Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Health Care and Religious Freedom

I have never supported abortion. I have only taken the pill about two months of my entire life and that was only due to an issue I had and the pill was "supposed" to help me with it but thankfully, instead of helping me it caused me to have side effects and I was done with it. I'm not going to tie my tubes after my second baby. I am going to let nature take its natural course and wait for menopouse instead of polluting my body with unwanted chemicals. I will not make my husband do any tying whatsoever. We will of course do the Catholic Rythm method. It works! Many people are just lazy about it. But again, it is only my opinion and my body, right!? -Sandra.
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Forced to Choose?
By Chuck Colson

Yet again, a religious institution may be forced to choose between obeying the government or staying true to its beliefs.

What word comes to your mind when we talk about a Catholic college that won’t allow abortion, sterilization, and contraception to be covered by its employees’ health care plan?
Is “conservative” a good word? How about “faithful”? After all, the church teaches that abortion, sterilization, and contraception are immoral. So it makes sense that a conservative Catholic college would make sure that its health plan doesn’t cover such practices.
Well, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has a different word for Belmont Abbey College: “sexist.”

Using reasoning that could only be concocted by a consummate bureaucrat, the director of the agency’s Charlotte office has said that denying contraception is sexist “because only females take oral prescription contraceptives. By denying coverage, men are not affected, only women.”
The EEOC stepped in because eight college employees complained about the lack of coverage. The EEOC has now ordered the college to find a resolution. Even though North Carolina law protects religious institutions from having to cover contraception, abortion, and voluntary sterilization, the case could end up in the federal courts.

But as the president of the college, William Thierfelder, stated, “Belmont Abbey College is not able to and will not offer nor subsidize medical services that contradict the clear teaching of the Catholic Church.”

In fact, Thierfelder has said that he would “close the school rather than give in.” Good for him.
We’ve seen this before. In Boston, Catholic Charities was forced out of the adoption business because it would not place children with homosexual couples. Christian fertility doctors have been sued because they refused artificial insemination to a lesbian—even though they referred her to another doctor. Christian pharmacists have lost their jobs for not distributing morning-after pills.

When will this end? The more serious question is, however, when does the next round of government regulation against religious freedom begin? We’ll see soon enough in the current health care debate, and we need to be ready to do as William Thierfelder has done.
Congress, after all, has rejected every attempt to include language to protect the consciences of medical professionals in the health care debate. Pro-life groups have warned about the very real possibility of religiously based hospitals shutting down before being forced to provide services that violate their religious principles.

And back to insurance, current legislation being considered could also hand over to a “Health Choices Commissioner” the ability to regulate “basically all health insurance in America.”
Now, imagine a bureaucracy—completely unaccountable to voters—deciding what medical procedures must be covered by the insurance plans of a small Baptist day care center or a Christian high school. Frankly, I don’t even want to imagine it.

That’s why Christians need to insist that any health care system must protect religious freedom.
It’s sad to me that we have reached a state where we must insist on laws that specifically protect religious freedom and freedom of conscience from government bureaucracy.

Silly me, that’s what I thought the Constitution was for.

6 comments:

D.Richmond said...

Our church typically stays out of political issues but they actually talked about this one (the health care plan) in church two weeks ago.

They said certain issues require the church to take a stand, not as republicans or democrats, but as God's people and this was one of those issues.

They encouraged all to write to their congressmen and senators to ensure our voices were heard.

Bravo to all churches who stand up on this issue and Bravo to the people of the church who let their voice be heard both to the government and by God in prayer for our country.

The Seaman's said...

that's great! Our church does stay away from politics. it is good but at the same time, I feel they should push on it more. since we are the so called "conservative church" that opposses abortion and homosexuality they should do more. I'm just glad that my church does alot to promote pro-life. -sandra.

D.Richmond said...

Your church does promote the pro-life agenda maybe more than any other church.

During the Terri Shivo case, I listened to Catholic radio all the time because they really took a stand on the pro-life issue and I learned a lot.

The Seaman's said...

really!? there is one show that I love in that station and is called, "The Doctor is in" by Dr. Ray. He's like Dr. Laura, I will say he's even better than Dr. Laura. check out ewtn.com and/or his website and you can hear past shows. He's pretty good and of course, conservative and he promotes homeschooling. He understands is not for everyone, however, I like his stance and it is refreshing to listen to, he used to be an atheist and his story is very touching. Let me know! -Sandra.

D.Richmond said...

I will check it out. Thanks!

I really took note when you said he was a promoter of homeschooling. We have been praying about homeschooling and have been gathering resources. I'm convinced but my husband is not, so we continue to pray.

The Seaman's said...

I'm leaning towards private school for my children. I was educated in both private and public and I hated public. I did miss going to service during school when I came to the States and was placed in Public School. I did talk to my husband about homeschool and he said no. I'm not good at science and math, these are my husbands strenghts and he states that will put alot of stress on him on top of the one he already has at work. I don't want to cheat my kids when it comes to Science and Math so, I told him that Private will be the way to go. Of course, when he saw the price tag he was like, "what's wrong with Public." I said everything! He's now leaning towards Private and if that fails, and I pray it doesn't, then our last resort will be homeschooling.