Irena Sendler, jews, nazi germany, nobel peace prize, obama, poland, warsaw ghetto, world war two.
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Category: FAITH UNDER FIRE
March 9, 2012
When one observes President Obama’s unwillingness to accommodate America’s four-century long religious conscience protection through his attempts to require Catholics to go against their own doctrines and beliefs, one is tempted to say that he is anti-Catholic. But that characterization would not be correct. Although he has recently singled out Catholics, he has equally targeted traditional Protestant beliefs over the past four years.
So since he has attacked Catholics and Protestants, one is tempted to say that he is anti-Christian. But that, too, would be inaccurate. He has been equally disrespectful in his appalling treatment of religious Jews in general and Israel in particular. So perhaps the most accurate description of his antipathy toward Catholics, Protestants, religious Jews, and the Jewish nation would be to characterize him as anti-Biblical.
And then when his hostility toward Biblical people of faith is contrasted with his preferential treatment of Muslims and Muslim nations, it further strengthens the accuracy of the anti-Biblical descriptor. In fact, there have been numerous clearly documented times when his pro-Islam positions have been the cause of his anti-Biblical actions.
Listed below in chronological order are: (1) numerous records of his attacks on Biblical persons or organizations; (2) examples of the hostility toward Biblical faith that have become evident in the past three years in the Obama-led military; (3) a listing of his open attacks on Biblical values; and finally (4) a listing of numerous incidents of his preferential deference for Islam’s activities and positions, including letting his Islamic advisors guide and influence his hostility toward people of Biblical faith.
Post continues on http://www.wallbuilders.com/LIBissuesArticles.asp?id=106938
Get Behind Christian Conservative Kirk Cameron
March 9, 2012 by Gary DeMar
If it’s one thing liberals know how to do is engage in coordinated attacks against conservatives and Christians. As soon as someone with a platform stands up and makes a statement or takes a position on a subject that is contrary to leftist ideology, the liberal attack machine goes to work.
Evangelist and actor Kirk Cameron has come under pressure by homosexuals for simply stating God’s view that marriage is between one man and one woman.
Appearing on CNN’s Peirs Morgan show to promote his new film Monumental: In Search of America’s National Treasure, Kirk was repeatedly badgered by the host to share his views on homosexuality.
Isn’t this typical. A conservative guest comes on a show to talk about one thing, and the Left diverts the content of the interview to a favorite liberal talking point.
Cameron told CNN’s Piers Morgan that marriage “was defined in the garden between Adam and Eve — one man, one woman for life.” He added that in his view, homosexuality is “socially destructive,” “unnatural,” “detrimental, and ultimately destructive to so many of the foundations of civilization.” Watch the CNN interview here.
Immediately, the homosexual media pressure group GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) began attacking Kirk as an “anti-gay extremist.” Any divergent view from the liberal norm is always an extremist view. And, the liberal Hollywood crowd wasted no time joining the hateful rhetoric. Nikki Sixx, the bass player of the rock band Mötley Crüe, blasted Cameron as “a–hole of the week.” The title of his autobiography is The Heroin Diaries: A Year in the Life of a Shattered Rock Star.
Then there’s Roseanne Barr who called Cameron “an accomplice to murder with his hate speech.” You may remember the time Barr dressed as Adolf Hitler — moustache and swastikas included — and baked “Jew Cookies” in an oven. When they’re “done,” she starts to eat them. Since she’s a comedian, there was no harm. It was supposed to be funny, even though it wasn’t. Liberals hide behind their comedy routine to deflect criticism. Here’s how one self-describe “centrist” commentator reported the story:
“When one first takes a look at the domestic Adolf Hitler/Roseanne Barr baking photos, one can’t help but think, ‘Wow, Sarah Palin has really let herself go in the past five days… And where’s her glasses?’ But upon closer inspection, one can see the inner Roseanne Barr hidden inside the Hitler, cooking sheet with burnt gingerbread men cookies.”
Even when criticizing disgusting liberal antics, leftists can’t refrain from taking shots at conservatives.
