First, an announcement. If you care about religious freedom and the First Amendment of the Constitution, please join us on March 23, 2012 to Stand Up For Religous Freedom (see http://standupforreligiousfreedom.com/ ) from 12-1 pm in cities across the country!
For Arizona, the location is the Sandra Day O’Connor Courthouse, 401 W Washington St. Phoenix, Arizona.
For other cities, please go to this website for the location. The time is 12-1 pm everywhere in the U.S.
http://standupforreligiousfreedom.com/locations/
Why You Should Care About the Catholics
I know that there are many people who do not really understand why the Catholic Church is so upset about HHS Kathleen Sebelius’ order for the Churches to provide contraception and abortifacients to those whom they serve. Why not just give in? Why is this such a big deal?
First of all, let me explain that contraception, especially the kind of contraception that kills an unborn baby, is not just any kind of sin. It is the worst kind of sin– a mortal sin. For the deeper reasons for the Catholic Church’s stance on contraception and abortion, read this document, and perhaps even this article.
But the basic issue is this: ordering Catholics to provide contraceptives and abortifacients is like requiring Muslims to provide wet t-shirt contests every Friday for their young women to participate in, or requiring Jewish people to eat bacon cheeseburgers every week for their health. Except that it’s actually a lot worse. A Catholic who participates in a mortal sin (like providing abortifacients) must go to confession and repent in order to receive the Sacraments — in order to do anything that is Catholic — in fact, in order to actually continue to BE Catholic. .
So to begin with, what we are talking about with this new Kathleen Sebelius-generated law is that the government is ordering the Catholic church to do something that would essentially make Catholics no longer Catholic. The mandate destroys freedom of religion by definition.
But let’s also look at the impact here. Catholics who have never disobeyed a law in their lives, are faced with the choice of disobeying a law with severe consequences and incurring fines, jail, or a shut down, or choosing to disobey their conscience — the core of their faith — and consequently cease to be Catholic.
They must either stop being who they are, or face a government power that will ultimately destroy their very existence (esp. the existence of the agencies they have established to care for the poor and sick, such as hospitals and other charitable services).
And to make a long story short, I think that’s the point.
With this HHS Mandate, the Obama administration is not as much concerned with the miniscule addition of a few more free contraceptives as they are with the destruction of the Catholic Church’s charitable influence, especially the Church’s formidable presence in the healthcare industry.
And that’s why you should care about the Catholics. Because what this administration wants to do in the healthcare arena after they get total, unrestrained control over healthcare in America is not something that the people of this country want.
Why do I think that this administration wants to shut down all of the Catholic hospitals, care centers, charitable organizations and schools? Well, first of all, this is not the Obama administration’s only bizarre, unprecedented attack on the Catholic Church during the last month or so. See http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2012/03/absolutely-appalling-obama-uses-banks-to-control-catholic-church/
The pattern of harassment lately leads me to believe that the Obama administration and HHS Kathleen Sebelius’ “war” is not only being waged against the unborn, but also against the Church.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203518404577094631979925326.html
Also, this act of closing Catholic hospitals et al. is a “necessary” step towards Obama’s ultimate agenda. I think that getting the Catholics out of the way is just the beginning — I truly believe that they have quite a bit more planned with Obamacare than they are telling you now.
See…
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/here_come_death_panels_rOgtOinGhJgRdmCYR9JtcK
So much has changed since Obamacare was approved by Congress. Abortion was not a part of the originally passed Obamacare. Conscience protections were promised, sworn, insisted upon and practically written in blood verifying that they would be there and not be taken away. The Death Panels were removed from the law to get it passed. Executive orders were signed to reassure everyone that nothing like this would ever happen. Let me rephrase that. President Obama was the one who promised that conscience protections would be in place. President Obama was the one who signed an Executive order promising that abortions would not be paid for by Obamacare. The President even made Rep. Stupak and pro-life advocates actually look stupid for questioning his integrity on the matter. There was absolutely no question that Obama promised not to do what Obama just did to the American people in order to get Congress to agree to his healthcare bill.
http://sytereitz.com/category/catholic/
The President’s guarantees were so iron clad and his contradiction of those promises so blatant, that if Obama were sellling a house instead of a bill, he’d be indicted for fraud. There is no way to explain Obama’s “in your face” reversal on his promises to Congress and the American people except that he was just looking for a way to trick Congress into signing something that would give himself and his HHS Czar total control over healthcare in America.
(Maybe that is one way to fight Obamacare — to bring up the fact that it was issued under false pretenses.) http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2010/03/white-house-announces-executiv.html )
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2010/03/white-house-announces-executiv.html
So what does Obama’s healthcare look like now? Buried in the fine print, the healthcare bill gave almost completely unrestrained authority to HHS. Do you want to guess what happened?
