Church just wants religious freedom

It seems there’s an ongoing effort to create confusion regarding the true meaning of religious liberty in our nation and, in particular, how the recent Health and Human Services mandate under “Obamacare” violates religious freedom.

The First Amendment to the Constitution begins: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ...” (emphasis added).

The exercise of one’s religion involves more than just time spent in church, temple or synagogue, but includes how you live your life in accordance with the religious teachings of your chosen faith.

For more than 200 years there has been a “conscience exception” that allowed individuals or organizations to be exempt from laws that would force them to act in direct violation of their beliefs. Until now, that is. The current administration has determined the Catholic Church must provide to its employees health insurance that includes coverage of several services that are in direct opposition to the church’s teachings.

Efforts of the liberal left to cloud the issue by tying it to women’s “reproductive rights” are intended to incite fear among uninformed individuals for the sake of winning the upcoming election.

Women already have easy access to birth control and abortion. Why must it be the responsibility of the government, i.e. the taxpayer, to provide it? Requiring insurance companies to include this coverage in every policy only means the costs will be passed on to all of us. The administration’s “accommodation” was simply an attempt to distract people from the real issue: religious liberty.

The Catholic Church is NOT trying to “force theocratic rule” upon anyone, nor is it trying to “(get its) theology enacted into law.” Such assertions are absurd, misleading, and downright insulting. It is only asking to be allowed the same religious freedoms that have existed in this country since its inception.

Arlene Quinn

Geneva