In referring to the CNN interview Cameron said, “I expressed the same views that are expressed clearly and emphatically throughout the Judeo-Christian scriptures. As a Bible-believing Christian, I could not have answered any other way…”
Increasingly, social bullies like GLADD are merciless in their attack on Christians who openly share their faith, and God’s truth that the homosexual lifestyle is sinful. Kirk is not ashamed of the Gospel and I think he deserves our thanks.
We need to follow Kirk’s example. There is no call to back down from what we know is right. If we stick together on these issues, we can beat back the ideological bullies. One way to do this is to connect with others of like mind. Blog about it. Write your friends. Post on social media networks. Yes, you’ll be criticized. That’s what the Left does. But keep at it. We need to show the bullies that they are not in charge, that their views are minority positions. They get their way because too many conservatives compromise and back down.
There’s no need to be nasty for derogatory. State your position and your support, pointing out that you will not back down.
Kirk has asked me for
Read more: Get Behind Christian Conservative, Kirk Cameron – Godfather Politics http://godfatherpolitics.com/4088/get-behind-christian-conservative-kirk-cameron/#ixzz1oeu1dQK1
WND EXCLUSIVE
‘We would not want to take you down the same route as we have with others’
Published: 12 hours ago
by Bob Unruh joined WND in 2006 after spending nearly three decades writing on a wide range of issues for several Upper Midwest newspapers and the Associated Press.
A man who says he represents the United Muslim Nations International organization has warned WND to “moderate” its reporting on issues involving Islam because of how Muslims may react.
The warning came in an email to WND from Faarooq al Mohammedi, who said he was asking on behalf of the Muslim organization that WND “comply as it would be in the companies (sic) best interest as we would not want to take you down the same rout (sic) as we have with other non-complaint media firms.”
The email warned WND to take “extra precaution when publishing religiously sensitive material or in creating religiously sensitive suspicions about peoples (sic) religious beliefs and practices.”
He threatened, “We would appreciate it if you could tighten your screening and moderation processes of articles to be published, any fake material published by WND will be taken as a breach of world news standards, religiously sensitive matters are to be based on solid and undeniable facts, failure to produce proofs of such published articles will give us no option but to bring about the complete removal of WND online as well as from the public in any print media.”
The essence of the warning was that WND needed to project an attitude of dhimmitude, the subservient role demanded of nonbelievers in a Muslim society. Dhimmis “recognize” their inferior status and appropriately serve the master Muslims.
Contacted by WND at a telephone number in Africa, Mohammedi could cite no specific issues with WND’s reporting. Instead, he promoted a worldwide Islamic caliphate, a subject mentioned in a WND report several days earlier about a coming conference in Austria.
“Isn’t this interesting?” said WND Founder and Editor Joseph Farah, “This guy makes an indictment, but can provide zero evidence to back it up. Nevertheless, he is making sweeping threats about shutting down WND and enlisting the help of unnamed governments.
“This is why Americans who believe in free speech must never permit international agencies to be involved in policing the Internet. Nor can we afford to allow ourselves to be bullied into self-censorship and standards of ‘political correctness’ by special interest groups.”
Pamela Geller, who writes at AtlasShrugs and long has waged battles against the encroachment of Islamic religious law in the United States, said while she was not familiar with the group, the tactic is common.
“The tactic is pure Islamic supremacist intimidation, a tried-and-true strategy that they employ frequently,” she said. “They cannot answer us, so they try to shut us down.”
Geller repeatedly has fought over the right to have ads criticizing Islam in the same locations as ads that promote Islam. She frequently has to go to court to get the same access that pro-Islamic organizations are freely granted.
Mohammedi told WND in the telephone interview today that his concern is that publishing material he doesn’t like “creates a problem on a global scale.”
“Some people have different ways of reacting to different articles that are published,” he said. “We’re trying to prevent certain unwanted events from happening due to these publications.
“We need that (publication) to come to an end because if you want peace and stability around the world, you would need these things to come to an end as well.”
Regarding WND, Mohammedi could not identify a single specific concern but said he knew there were some, and he would respond by email. The email never arrived.
He could only say there were articles regarding “suspicions” about Islam.
“The religion is very open, very open. There’s nothing to be suspicious about,” he said.
