The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops writes,”The rule that created the uproar has not changed at all, but was finalized as is. Friday evening, after a day of touting meaningful changes in the mandate, HHS issued a regulation finalizing the rule first issued in August 2011, “without change.” So religious employers dedicated to serving people of other faiths are still not exempt as “religious employers.” Indeed, the rule describes them as “non-exempt.”
Read the whole post: Six More Things Everyone Should Know About the HHS Mandate. Then read the First six.
President of Asbury Theological Seminary Timothy Tennent tells us why Protestants should be Concerned about Roman Catholic convictions regarding Birth Control.
Tennent says: In the last few decades Americans have primarily focused on- and, indeed, have championed – personal freedoms. However, America has historically protected personal freedom AND religious liberty with almost an equal fervor. Today, the former has trumped the latter. As Christians, it is important that we not forget the important principle of religious liberty. Churches have the right to define their own boundaries and police their own borders. The moment that is taken away, it is a sad day, even if it is done in the name of personal freedom. It is wrong for the government to force the Roman Catholic church or Methodist or Presbyterian or some other to compromise a point of conscience which we consider part of our faithful Christian identity and witness.
Over at Net Right Daily Robert Romano says The Church is right. The First Amendment’s clause protecting the free exercise of religion applies to individuals as much as to religious institutions. In good conscience, it was inconceivable they would ever pretend with Obama that Americans with religious objections to paying for these services are somehow not.
As much as the Obama Administration would like to think this is over, it is anything but.