The Congressional Prayer Caucus

 
Forty-Three Organizations File Religious Freedom Lawsuits Opposing HHS Mandate
Posted by The Congressional Prayer Caucus | June 04, 2012

Last week, forty-three organizations filed twelve lawsuits opposing the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) mandate that will force scores of employers to provide health plans that include services that violate their religious beliefs.  The University of Notre Dame, the Archdiocese of Washington, Catholic Charities of D.C., and the Saint Anne Home and Retirement Community were just a few of the organizations that filed suit.   

The mandate will require most employers to provide health plans that cover abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization, and contraceptives.  It includes an extremely narrow exemption for churches, but offers no protection to religious hospitals, schools, and charities, with the reason being that these entities often serve and employ individuals that do not share the groups’ religious beliefs.  Cardinal Weurl, Archbishop of Washington, aptly explained

    “[F]or two millennia, Roman Catholic entities have been engaged in charitable works – serving not just Catholics, but non-Catholics as well, with the understanding that these works are an essential part of Christian love and the practice of the Christian faith. . . .  Considering the dedicated efforts put into these good works, it is understandable to feel somewhat disheartened to see our government attempt to force the Church out of the public square.  To be clear, that is the message that the HHS mandate conveys: our beliefs are not welcome. . . .  The First Amendment’s guarantee of religious freedom, however, was not meant to protect merely the right to worship, but also the right to contribute the fruits of our faith to the common good.  And until now, our government had chosen to honor that guarantee. . . . HHS’s conception of what constitutes the practice of religion is so narrow that even Mother Teresa would not have qualified.  We know that such a law cannot stand. . . .  The Church did not choose this fight.  It is HHS that has departed from longstanding practice and precedent to change the law; our response merely aims to preserve our existing rights.”

If the mandate is not modified, it could force many religious charities and service organizations out of the public square, leaving society’s most vulnerable members with even less access to assistance.  Unfortunately, in recent years there have been numerous examples of an increasing hostility towards people wishing to exercise their constitutionally-protected religious freedoms. 

Religious freedom in America has consistently extended beyond religious worship, safeguarding the ability of the faithful to contribute to our society in a unique and significant way.  Members of the Prayer Caucus will continue working to ensure that religious freedom in its fullest sense is preserved in our nation.

 

Comments
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  • Linda Templet commented on 6/4/2012
    WOW--this is great. Our CATHOLIC Churches are all standing up concerning this ONE ISSUE. Now where is the LIST of so called CHRISTIAN Churches? Why hasn't our other Religious Organizations formed a COMMON UNIONor COMPACT with these Catholic Churches so we can become ONE SPIRITUAL BODY fighting FOR THE SAME CAUSE. Come on people when are we going to start HUMBLEING OURSELVES and fight for this CAUSE together. Doesn't anyone understand what they are reading in this Book called, "The Bible". God told Noah Its going to rain 40 days and forty nights because of all the wickedness and corruption--When will GODS REIGN START????
  • linda Templet commented on 6/5/2012
    Our Constitution entrusts the Government of the United States of America with the EXCLUSIVE management of our FOREIGN affairs. Beyond that it wields a FEW general enumerated POWERS. It does NOT FORCE REFORM on the States. It leaves individuals, over whom it casts ITS PROTECTING INFLUENCE, entirely FREE to IMPROVE their own condition by the legitimate exercise of all THEIR MENTAL AND PHYSICAL POWERS. It is a COMMON PROTECTOR of each and all the States; of EVERY MAN who lives upon our soil, whether of native or foreign birth; of EVERY RELIGIOUS SECT, in their worship of the Almighty according to the dictates of their own conscience; of every shade of opinion, and the most FREE inquiry; of EVERY ART, trade, and occupation consistent with the LAWS of the States. And we rejoice in the general happiness, prosperity, and ADVANCEMENT of our country, which have been the OFFSPRING of FREEDOM, and NOT OF POWER. This mandate has nothing at all to do with the advancement of our country or the advancement of people. If this mandate passes, it will be the OFFSPRING OF POWER, and not of FREEDOM. So we want to live under a government of freedom or power?
  • Linda Templet commented on 6/5/2012
    Please read the Inaugural Address of James Knox Polk, March 4, 1845--This is just a small part of his address. Take time to get educated people. From the Avalon Project,,,All are entitled to equal rights and equal protection. No UNION EXISTS between church and state, and perfect freedom of opinion is guaranteed to all sects and creeds. These are some of the blessings secured to our happy land by our Federal Union. To perpetuate them it is our SACRED DUTY TO PRESERVE IT. Who shall assign limits to the achievements of free minds and free hands under the protection of this glorious Union? No treason to mankind since the organization of society would be equal in atrocity to that of him who would lift his hand to destroy it. He would overthrow the noblest structure of human wisdom, which protects himself and his fellow-man. He would stop the progress of free government and involve his country either in anarchy or despotism. He would extinguish the fire of liberty, which warms and animates the hearts of happy millions and invites all the nations of the earth to imitate our example. If he say that error and wrong are committed in the administration of the Government, let him remember that nothing human can be perfect, and that under no other system of government revealed by Heaven or devised by man has reason been allowed so free and broad a scope to combat error. Has the sword of despots proved to be a safer or surer instrument of reform in government than ENLIGHTENED REASON? Does he expect to find among the ruins of this Union a happier abode for our swarming millions than they now have under it? Every lover of his country must shudder at the thought of the possibility of its dissolution, and will be ready to adopt the patriotic sentiment, "Our Federal Union--it must be preserved." To preserve it the compromises which alone enabled our fathers to form a common Constitution for the government and protection of so many States and distinct communities, of such diversified habits, interests, and domestic institutions, must be SACREDLY AND RELIGIOUSLY observed. Any attempt to disturb or destroy these compromises, BEING TERMS OF THE COMPACT OF UNION, can lead to none other than the most ruinous and disastrous consequences. It is a source of deep regret that in some sections of our country misguided persons have occasionally indulged in SCHEMES and AGITATIONS whose object is the destruction of domestic institutions existing in other sections--institutions which existed at the adoption of the Constitution and were recognized and protected by it. All must see that if it were possible for THEM to be successful in attaining THEIR OBJECT the dissolution of the Union and the consequent destruction of our happy form of government must speedily follow. Wake up people--all this is happening today.
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