He said the email to WND was part of a campaign.
“I’ve dealt with quite a few people. We’ve got the government involved with ombudsmen, and they’ve made adjustments,” he said.
“Basically, our advice is that people need to take extra precautions and moderate whatever gets published,” he said, referring to recent references about a caliphate, although he could not say they were from WND.
“They carry the (caliphate) message … it’s almost like there’s some suspicion of something terrible. Islamically, the system of the caliphate is supposed to be a good thing. It shouldn’t be seen as something bad,” he said.
“It will prevent a lot of conflicts around the world itself, as well as provide the world with a central government structure.”
Farah said his grandparents “did not flee the Muslim-dominated Middle East so their grandson would have to guard his words about Islamic oppression around the world and, more frequently, right here in the U.S.”
“As long as I am alive, WND will continue to tell the truth about Shariah, jihad and Islamic terror,” Farah said.
While Mohammedi said the organization’s website was not operating at this point, WND located a site that appeared to represent the organization.
The site states: “The true Muslim stands firm and strong against the Kufar (unbeliever), we the Mu’min will always defeat the Kufar and we have love amongst each other.”
The site also said its headquarters is in Jerusalem and explained, “We are not only an organization on a path to unite the entire Muslim Ummah, we are an organization of international human rights as per the commandments/Shariah (Divine Law) of the almighty Allah in the blessed Holy Quran and as prescribed by the Sunnah (examples) of our beloved Nabi (prophet) Mohammed.”
Links there lead to articles titled “The World under the Islamic Caliphate,” “Hezbollah,” the “Palestinian Liberation Organization,” “Islamic Organization of North America” and others.
The earlier WND story on the Caliphate Conference 2012 reported how it was being organized by Hizb ut-Tahrir, which was described as a “pan-Islamic extremist group that seeks to establish a global Islamic state, or caliphate, ruled by Islamic Shariah law.”
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WND EXCLUSIVE
After allowing do-it-yourself abortion instructions to be posted
Published: 13 hours ago
by Dave TombersEmail | Archive
Dave Tombers is a retired police officer, former teacher, ex-Realtor, and past chairman of a large Christian school.
Editor’s note: There is an image in the lower part of this story that may be a concern for some viewers.
Prominent pro-life advocate Bryan Kemper is questioning Facebook after it removed his pro-life message, a move that followed on the heels of the company’s decision to allow the posting of directions on how to perform an abortion at home.
Just last month, the popular social media site issued an apology to Rebecca Gomperts for temporarily censoring her do-it-yourself abortion instructions she had posted as her profile picture.
But this week Kempers’ message was shut down and he wants pro-life Facebook users to sound the alarm.
There have been several reports that after Facebook took down Gomberts’ abortion instructions, they were restored and an apology was issued.
The instructions, currently posted in several different languages on Gomperts’ profile page, encourage girls to “lie” to a pharmacist in order to obtain the necessary abortion producing drugs, give step-by-step instructions on how many pills to take, and then encourage girls to lie about having a miscarriage after an at-home abortion.
The instructions, in part, are as follows:
“Go to the pharmacy and buy 12 tablets of Misoprostol. (Say it is for your grandmother with arthritis)”
She then advises that if a trip to the doctor is necessary after the self-treatment, “You can tell them you had a miscarriage.”
According to the National Institute of Health, the drug in question – Misoprostol – includes side effects in its anti-ulcer purpose including miscarriages, premature labor, and birth defects.
Nowhere in Gomperts’ instructions does she warn women performing self-abortions about birth defects.
The instructions posted by Gompert:
Aware of the abortion instruction apology by Facebook, Kemper, who is the founder and president of Stand True Ministries, a Christ centered pro-life group reaching out to youth, was shocked to discover that Facebook had censored his new post, also involving abortion, from a pro-life viewpoint.
Kemper and his associate, Andy Moore, of abortionwiki.org, created a version of the popular “What They Think I Do” graphic that have been going viral on Facebook.
Their graphic was entitled “Abortionist” and the final frame was a photo of a baby killed in an early abortion.
