Free Republic

As we experience more of the unpleasant realities of the Affordable Care Act, Americans are questioning, finally, the forthrightness and honesty of their president in his selling of this law. As millions of individual health insurance policies are cancelled, it is transparent that the president distorted the truth when he told Americans, “ if you like your plan you can keep it.” But misrepresentation goes beyond how a particular feature of the law was sold. It also applies to the selling of what this whole law was supposed to be about. In a recent appearance at a synagogue in Dallas,...

Court Rules Obama Admin Can’t Make Catholic Family Business Follow HHS Mandate by Steven Ertelt | LifeNews.com | 11/1/13 1:07 PMA powerful federal appeals court ruled today that a Catholic family-run business does not have to comply with the Obamacare abortion mandate requiring it to pay for birth control and drugs that may cause abortions.Francis A. Gilardi, Jr. and Philip M. Gilardi, two brothers who own and control two companies that are involved in the processing, packaging, and transportation of fresh produce, filed suit against the Obama administration on behalf of their business, Freshway Foods, a nearly 25 year old...

President Barack Obama laughs with HHS Sec. Kathleen Sebelius in the Grand Foyer of the White House, July 26, 2012. Credit: Official White House Photo by Pete Souza. Washington D.C., Jun 28, 2013 / 05:31 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Despite assurances from the Obama administration that the finalized version of the contraception mandate accounts for freedom of conscience, some religious liberty advocates are still concerned. “The final rule,” explained Eric Rassbach, deputy general counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, “is not very different from the inadequate rule that was proposed back in February.” While the final rule “tinkered with...

WASHINGTON, DC, May 29, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – This year’s graduating classes should be grateful for the “good news” that they will be eligible to receive free contraceptive and abortifacient drug coverage “without paying a penny” thanks to the HHS mandate, said Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. In a blog post on Wednesday addressed to the “Class of 2013,” Sebelius told newly minted graduates that the law is “giving you the flexibility to make choices about your future without worrying about where you’re going to get health insurance.” “Bottom line: Because of the Affordable Care Act, you’ll be...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told reporters present at her weekly Capitol Hill news conference to “get excited” about newly elected Pope Francis. While discussing with Capitol Hill reporters on Thursday her experience watching the selection of the new pope, Pelosi said: “Isn’t it exciting? I think so. Get excited. This is big, this is big.” Earlier in the press briefing, Pelosi said she was happy to hear Pope Francis chose his name based on Saint Francis of Assisi, for whom Pelosi’s home city of San Francisco is named. …

CLAREMONT, CA, February 22, 2013, (LifeSiteNews.com) – Sandra Fluke has brought her unique insights to bear on U.S. military policy, while teaming up again with Planned Parenthood to support the HHS mandate. Last week, Fluke told a California college that Barack Obama's repeal of the “Don't Ask, “Don't Tell” policy did not go far enough, because it did not include transgender soldiers. “We still don’t let trans-folk join the military,” Fluke told a gathering at Claremont McKenna College on February 13. “That needs to change.” Service in the military, she said, should be open to the entire “the lesbian, gay,...

Obama to Pope: 'I have appreciated our work together over these last four years' President Barack Obama has released a statement on the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI and, as usual, it's all about himself. In three spartan sentences, he manages to use the word “I” four times. The use of the first-person singular is Obama's own Holy Tradition, a hallmark of both his rhetoric and his governing style. His administration is a Magisterium of one. Nonetheless, one line is particularly galling: “Michelle and I warmly remember our meeting with the Holy Father in 2009, and I have appreciated our...

American society’s schizophrenic attitudes about business could be the subject of a book. (Perhaps multiple volumes.) For example, in the months leading up to the 2012 presidential election, we heard constantly about the need to create jobs and bring down unemployment. And yet, media coverage and Hollywood depictions of business only reinforce the popular fiction that business owners are little more than greedy exploitative bloodsuckers (whose enterprises apparently exist for the sole purpose of being gouged for taxes to be spent by profligate lawmakers with no sense of their own fiscal responsibility). Regrettably, this is typical. But our culture’s conflict...

How To Participate: 5 Ways 5 Ways to Participate: 1) Monthly Holy Hour 2) Daily Rosary 3) Prayers of the Faithful 4) Fasting & Abstinence 5) Fortnight for Freedom 2013

Editor's Note: This column was co-authored by Bob Morrison. President Obama will take the oath of office later this month “on a stack of Bibles,” the Washington Post tells us. He will place his left hand on Bibles owned by Abraham Lincoln and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Well, that’s a relief. Interestingly, not included in the stack is the Koran, about which Mr. Obama spoke so glowingly in Egypt four years ago. (No Bibles openly displayed there.) Now, swearing on a stack of Bibles ordinarily conveys seriousness of purpose and deeper commitment to carry through on the...

