By James Wilson
In
the eruption over the president’s usurpation of power over immigration an
earlier travesty is forgotten. Last
August the Administration acted on requiring corporations holding a faith-based
objection to Obamacare. With great
fanfare they permitted religious non-profits to opt out of providing contraceptive
and abortion benefits in employee health insurance. This “concession” comes after the Supreme
Court found for Wheaton College, exempting them from the requirement. They announced a similar waiver for closely
held for-profit enterprises. This second
“concession” follows an earlier Supreme Court ruling in favor of Hobby Lobby
and Conestoga Wood Products.
Companies
and organizations choosing to opt out need not inform their employees they are
standing on their faith. If they just
notify the government the latter will quietly arrange for either government
funding of these benefits or order insurers to provide them at no cost. The cans of worms opened by this brazen
action are legion.
First,
the president is doing nothing but seeking to end-around the Supreme Court
rulings. The Court forbade him to
require these companies to provide reproductive services to employees against
their faith-based convictions. The
president now says, “Well, you still have to provide them; but you won’t be the
one paying for them.” The elephant in
the room is these companies’ objections are under all circumstances. Their position is – inasmuch as these things
are legal – employees are free to buy them.
But the employers cannot conscientiously supply them, at their own
expense or at the expense of somebody else.
And the Court said they needn’t.
Second,
the president promises either the taxpayers or insurers themselves will pay for
these services. The taxpayers are not
wild about adding to the deficit in this way, and this is especially
problematic when the issue is abortion and studies show 80% of taxpayers oppose
government funding of abortion. (A mere
58% majority would like to see abortion ended altogether.) Requiring insurer finding is confiscation of
property/wealth without due process, which raises a few Fourteenth Amendment
issues. On the other hand, maybe this
promise is no more truthful than, “You can keep your doctor,” in which case
everything is under control and no worries.
Third
– and this is a whopper on so many levels – news accounts and the government
keep promoting the fiction that this was ever about contraception. Although Roman Catholic teaching opposes
artificial birth control of all kinds – and they are entitled to enforce that
teaching in their institutions under the First Amendment – the vast majority of
Americans have no problem with contraception.
Abortion is another matter entirely – again with the 58% opposed and 80%
opposing government funding. Before we
can even have a serious conversation about Obamacare and the mandate one side
needs to start telling the truth about the nature of the issue. It is not about birth control and it is not
about access to birth control. The pills
and other aids are available in any drug store – for purchase by the parties
wishing to use them.
Fourth
and finally – because this is the biggest issue for the greatest number of
Americans – Christian or no – the president and his people are again re-writing
federal law. (This makes twenty-seven
times, I think, on this law alone.) The
president’s function is to enforce the law; he has the right to recommend
legislation. He has no right, and no
responsibility, to make laws. That is
the job of Congress and the state legislatures.
Yet here he goes again, armed with no authority other than his own
supreme confidence that he is somehow making things better. And – given the disaster of biblical
proportions that has been Obamacare – we can only stare in slack-jawed wonder
at such ignorance fueled arrogance.
Speaking
of the Bible, Jesus famously calls on us to render to Ceasar what is Ceasar’s
and to render to God what is God’s. We
can debate the fine points of what belongs to Ceasar – whether we wish to let
Ceasar define our faith and the behavior that stems from it – if we wish. But Jesus says in that same Chapter 10 of
Matthew that we will be brought before rulers who have power but no real
authority. He promises we will be taught
in that very hour how to deal with the predicament, and that if we acknowledge
Him before men He will acknowledge us before God the Father. His promises are never ever broken – in
heaven or on earth.
I
strive always to finish a posting with a blessing. The president is conceding what he does not
own. Those who stand against this
abortion mandate are owning what can never be taken from us.
James A. Wilson is the author of Living
As Ambassadors of Relationships and The
Holy Spirit and the End Times – available at local bookstores or by
e-mailing him at
praynorthstate@charter.net
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