The image had received thousands of “shares” and “comments” in a matter of hours, but Kemper was informed Facebook had logged his account out and advised, “We removed the content you posted because it violates Facebook’s statements of rights and responsibilities.”
The image:
“It amazed me,” Kemper told WND.
“Facebook will allow girls to learn how to do an abortion themselves at home with no doctor’s supervision, and encourages them to lie when obtaining the drugs necessary. But they will not allow them to see what an abortion looks like.”
WND left a message with Facebooks press line but did not receive a return call.
Father Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, who filed a lawsuit this week against Obamacare’s mandate requiring employers to provide birth control, sterilization, and abortion-producing drugs such as the morning after pill and the week after pill, issued this statement about Facebook,
“I have long said that America will not end abortion until it sees abortion.
“But those who support and profit from abortion work very hard to make sure America does not see abortion.”
“I guess it is only considered censorship if you censor the pro-choice side; it’s perfectly fine in our culture to censor the pro-life message,” Kemper said.
According to a Daily Mail report, “Gompert’s group, Women on Waves, performs medical abortions on a boat bearing the Dutch flag, allowing women in countries where abortion is illegal access to the procedure.”
“It really worries me that there should be so much censorship on the Internet. Regardless of whether it’s Google or Facebook,” Gomperts told the Daily Mail.
Kemper, too, is frustrated by the censorship.
“If abortion is such a great thing for women, and an aborted fetus is just a clump of cells, then show everyone,” he says.
“But they won’t, because then people will start to see the truth, that abortion kills.”
http://www.wnd.com/2012/02/facebook-shuts-down-pro-life-message/
Obama’s anti-religious implosion
Matt Barber – Guest Columnist – 2/13/2012 10:20:00 AM 
Barack Obama may have just lost the election. He has foolishly gone to war in an election year with tens of millions of Catholics, Protestants and Jews — Democrat, Republican and independent alike. He has thrown down a radical feminist gauntlet and dared the Church to pick it up.
They’ve picked it up.
From running up trillions in debt and deficit, to the vast expansion of the size and scope of federal bureaucracy, Mr. Obama has done more in three years to supplant our 236-year-old Constitutional Republic with a Euro-style socialist autocracy — than a lesser Marxist could have accomplished in a lifetime.
But controlling the purse strings is not nearly enough. A central element of full-blown secular-socialism is the suppression of religious liberty — principally, freedom of conscience.
Karl Marx once said: “The first requisite for the happiness of the people is the abolition of religion.”
When Karl Marx speaks, Barack Obama listens.
In what is perhaps the most egregious executive overreach in our lifetime, the president’s Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, has unconstitutionally decreed that both Catholic and Protestant organizations must violate fundamental tenets of the Christian faith by providing ObamaCare coverage that includes birth control, sterilization and various forms of abortion. This is as blatant a violation of the First Amendment’s guarantee to religious “free exercise” as we’ve ever seen.
Despite two pathetic feints at “compromise,” Obama’s illegal requirement that faith-based groups pay for policies providing immoral “reproductive services” remains in full force.
On Friday, the Obama administration offered its latest non-compromise “compromise.” OneNewsNow reported the reaction of GOP Congressman Chris Smith, a longtime pro-life lawmaker, who described that “compromise” as a “serious violation” of religious freedom that “only the most naïve or gullible would accept” as a change in policy.
America: this arrogant, narcissistic, amoral man — Barack Obama — thinks you’re stupid. Who do you think pays for the insurance policies that provide “free” birth control, sterilizations and abortifacients to employees? Why, the very religious organizations doctrinally prohibited from paying for these “services” in the first place, of course.
This is nothing but a South Side Chicago shell game, dressed up as a concession. Obama’s unprecedented attack on the First Amendment continues full steam ahead.
In Dreams from My Father, Mr. Obama writes: “To avoid being mistaken for a sellout, I chose my friends carefully.” It should come as little surprise that, among those carefully selected friends, he gives his “Marxist professors and the structural feminists” top billing. In fact, as we approach the 2012 general election, it has become alarmingly clear the degree to which various secular “isims” have shaped the development of Obama’s ungodly worldview.
