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Notre Dame Faculty to Obama: ‘This Is a Grave Violation of Religious Freedom and Cannot Stand’
CNS News ^ | 2/12/12 | Terence P. Jeffrey

Posted on 02/13/2012 9:15:11 AM PST by rhema

Twenty-five Notre Dame faculty members--led by the university’s top ethics expert, and including some of the school’s most eminent scholars--have signed a statement declaring that President Barack Obama’s latest version of his administration’s mandate that all health insurance plans in the United States must cover sterilizations and all FDA-approved contraceptives, including those that cause abortions, is “a grave violation of religious freedom and cannot stand."

The statement—put out on the letterhead of the University of Notre Dame Law School--is also signed by leading scholars from other major American colleges and universities, including Princeton, Harvard, Stanford, Georgetown, Brigham Young, Yeshiva and Wheaton College.

Prof. Carter Snead, a professor of law at Notre Dame, was one of the lead organizers of the statement, which was published on his official law school letterhead. Notre Dame's top ethics expert, Snead serves as director of the university's Center for Ethics and Culture, a position to which he was appointed by Father John Jenkins, the president of Notre Dame.

In 2009, Father Jenkins awarded President Barack Obama an honorary Notre Dame law degree.

Some of the other distinguished Notre Dame faculty who signed the statement condemning Obama’s mandate are Prof. Patrick Griffin, chairman of Notre Dame's History Department; Prof. Richard Garnett, an associate dean; John Cavadini, director of Notre Dame’s Institute for Church Life; Christian Smith, director of Notre Dame’s Center for the Study of Religion and Society; Prof. Paolo Carozza, director of Notre Dame’s Center for Civil and Human Rights; Prof. Philip Bess, Notre Dame’s Director of Graduate Studies; and Father Wilson Miscamble, a professor of history.

Other leading organizers of the letter included Prof. Robert George of Princeton and Prof. Mary Ann Glendon of Harvard Law School.

When Obama received his honorary degree at Notre Dame's May 17, 2009, commencement, he vowed to respect the conscience rights of those who believe abortion is wrong.

“Let's honor the conscience of those who disagree with abortion, and draft a sensible conscience clause, and make sure that all of our health care policies are grounded not only in sound science, but also in clear ethics, as well as respect for the equality of women,” said Obama. “Those are things we can do.”

Many Catholic bishops and lay leaders had criticized Notre Dame's decision to grant Obama honorary degree to Obama--pointing to his long-standing position in favor of legalized abortion on demand, which included going so far as to oppose a law in the Illinois state senate that would have simply said that a baby born alive in that state was entitled to the same rights under the U.S. Constitution as any other born "person."

In their statement released late Friday, the 25 Notre Dame faculty members and the many other prominent scholars from other institutions who joined them said that Obama’s sterilization-contraception-abortifacient mandate--even with Obama’s proposed adjustments on Friday--remains as “assault on religious liberty and rights of conscience.”

“The administration will now require that all insurance plans cover (‘cost free’) these same products and services,” said the scholars. “Once a religiously-affiliated (or believing individual) employer purchases insurance (as it must, by law), the insurance company will then contact the insured employees to advise them that the terms of the policy include coverage for these objectionable things.

“This so-called ‘accommodation’ changes nothing of moral substance and fails to remove the assault on religious liberty and the rights of conscience which gave rise to the controversy,” they said. “It is certainly no compromise. The reason for the original bipartisan uproar was the administration’s insistence that religious employers, be they institutions or individuals, provide insurance that covered services they regard as gravely immoral and unjust. Under the new rule, the government still coerces religious institutions and individuals to purchase insurance policies that include the very same services.”

The statement also said that Obama’s latest iteration of the regulation is “an insult to the intelligence of Catholics, Protestants, Eastern Orthodox Christians, Jews and Muslims” and “cannot stand.”

“The simple fact is that the Obama administration is compelling religious people and institutions who are employers to purchase a health insurance contract that provides abortion-inducing drugs, contraception, and sterilization,” the scholars said. “This is a grave violation of religious freedom and cannot stand. It is an insult to the intelligence of Catholics, Protestants, Eastern Orthodox Christians, Jews, Muslims, and other people of faith and conscience to imagine that they will accept an assault on their religious liberty if only it is covered up by a cheap accounting trick.”


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Front Page News; News/Current Events; US: Indiana
KEYWORDS: 2012; bho44; bhofascism; catholic; catholiccolleges; catholicobamavoters; catholicvote; democrats; elections; hypocrisy; moralabsolutes; nd4obama; ndhypocrisy; nobama2012; notredame; notredameu; obama; obamacare; obamatrurhfile; obamatruthfile; prolife
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To: SeekAndFind

the same guy whose stance on live birth abortion they turned their heads away from....