David and Barbara Green, owners of Hibby Lobby “We must obey God rather than men!”—Acts 5:29. Now that Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor has denied Hobby Lobby’s application for an emergency injunction protecting them from Obamacare’s HHS Mandate on abortion and birth control, Hobby Lobby has decided to defy the federal government to remain true to their religious beliefs, at enormous risk and financial cost. Hobby Lobby is wholly owned and controlled by the Green family, who are evangelical Christians. The Greens are committed to running their business in accordance with their Christian faith, believing that God wants them to...

First Amendment: A federal appeals court has reinstated lawsuits from two religious colleges against the HHS contraception mandate, saying promises to rework it aren't enough. Can a group of nuns helping the poor be protected? On Tuesday, a chink in ObamaCare's armor developed as a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., reinstated lawsuits by Wheaton College and Belmont Abbey College that had been dismissed by lower courts on the grounds the two schools had not yet suffered or demonstrated real harm by a law not yet fully implemented. The lower courts ruled the schools had to wait until the oncoming...

Two religious-affiliated colleges claimed a "major victory" Tuesday after a federal appeals court ordered the Obama administration to verify that it is revising the so-called contraception mandate in ObamaCare. The decision out of the D.C. Court of Appeals effectively reinstated a challenge that had been dismissed by lower courts. Wheaton College and Belmont Abbey College were arguing against the federal health care overhaul rule that requires employers to provide access to contraceptive care. "The D.C. Circuit has now made it clear that government promises and press conferences are not enough to protect religious freedom," Kyle Duncan, general counsel for the...

WASHINGTON, D.C., December 20, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) - On Tuesday a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. handed Belmont Abbey College and Wheaton College — and all religious colleges — a major victory in their challenges to the HHS mandate. Earlier this year, two lower courts had dismissed the Colleges’ cases as premature but Tuesday, an appellate court reinstated those cases. The Cardinal Newman Society and 15 Catholic colleges recommended in The Newman Guide had joined in an amicus brief supporting Belmont Abbey and Wheaton. Belmont Abbey College was the first to sue the Obama administration over the HHS mandate last...

Dominos Pizza Founder Sues Obama Admin Over HHS Mandate by Steven Ertelt | Washington, DC | LifeNews.com | 12/17/12 3:07 PMThe Catholic businessman who is the founder and former owner of the Domino’s Pizza chain has filed a lawsuit over the HHS mandate that forces religious employers to purchase drugs that may cause abortions for their employees.Tom Monaghan calls requiring businesses, schools and other religious places to pay for such drugs a “gravely immoral” practice and filed suit late Friday in federal court for Domino’s Farms, a business development complex he owns.Monaghan says he currently offers his employees health insurance...

Time to Bring Back St. Michael’s Prayer by Judy Keane on December 13, 2012 ·   In his 2008 Inaugural Address, President Obama praised the tremendous sacrifices of our Founding Fathers and our hard won freedoms saying, “Our Founding Fathers faced with perils that we can scarcely imagine, they drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations.”  However, in moving forward aggressively with the HHS Mandate, it has become clear we are witnessing a U.S. President eroding those very freedoms he initially spoke so highly...

This last Sunday before Election Day finds Catholics across the nation, and beyond, uniting in both prayer and advocacy to protect freedom of religion as provided in the Constitution. Interestingly, the emphasis on Catholic values and teachings, as a result of the recent defense of freedom of religion, may also end up strengthening religious faith among Catholics in general. Since the announcement of what is now familiarly termed, “the HHS mandate,” Catholics and Christians of other denominations have denounced the ObamaCare provision that demands that most employers, including those associated with churches, grant free contraception, sterilization procedures, and abortion-inducing drugs...

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - To share the details of this weekend's rallies, Catholic Online sat down to talk to Eric Scheidler of the Stand Up for Religious Freedom Coalition. COL: Hello Eric. What's happening this weekend? SCHEIDLER: On Saturday, October 20, tens out thousands of faithful Americans will gather in 140 cities and town across the United States to protest the Obama administration's HHS Mandate, and raise the crucial issue of religious freedom before the public in advance of Election Day. COL: Why is this important? / Why should people care about this? SCHEIDLER: The HHS Mandate is...

Christian activists are demanding Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. drop its lawsuit opposing the Health and Human Services “preventive services” mandate. The Rev. Lance Schmitz, pastor of the Capitol Hill Church of the Nazarene in Oklahoma City, Okla., was turned away from Hobby Lobby's headquarters Thursday when he attempted to deliver a petition. “I thought they'd let me drop off the package,” Schmitz said. “I thought a Christian business would be interested in hearing from a pastor with a petition signed by thousands of people of faith. I guess Hobby Lobby is more interested in using their faith to score political...

September 25, 2012 (CNS) - Despite Catholic outrage over the University of Notre Dame’s 2009 invitation to President Barack Obama to address its graduates, the University has again invited the President to speak on campus as a candidate for reelection. From the Notre Dame news release: The University of Notre Dame’s president, Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., and student body president Brett Rocheleau have joined in inviting both President Barack Obama and Republican presidential nominee Gov. Mitt Romney to speak at the University during the fall election campaign. Continuing a long-standing tradition, Father Jenkins and Rocheleau addressed letters to each...