From the moment he falsely claimed, “Whatever we once were, we are no longer a Christian nation,” many have screamed from the rooftops that, despite his incongruous claims to be a Christ follower, Barack Obama, in reality, harbors tremendous animus toward all things Christian.
It’s not surprising, then, that — even prior to his latest act of anti-religious authoritarianism — a Pew Research Center survey had determined that, under Obama’s leadership, “the number of [religious] voters who identify as a Democrat has declined, while the number saying they lean toward the GOP has risen.”
Some highlights:
• White evangelical Protestant support for the GOP has grown from 65 percent in 2008 to 70 percent today;
• 80 percent of Mormons now say they identify with or lean toward the Republican Party;
• White mainline Protestants, who were evenly divided between the parties in 2008, now favor the GOP by a 12-point margin;
• White non-Hispanic Catholics, who gave Democrats an eight-point advantage in 2008 now give Republicans a seven-point advantage at the end of 2011 (a remarkable 15-point swing);
• Even Jewish voters — traditionally one of the strongest Democratic constituencies — have moved noticeably in the Republican direction; Jewish voters favored the Democrats by a 52-point margin in 2008 but now prefer the Democratic Party by a significantly smaller 36-point margin.
It stands to reason that, in the wake of his most recent attack on religious freedom, Democrat’s favor with the faithful will only further erode.
Catholics especially are having none of it. Bill Donohue, president of the non-partisan Catholic League lashed out last week: “Never before; unprecedented in American history for the federal government to line up against the Roman Catholic Church.” Over the weekend he added this zinger: “He must think the Catholics are stupid.”
Ms. Sebelius first feigned compromise in the aftermath of the original announcement, haughtily granting some religious groups one year “to adapt to this new rule.”
“In effect, the president is saying we have a year to figure out how to violate our consciences,” responded Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, archbishop of New York and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
In the spirit of Martin Luther King, Jr., many Catholic priests across the nation have vowed civil disobedience. On January 29, they read a form letter to parishioners pledging that Catholics “cannot — we will not — comply with this unjust law.”
Nor should they.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) has introduced a bill called the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 2012 that would restore liberty of conscience to religious groups. Evangelical leaders are allying en masse with their kindred papist travelers.
Mathew Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, said “ObamaCare is a direct attack on the moral and religious beliefs of our nation. One year will not change religious tenets that have been in place for thousands of years. This administration has pressed its radical pro-abortion agenda on the American people and around the world … ObamaCare is an assault on our freedom.”
Dr. Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), has said “we will not comply” with this law. He has pledged to face jail time instead: “We want the law changed, or else we’re going to write our letters from the Nashville jail, just like Dr. King wrote his from the Birmingham jail.”
This is the stuff of civil war. This is a battle Barack Obama and Democrats cannot win. He has two choices: He can either stubbornly stand firm and continue to give the GOP a tremendous election year bat with which to beat him about the head and neck; or he can cave and further cultivate the snowballing narrative that he is weak and impetuous.
Either way, the president has suffered a self-inflicted wound so deep that it may not heal before November; especially since, as evidenced by his latest illusory “accommodation,” he can’t seem to stop picking at the scab.
First, he ordered churches to violate their conscience. Now, the President is instructing them not to talk about it! Welcome to Barack Obama’s military. After stripping away the rights of religious groups everywhere, the commander-in-chief is putting a halt on protests from the pulpit, at least in the Army’s chaplain corps. Like most Catholics, the military’s priests had planned to speak out against the rule forcing groups to violate the tenants of their faith by funding abortifacients and contraception.
Unfortunately, they never got the chance. While church leaders around the country voiced their disapproval to the mandate on Sunday, the Army’s pulpits were silent. According to several sources, the Chief of Chaplains had issued an Army-wide gag order, warning priests not to read any letter resisting the policy. The church “cannot–and will not–comply with this unjust law,” wrote Archbishop Timothy Broglio, head of the corps’ priests. According to the Army, that language is too controversial. After a lot of back and forth with the administration, the Chief of Chaplains announced that “a new version of the letter will be read, one that was edited of the language about ‘unjust laws.’” Chaplains should consider the text of Acts 5:29 this coming weekend. The administration is fearful of this language because laws have a moral foundation–and in our system of government, they have to have the consent of the governed. That’s why the administration is telling churches what they can and can’t say.
