Obama's War on Religious Libertyby Phyllis Schlafly
Welcome to the real ObamaCare, whereby a handful of leftists in D.C. impose the views of their big-money donors on more than 300 million Americans. If the Obama mandate for contraception remains intact, then liberals will next demand that Americans pay for other objectionable items that are not really medical care.
We can expect future mandates, under the guise of "health care," to include sex-change operations, late-term abortions, embryonic stem-cell use, and a variety of other procedures that many Americans do not support and certainly do not want to be compelled to foot the bill for. Obama's mandate for abortifacient drugs opens a slippery slope that would erode the moral authority of religious institutions in America.
Obama and the liberals have overplayed their hand. By baring their teeth, these lackeys for the Left have awakened Democratic voters to the real contempt that liberals hold for religious values.
All 181 U.S. Catholic bishops oppose Obama's mandate, and Rasmussen polling estimates that 65% of Catholic Americans also oppose it. There are about 75 million American Catholics, most of who have traditionally been Democratic voters but who wouldn't hesitate to cross party lines to defend their church leaders.
It will be fascinating to see how many Democratic politicians up for reelection this November side with Obama and against religious organizations. Liberals are just fine with throwing some Democratic incumbents overboard to advance far-left goals, just as the enactment of ObamaCare in 2010 cost many Democrats their congressional seats.
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius's congressional testimony made clear that the Obama Administration is dug in permanently to enforce the regulation that religiously affiliated institutions must offer their employees health insurance that includes abortion drugs, sterilization, and contraceptives. Of course, insurance companies price their products to make a profit, so clearly the cost will be concealed and distributed so many will pay for services that violate their religious beliefs.
Dick Morris exposed how George Stephanopoulos outed the Obama strategy behind this outrageous action. Knowing that abortion is no longer a winning issue for Democrats, Obama wanted to shift the debate to contraception.
However, his ploy has failed. He really shifted the debate to religious liberty, and to how the Obama Administration is planning to force Americans to pay for procedures which their religion teaches them is morally wrong.
The religious liberty issue is definitely not confined to Catholic hospitals, schools, colleges and charities. It opens up the whole attack on religion and on Christianity that is now going on in the Obama Administration, the courts, and even the military.
The U.S. Army Chief of Chaplains sent an email to senior chaplains telling them that Archbishop Timothy Broglio's letter criticizing the Obama insurance rule was not to be read from the pulpit. There is no evidence that Obama personally issued this order, but the Army Chief of Chaplains must have thought he was taking a politically correct action.
Has anti-religious bigotry become so pervasive that chaplains believe they must censor their sermons to conform to Obama's prejudices?
Just recently, the Obama Administration forced the Air Force's Capabilities Office to strike the Latin word for "God" from its logo. Since schools seldom teach Latin any more, I wonder how many realized what this meant.
At the Veterans Affairs Department, Obama's agents banned Military Honor Details from reciting the significance of each fold of the American Flag during the burial services of our heroic men and women who gave their lives for our country. Obama says the ceremony promoted religion and therefore the recitations had to stop.
Obama gave a speech at Georgetown University, a Catholic college. But he ordered his staff to cover up a crucifix with a giant black tarp because he didn't want anybody to see a religious symbol while he was talking.
Obama has joined in the war against religion being waged by the ACLU and the atheists in the courts. We've all heard about the lawsuits attempting to delete "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance and remove Ten Commandments monuments and crosses from every public place.
Less well known, but important in the big picture, are the judges' decisions to ban the football coach from bowing his head during student-led prayer before a game, and the decision to ban grace before supper at Virginia Military Institute.
The plan is even more far-reaching. It confirms that the ObamaCare law can impose any regulation the bureaucrats choose, such as death panels.
The firestorm over this most recent regulation is one more proof that social issues and fiscal issues are inescapably intertwined. Social-issue policy decisions determine fiscal ones.
The Heritage Foundation has just released its 2012 Index of Dependence on Government. It shows the shocking fact that one in five Americans is dependent on government, meaning reliance on government handouts for housing, health care, food stamps, college tuition and retirement assistance.