faith, because we are a large

and very powerful target.

I wonder if those of the Muslim faith will now be required to distribute

birth control products at their mosques?

Where is the support from other people of faith?

You target the largest and the rest will fall in without a peep.

Speak up now fellow Christians, it is time to put a mark in the sand, on which side will

you remain?
Feb 7, 2012 1:28 PM Guest George  says:
This is WRONG  and we of all faiths need to take a stand against these injusticies.
Feb 7, 2012 5:13 PM Guest Potamiaena  says in response to terri:

AMEN Terri, you are so right on!

The government cannot make us violate our morals and beliefs.

Feb 8, 2012 3:16 PM Guest Steph  says in response to mel:

The Word of the Lord says...

 

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
And before you were born I consecrated you."

 

God knew us before we were born.  He is the giver of life.  Just take a moment and think about that.
Feb 9, 2012 7:10 AM Guest Lucille  says in response to Steph:
It is sad how our money is spent, our tax dollars, that is.  But if you remember scripture, Jesus had to pay a temple tax to the vary people that would eventually turn him over to the Romans to be killed.  Think about it.

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