Not surprisingly, that kind of censorship didn’t sit well with Archbishop Broglio. In a statement, the Archdiocese didn’t hide its frustration. “[We] stand firm in the belief, based on legal precedent, that such a directive from the Army constituted a violation of his constitutionally-protected right of free speech and the free exercise of religion, as well as those same rights of all military chaplains and their congregants.” Of course, this shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who’s followed the seismic shifts in the military. This is exactly the path we expected the Pentagon to take after “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” came crumbling down. For two years, FRC warned about the systematic silencing of people of faith that would result once the President imposed his radical social agenda on the military.
While the military itself is governed by different rules when it comes to free speech, chaplains have always had the right to speak openly about the moral issues of their day. That’s why George Washington established the chaplaincy. He understood the importance of teaching soldiers the difference between right and wrong. If Washington wanted an army that was above reproach, he knew the most effective way to accomplish it was providing a moral compass that rules and regulations cannot. Chaplains have been offering that guidance since 1775.
By muzzling these leaders, the Obama administration is diminishing the chaplains’ role from spiritual leader to glorified counselor. Obviously, this is all by design. If the President can hollow out our military, then the rest of society won’t be far behind. In the war on religion, the administration is enlisting its own Army. Join us in standing with our troops. Sign FRC’s petition to Congress, asking members to take action to ensure that America’s armed forces are afforded the same freedoms for which they risk their lives.
January 28, 2012
Imagine if tomorrow you went to worship with your church only to be turned away because the landlord of the property doesn’t want to rent to people of faith — not because of conflicts with building use, just because of religious discrimination. Imagine then if the landlord was the local government…in an American city. But this is just an urban legend, right?
Sadly this is really happening now in New York City. For the past decade, New York’s Department of Education has given a number of small, mostly Christian, upstart or itinerant congregations the option to hold their weekend services in any one of the city’s empty school buildings. The only condition is that they pay to use the facilities — a nice benefit to the cash strapped public education system. Now, the Department of Education has reversed course, and as many as 100 churches face eviction on February 12, as the school board’s ban against the use of property by religious congregations goes into effect.
The evictions could be devastating to small congregations and church plants in the city. With limited space in one of the most densely populated areas of the world, and real estate costs that are sky-high, opportunities for ministry in many areas of the Big Apple would be effectively shut down.
There is hope, however. This week, the New York Senate Education Committee voted unanimously to bring a bill to the floor that would stop keep this from happening in the future. All 18 senators — including eight Democrats and 10 Republicans — agreed that the Senate should take action to protect the city’s faith community. We expect this issue to come to the State Senate floor soon, but NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg still needs to rescind the eviction order.
We know that the church is more than a mere meeting place, but this is America — not a totalitarian regime. Stand with us and these churches in New York City by signing our petition supporting them. We’ll deliver it to the New York Senate next week to help give the effort momentum, and show the churches that believers throughout the nation stand with them for our First Freedom.
Sign the petition to help stop the eviction of NYC churches!
Sincerely,
Tony Perkins
President
Courtesy of http://blogsensebybarb.wordpress.com/
Sewn into the fabric of America … or is it?
‘To Hell With You’
Bridging the Gap
January 27, 2012
HHS Edict Will Force Catholics to Violate Conscience
By Bishop David A. Zubik
It is really hard to believe that it happened. It comes like a slap in the face. The Obama administration has just told the Catholics of the United States, “To Hell with you!” There is no other way to put it.
In early August, the Department for Health and Human Services in the Obama administration released guidelines as part of the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The guidelines mandated that by Summer 2012 all individual and group health insurance plans, including self-insured plans, cover all FDA-approved contraception, sterilization procedures and pharmaceuticals that even result in abortion.
A million things are wrong with this: equating pregnancy with disease; mandating that every employer pay for contraception procedures including alleged contraceptives that are actually abortion-inducing drugs; forcing American citizens to chose between violating their consciences or providing health care services; mandating such coverage on every individual woman without allowing her to even choose not to have it; forcing every person to pay for that coverage no matter the dictates of their conscience.
