Scarcely two weeks ago, in its Hosanna-Tabor decision upholding the right of churches to make ministerial hiring decisions, the Supreme Court unanimously and enthusiastically reaffirmed these longstanding and foundational principles of religious freedom. The court made clear that they include the right of religious institutions to control their internal affairs.

Yet the Obama administration has veered in the opposite direction. It has refused to exempt religious institutions that serve the common good—including Catholic schools, charities and hospitals—from its sweeping new health-care mandate that requires employers to purchase contraception, including abortion-producing drugs, and sterilization coverage for their employees.

Last August, when the administration first proposed this nationwide mandate for contraception and sterilization coverage, it also proposed a "religious employer" exemption. But this was so narrow that it would apply only to religious organizations engaged primarily in serving people of the same religion. As Catholic Charities USA's president, the Rev. Larry Snyder, notes, even Jesus and His disciples would not qualify for the exemption in that case, because they were committed to serve those of other faiths.

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1. Charles52 wrote: In every time and place, Caesar demands his pinch of incense.  Contraception, abortion, and sterization - a culture of sterility - was, not that long ago, generally rejected (despite some inroads made by the eugenics movement) , then allowed as a matter of personal choice, now ‘‘insured’‘. Which is to say, your personal choice is now paid for by me. Does anyone think that the time will not come when sterility will be enforced on the socially undesirable by our cultural masters? Civilization is a thin veneer covering our fallen humanity. We often find ourselves enslaved to culture without realizing it. It’s in our faces now : will we give Caesar this little bit - just pennies really - that he’s asking? January 25, 8:26 pm | [comment link]

2. sophy0075 wrote: Charles52, The time has already come. Then-Chief Justice Holmes, writing the decision in Buck v Bell, 274 US 200 (1927), approved of the enforced sterilization of persons accused of being unfit, “for the protection and health of the state.” Margaret Sanger began her organization, not out of sympathy for the poor, but rather to encourage them not to reproduce - because that class (composed of non-whites and non-WASPs) was deemed “unfit.” This sleazy “eugenics” was adopted more loudly and viciously by the Nazis, but the US was not exempt from its evil “survival of the fittest”-based concept. January 25, 10:28 pm | [comment link]

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