Little Sisters of the Poor vs. Government Almighty

American Spectator ^ | 11/16/2015 | David Catron

[rootin tootin]

The Supreme Court decision to hear Little Sisters of the Poor v. Burwell means that another group of Christians bedeviled by Beltway bureaucrats must beg permission from nine unelected government officials to practice their faith unmolested. This is not about women’s health or reproductive rights. It is just another battle in the war on religious liberty waged by various manifestations of the state for two millennia. Whether it is President Obama ordering his HHS secretary to bring intransigent nuns to heel or the Emperor Trajan advising a provincial governor on the proper punishment of unrepentant Christians, it is all about worshipping the state gods.

During the reign of Trajan, that meant forcing people to betray their faith by making them participate in the imperial cult. This typically involved a public sacrifice to the divine Augustus. Refusal to do so resulted in very unpleasant consequences. In our era, it means forcing people to betray their faith by making them subsidize the sacraments of the secular state, like abortion on demand and free abortifacients. Refusal to obey means financial destruction by means of ruinous federal fines. It was just such a refusal to pay for the secular sacrament of contraception that brought the heavy hand of the Obama administration down on the Little Sisters of the Poor.

[Jacquerie]

The US has long needed a Christian version of CAIR.

It is an unfortunate fact that natural rights are not secured by virtue of being written down; they need constant, practical, real world protection.

For example, the 2A is alive only because gun-rights groups stand ready to visit electoral hell on gun grabbing politicians.