Let’s be blunt. This whole process of mandating these guidelines undermines the democratic process itself. In this instance, the mandate declares pregnancy a disease, forces a culture of contraception and abortion on society, all while completely bypassing the legislative process.
This is government by fiat that attacks the rights of everyone – not only Catholics; not only people of all religion. At no other time in memory or history has there been such a governmental intrusion on freedom not only with regard to religion, but even across-the-board with all citizens. It forces every employer to subsidize an ideology or pay a penalty while searching for alternatives to heath care coverage. It undermines the whole concept and hope for health care reform by inextricably linking it to the zealotry of pro-abortion bureaucrats.
For our Church this mandate would apply in virtually every instance where the Catholic Church serves as an employer. The mandate would require the Catholic Church as an employer to violate its fundamental beliefs concerning human life and human dignity by forcing Catholic entities to provide contraceptive, sterilization coverage and even pharmaceuticals that result in abortion.
There was a so-called “religious exemption” to the mandate, but it was so narrowly drawn that, as critics charged, Jesus Christ and his Apostles would not fit the exemption. The so-called exemption would only apply to the vast array of Catholic institutions where the following applied:
- Only Catholics are employed;
- The primary purpose of the institution or service provided is the direct instruction in Catholic belief;
- The only persons served by the institution are those that share Catholic religious tenets. (Try to fit this in with our local Catholic Charities that serve 80,000 every year without discrimination according to faith. It would be impossible!)
Practically speaking under the proposed mandate there would be no “religious exemption” for Catholic hospitals universities, colleges, nursing homes and numerous Catholic social service agencies such as Catholic Charities. It could easily be determined that the “religious exemption” would not apply as well to Catholic high schools, elementary schools and Catholic parishes since many employ non-Catholics and serve both students and, through social outreach, many who do not share Catholic religious beliefs. Such a narrow “religious exemption” is simply unprecedented in federal law.
Last September I asked you to protest those guidelines to Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the U.S. Department for Health and Human Services, and contact your political leadership in the federal government. I asked that you request that this flawed mandate be withdrawn because of its unprecedented interference in the religious liberty and freedom of conscience of the Catholic community, and our basic democratic process.
You did. And you were joined by Catholics throughout the country (and many others as well) who raised their voices against the mandate, raised their voices against a meaningless religious exemption.
On January 20, 2012, the Obama administration answered you and me. The response was very simple: “To Hell with You.”
Kathleen Sebelius announced that the mandate would not be withdrawn and the religious exemption would not be expanded. Instead, she stated that nonprofit groups – which include the Catholic Church – will get a year “to adapt to this new rule.” She simply dismissed Catholic concerns as standing in the way of allegedly respecting the health concerns and choices of women.
Could Catholics be insulted any more, suggesting that we have no concern for women’s health issues? The Catholic Church and the Catholic people have erected health care facilities that are recognized worldwide for their compassionate care for everyone regardless of their creed, their economic circumstances and, most certainly, their gender. In so many parts of the globe – the United States included – the Church is health care.
Kathleen Sebelius and through her, the Obama administration, have said “To Hell with You” to the Catholic faithful of the United States.
- To Hell with your religious beliefs,
- To Hell with your religious liberty,
- To Hell with your freedom of conscience.We’ll give you a year, they are saying, and then you have to knuckle under. As Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops responded, “in effect, the president is saying that we have a year to figure out how to violate our consciences.” READ THE REST HERE
DON’T GET MAD – GET INVOLVED!!!
Get involved and work against he administration that would absolve us of our First Amendment Rights to worship as we choose!
Choose a PRO-LIFE Presidential Candidate
FURTHER READING:
- The Black Church’s Commitment to Obama
- Bishop Zubik rips Obama on health care mandate
- American Catholics : To Hell With You!
- Bishop Zubik responds to Obama Health Care Mandate
- Bishop: Obama’s Healthcare Plan Threatens Catholic Service
PARTNERING WITH EAGLES
