Religious Freedom or Hypocrisy

Two weeks ago the Catholic Bishops had a letter from them read at pulpits all over the country. It has caused a firestorm that in their desperation the Republicans have jumped all over. But what is this about, is it about morality, or religious freedom?

First of all let’s start with the facts. This is about a ruling by the Federal Health and Human Services department made that requires all employers to provide birth control services in health insurance programs. Yes, that is right, birth control, not abortion. In fact abortion is not mentioned or part of this rule in any way whatsoever. Anyone that says otherwise is misinformed or a flat out liar.

Unbelievable that in 2012 there is still a fight over birth control. But who is actually fighting? It sure isn’t the women of America since 99% of them have used or are using contraception now. In fact it isn’t even Catholic women because 98% of them do.

So they want you to ignore those facts and make this simply about religious freedom. But again is it? The Health and Human Service’s ruling exempts employees of actual churches. This ruling in fact has no affect on anyone in our around, or attending, or even employed by an actual church. So yes the church can decide not to cover birth control for the organist and the pastor’s secretary.

So who does it apply to? This effects the thousands of employees regardless of their religion of Catholic run institutions like universities and hospitals. These institutions are not churches, they are large organizations and are very large employers.

Some would say that the Catholic Church has the right to impose their beliefs on these institutions despite the fact they are not churches. Really now? The Catholic Church is also against divorce, perhaps they also have the right to fire anyone at these institutions that gets a divorce or even worse, turn someone away at an emergency room at their hospital because the patient is divorced? Of course not.

So how is this hypocrisy? First of all 22 states already have this requirement. Did the Catholic Church scream out then? But get this. A number of Catholic run institutions already provide insurance for birth control.

So what is this about? Frankly I am clueless. Being raised a Catholic myself and being taught in the vision of Jesus Christ to work for the poor, the needy, the helpless, the widowed, the elderly, the orphaned and the hungry is one of the reasons I am a liberal. For the Catholic Bishops to ignore all the things this administration has done in those areas, over a fight over a moral judgment that few Catholics even hold is truly baffling. All they have done is to insert themselves in typical RepubLIEcan hypocrisy for political gain. And boy are the RepubLIEcans enjoying using the Catholic Bishops for their ends.

What would be the result if the HHS reverses this policy? Will it stop female employees of Catholic Hospitals and Colleges from having sex unless they want children? Of course it won’t. It will instead result in those that can’t afford it to go without birth control, resulting in more unwanted pregnancies and worst of all more abortions. Hypocrisy? You bet it is.