Death panels were secretly sneaked back in and are now a part of Obamacare.
http://frontpagemag.com/2010/12/28/backdoor-death-panels/
(Obama’s Christmas present to the American people when they weren’t paying attention)
Abortion is being paid for by Obamacare with a $1 surcharge.
Conscience protections are forbidden by law and severe punishment is threatened.
And free contraception is being dispensed like bubble gum, now considered a right that trumps the First Amendment to the Constitution.
The Obamacare that was passed, despite its unpopularity, looks nothing like the Obamacare that is evolving with each stroke of HHS Kathleen Sebelius’ pen.
If you look at how convincingly they promised and cajoled and issued comprehensive executive orders that left little room for doubt that they would not do what they just did, , that abortion would not be paid for by Obamacare, that conscience protections would be in place etc. — you might want to think twice before you trust anything they’re telling you now. http://ofbyfororagainst.com/
And then the next thing you should do is to Google Kathleen Sebelius, who now has this incredible power over life and death in America. This woman can pretty much issue any law she feels like ordering and make people do anything she wants. So who is this woman who has that kind of power over you, and what are her views?
http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/the-trial-of-kathleen-sebelius
http://michellemalkin.com/2011/10/28/shredding-kathleen-sebelius/
http://lewiscrusade.wordpress.com/2012/03/07/no-death-panels-ha/
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203518404577094631979925326.html
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/01/31/obama_sandbags_the_archbishop_112967.html
O.k. So let’s say that you are trying to overhaul the entire healthcare industry of the United States and how people look at healthcare in general. The decision of who should be entitled to medical care is something that you want to control–totally, without competition or objection. You want to change long held perceptions about who is worthy of care from the historical concern for the individual person to a more statistics-based cost/benefit analysis.
And let’s say that your formidable competitor in the healthcare industry considers everyone beloved and worthy of care, regardless of usefulness or age or convenience.
Let’s say that your competitor’s healthcare systems comprised the largest group of non profit systems in the country. Let’s say that in 2005 they had more than 611 hospitals representing approximately 12% of all hospitals nationwide. Further, that more than a quarter were located in rural areas, so they owned the predominant health care services in those areas. And let’s add that they additionally had acute care facilities that treated and continue to treat more than 1 in 6 patients each year. Let’s even say that your competitor, the Catholic church, has more members than any other single religion in North America.
That kind of competitor could be a problem for an agency that wants to be the only player on the block. The bottom line is that the Catholic Church has a definite influence in health care as it stands right now. By delivering an impossible mandate, this administration gets a two-for — a win for the culture of death, and the potential destruction of an obstacle to unrestrained power.
Now, let’s say that you are a eugenicist and you want health care to be based on your own criteria and not on the principle that all people are endowed by their Creator with the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness –not all people, anyway.
http://www.lifetree.org/timeline/
Let’s say that you want to be in charge of the decision of who lives and who dies. An organization like the Catholic Church could really crimp your style. The Catholic Church has been standing up for the rights of the unborn child even when they’ve stood alone. They will stand up for the rights of the elderly or the newly born or the infirm in the same way. They have always stood against and will continue to be a thorn in the side of the Culture of Death. They consider each person precious in the eyes of God, precious in reality, despite what he or she can contribute to society. The Church teaches that each life is a gift from God regardless of age or usefulness or infirmity. The Church would be a bigger pain than the Constitution to an administration that wants to be in complete and total charge of who has access to medicine in America.
So if the case for killing granny is made http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/09/killing_granny_1.html and the Catholic presence in healthcare remains, how successful will Obama and his Czars be at dominating the system?
First they came for the Catholics. After that it will be easy to come for everybody else.
And that brings up a few more points.
Read Humanae Vitae and tell me if you don’t think it’s just a little bit prophetic. What has happened to the family since contraception was introduced into society? :-)http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_25071968_humanae-vitae_en.html
“Read Love and Responsibility” by Pope John Paul II and tell me that it doesn’t make sense.
Consider why it is the Catholic Church who is being persecuted now–whom have they stood up for? Whom have they defended from the beginning? Consider what is really happening in abortion centers right now and decide for yourselves what is really going on and whether it should continue.
And check out this article from Business Insider: http://articles.businessinsider.com/2012-02-08/politics/31036663_1_sexual-revolution-moral-standards-marriage
The fact that Catholics are being persecuted, and that it may get really difficult for us really terrifies me. And yet, it also makes me really proud to be Catholic. It strengthens my belief and my love for my Church and makes me want to stand too for the defenseless — not only the defenseless unborn but the elderly and infirm as well –even if I stand alone with my brothers and sisters in the Catholic Church.
I believe that the end of all of this turmoil will not result in destruction of the Catholic Church, which is not in a building, but is in our hearts and souls. Instead I think that through this trial the Catholic church will grow and flourish exponentially, increasing the number of true believers who will do what it takes to follow Christ and care for all people, even, and perhaps especially, those whom this world wants to throw away.