41 posted on 02/13/2012 10:10:59 AM PST by God luvs America (63.5million pay no federal income tax then vote demoKrat)
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To: rhema

Let me be the 2nd: IT’S OBAMA’S FAULT!


42 posted on 02/13/2012 10:35:42 AM PST by UScbass
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To: rhema

Notre Dame has already slept with their beloved Obama. It’s tough for me to see any credibility in their actions now... it’s just too late.


43 posted on 02/13/2012 11:05:04 AM PST by Gator113 (~Just livin' life, my way~..... GO NEWT GO--itÂ’s about the survival of our country!!)
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To: Albion Wilde
It is absolutely a "cheap accounting trick," and it should be obvious, too, that the issue here has nothing to do with “choice.”

If you have the money to buy something, you have choices. If the government wanted to guarantee women more choices, they could do it by giving every woman more discretionary funds to buy what she wants.

They could do that very easily just by lowering taxes. Let's say they lower every woman's taxes by approx. $390 a year (the average cost of a year’s worth of contraceptives.)She now has money she can spend on anything: Hershey bars, Pills, stylish maternity clothes, NuvaRings, a one-way airfare to Hollywood, or anything else.

She gets maximum choices, and nobody else is complicit or picks up bad karma whether she chooses 200 very fine condoms or a good used 10-speed Schwinn.

It’s obvious that mandated payments are not about freedom to choose. They’re about promoting a divisive and controversial program by making everyone pay --- yes, YOU pay, Father or Reverend or Pastor or Rabbi or Mr. or Mrs. ---- and no, you don’t have a choice.

44 posted on 02/13/2012 11:27:07 AM PST by Mrs. Don-o ("Justice and judgment are the foundation of His throne." Psalm 89:14)
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To: laweeks
No, it's not hypocrisy. Most, if not all, of the Notre Dame signers of this letter, were also the ones who opposed Obama's honorary degree 2 1/2 years ago.

You don't seem to realize that there are factions at Notre Dame --- as everywhere -- composed of people who stand in direct oppositon to each other's positions.

That's not hyprocisy. It's a sign of an internal, ongoing struggle.

And if some of them (though I don't know of any) were the very ones who supported Obama's degree --- are you against them turning away from evil? You want them to keep doing evil forever, because if they turn and do good, that would be "hypocrisy"?

(Shaking head.)

45 posted on 02/13/2012 11:37:35 AM PST by Mrs. Don-o ("Justice and judgment are the foundation of His throne." Psalm 89:14)
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To: WatchOutForSnakes
Do we not want people to have a change of heart

If they change their heart on the whole premise of government-controlled health care then I welcome them to the team - 110%.

But if they settle for one little exception for one issue, and support the rest of Obamacare, then they can go pound sand.

46 posted on 02/13/2012 12:26:36 PM PST by Notary Sojac (Liberalism: Ideas so good, they have to be mandatory!!)
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To: rhema

It’s all about population control. Billy Ayers, Barry Soetooro and Ruth Ginsburg are really into that.

Ginsburg had this to say about her feelings “at the time”:
“Frankly I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don’t want to have too many of.”

Bill Ayers:

I asked, “Well what is going to happen to those people we can’t reeducate, that are diehard capitalists?” And the reply was that they’d have to be eliminated.

And when I pursued this further, they estimated they would have to eliminate 25 million people in these reeducation centers.

And when I say “eliminate,” I mean “kill.”

Twenty-five million people.

I want you to imagine sitting in a room with 25 people, most of which have graduate degrees, from Columbia and other well-known educational centers, and hear them figuring out the logistics for the elimination of 25 million people and they were dead serious.

http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/election/480

John Holdren, Putting forth pure evil
Obama’s Population Control Czar

Back in 1977 a man by the name of John Holdren co-authored a book entitled Ecoscience along with Paul and Anne Ehrlich. In the book several assertions are made with regard to the dangers of over population and the potential solutions. Forced abortions, mass sterilization, and a “Planetary Regime” with the power of life and death over American citizens are in the forefront of Holdren’s preferred methods.

Holdren has been appointed Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, and Co-Chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology by Barack Obama.

http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/15192

and of course who will ever forget this:

“I’ve got two daughters. 9 years old and 6 years old. I am going to teach them first of all about values and morals. But if they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby. I don’t want them punished with an STD at the age of 16.”

Barry Barack Hussein Soetoro Obama


47 posted on 02/13/2012 12:36:44 PM PST by mojitojoe (SCOTUS.... think about that when you decide to sit home and pout because your candidate didn't win)
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To: SeekAndFind; rhema

I believe that this is the same place where statues and crosses were covered when 0 spoke last.


48 posted on 02/13/2012 12:38:02 PM PST by printhead (Standard & Poor - Poor is the new standard.)
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To: rhema

The same Notre Dame that was thrilled to give Obama an hororary ‘Doctor of Laws’ degree?

http://newsinfo.nd.edu/news/11293-president-obama-to-deliver-notre-dames-commencement-address/


49 posted on 02/13/2012 12:41:09 PM PST by airborne (Paratroopers! Good to the last drop!)
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To: rhema
Photobucket
50 posted on 02/13/2012 12:49:04 PM PST by mojitojoe (SCOTUS.... think about that when you decide to sit home and pout because your candidate didn't win)
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To: Mrs. Don-o
"It’s obvious that mandated payments are not about freedom to choose."

This is all part of the wordgames that communists love to play. Obama and his comrades are also saying statements such as, "Protecting women's access to preventive care." As in contraceptives or PREVENTING A HUMAN BEING BEING BORN. Simply playing with words to make something seem like its something else entirely. This isn't preventative care!

Also, why is this administration getting away with the notion that access to contraceptives has to be "protected" by the Federal government. As if Obama can just speak it and it becomes a Right, for one group only. Contraceptives are readily available everywhere and there is no problem with access that requires protection. They are just not free. However, the President of the United States has just decreed that a company must give contraceptives to a select group of his choosing and at his command. To "protect their access."

What we are seeing is a preview of the power Obamacare will wield over our lives... Reagan warned us.

51 posted on 02/13/2012 1:13:06 PM PST by vlad335
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To: rhema
Father John Jenkins, CSC, still thinks he did the right thing in inviting/honoring Obama in 2009 -- despite the fact this own Bishop said it was very wrong, along with 100 other Bishops, Archbishops and Cardinals of the Catholic Church.

It is my opinion he is a very poor example and should have been removed after the 2009 disaster...

52 posted on 02/13/2012 1:53:46 PM PST by topher (Traditional values -- especially family values -- are the values that time has proven them to work)
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To: topher; All

There are some important Protestant names on this letter, too. I was looking for some which I didn’t find, but to my surprise I found these:

R. Albert Mohler, Jr.
President, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Daniel Akin
President, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary
Carl E. Zylstra
President, Dordt College

I think I am going to send a thank-you note to Dr. Zylstra, who was on the wrong side of many of the fights in the Christian Reformed Church but is on the right side of this one.

I’d strongly suggest that the Southern Baptists on this list do the same to Dr. Mohler and Dr. Akin.


53 posted on 02/13/2012 2:02:45 PM PST by darrellmaurina
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To: Mrs. Don-o
"No, it's not hypocrisy. Most, if not all, of the Notre Dame signers of this letter, were also the ones who opposed Obama's honorary degree 2 1/2 years ago.

You don't seem to realize that there are factions at Notre Dame --- as everywhere -- composed of people who stand in direct oppositon to each other's positions.

That's not hyprocisy. It's a sign of an internal, ongoing struggle."

"A house divided against itself cannot stand."

Is Obama seeking to advance statism by further dividing the Catholic Church? As a result of this monumental and critical struggle, will the Church succeed and tend toward unity,or fail and lose even the present level of unity?

54 posted on 02/13/2012 2:08:32 PM PST by LZ_Bayonet ( I AM THE TEA PARTY LEADER !)
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To: rhema

So another group of useful idiots finds out what it’s like to be no longer useful...


55 posted on 02/13/2012 2:13:24 PM PST by JrsyJack (a healthy dose of buckshot will probably get you the last word in any argument.)
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To: rhema

How about Kmiec? Or he’s wandered too far?


56 posted on 02/13/2012 2:45:09 PM PST by paudio (Newt pissed on conservative principles, but we need him to beat 0bama so we look the other way...)
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To: Truth29
Thanks for doing that. Mary Ann Glendon, one of the signers, distinguished herself with an act of great nobility two years ago: Mary Ann Glendon, the former United States ambassador to the Vatican who was set to receive the University of Notre Dame’s Laetare Medal at the school’s commencement on May 17, has written to University president Fr. John Jenkins saying that she will not attend the ceremony or accept the award after all. Glendon says her refusal stems from the University’s persistence in choosing to honor Obama with an honorary degree, despite U.S. Bishops Conference policy that forbids honoring pro-abortion politicians.
57 posted on 02/13/2012 2:54:06 PM PST by rhema ("Break the conventions; keep the commandments." -- G. K. Chesterton)
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To: airborne

Mercifully, not everybody was thrilled. See posts 10 and 57 for some ringing dissents.


58 posted on 02/13/2012 2:58:25 PM PST by rhema ("Break the conventions; keep the commandments." -- G. K. Chesterton)
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To: rhema

Thanks for the link to the document.


59 posted on 02/13/2012 3:36:50 PM PST by ELS (Vivat Benedictus XVI!)
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To: rhema

Et tu, Harvard:-?


60 posted on 02/13/2012 4:04:23 PM PST by Eleutheria5 (End the occupation. Annex today.)
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