Posted on 02/10/2012 4:40:19 PM PST by wagglebee
WASHINGTON, D.C., February 10, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – Evangelical and pro-family leaders have denounced the Obama administration’s new “accommodation” on the HHS mandate forcing religious institutions to provide birth control and abortifacients as an accounting gimmick that still compels people of faith to violate their deeply held principles or face legal penalty.
“Mr. President, mere accounting tricks will not suffice,” Dr. Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission wrote in a statement e-mailed to LifeSiteNews.com. “You have given your fellow citizens’ cry of conscience the dismissive back of your hand by offering them not a solution.”
He called the new policy, which would not force parachurch groups to provide such pharmaceuticals “directly,” as “a distinction without a difference.”
“The president’s failure to grasp the seriousness of this issue reveals a dangerous presidential blind spot concerning First Amendment constitutional religious free exercise guarantees,” he wrote. “It also highlights the wisdom of our forefathers who bequeathed to us a legislative system that is supposed to pass laws with the consent of the governed through their elected representatives, rather than being governed by executive branch imperial edicts passed down from on high.”
The Southern Baptist Convention uses a self-funded insurance plan, GuideStone, to cover 200,000 pastors, missionaries, and other church employees. Under this “accommodation,” GuideStone may have to provide abortifacient drugs, in violation of the church’s doctrine.
GuideStone’s President O.S. Hawkins called today’s statement “an insulting affront illustrating a basic lack of understanding that this issue will not be solved by sleight of hand word games.” The policy “threatens the very coverage of those dedicated persons who serve our churches and affiliated organizations. GuideStone will never depart from the core convictions it has held dear for decades regarding the sanctity of life.”
Dr. Land, who previously stated Southern Baptists would go to jail rather than comply with the mandate, spoke for many Christian leaders.
Family Research Council President Tony Perkins wrote in a statement e-mailed to LifeSiteNews.com that the new rule “only creates some paperwork gimmicks that don’t change the fact that religious employers who object to coverage of these services will now have to drop health insurance altogether to maintain their conscience and face severe penalties for doing so. ”
Mathew Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, told LifeSiteNews.com, “Laundering a Catholic or Christian organization’s money through the insurance company to pay for abortifacients does not suddenly correct the moral sin inflicted by Obama.” He added the administration “has pressed its radical pro-abortion agenda on the American people and around the world.”
Others saw the rule as an attempt to buy time until after the 2012 presidential election. Noting that no concrete regulation had yet been drafted, Luke Goodrich of The Becket Fund told CNN this afternoon, “The president is saying, ‘Trust me.’”
The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops and leaders of the pro-life movement remain concerned about the possibility of back-door funding for abortion or contraception that violates their religious dogma.
Perfectly stated!
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He’s evil.
Well, this Southern Baptist leader “got it” It remains to be seen if the catholics “get it” too.
Baptist ping
Numerous Catholic bishops have already spoken out against this, in case you weren’t aware.
Numerous Catholic bishops have already spoken out against this, in case you weren’t aware . . .
You mean since the “accommodation”?
Part of the hanged man’s letter from “The Oxbow Incident”
“There are some other good men too, only they don’t realize what they’re doing.
They’re the ones I feel sorry for, because it’ll be over for me...
...but they’ll have to go on remembering for the rest of their lives.
A man just can’t take the law into his own hands and hang people...
...without hurting everybody in the world...
...because then he’s not just breaking one law, but all laws.
Law is a lot more than words you put in a book...
...or judges or lawyers or sheriffs you hire to carry it out.
It’s everything people ever have found out about justice...
...and what’s right and wrong.
It’s the very conscience of humanity.
There can’t be any such thing as civilization...
...unless people have a conscience...
...because if people touch God anywhere...
...where is it except through their conscience?”
The President has no right to divert our tax dollars to procedures that are against our Christian values. That is why we have elected representatives. Our representatives take into account the values of their constituents. To short circuit this system is unconstitutional and a breach in the President’s oath to uphold the Constitutuion.
Impeachment time, my friends!
Rule by Decree ping. Thanks wagglebee.
That is a great line and a great description of the "compromising" schemed up by Obama.
Did you see the Krauthammer and Steyn articles? Both are excellent on this issue.
Steyn http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/church-339789-one-catholic.html
Exactly, it is a crude sleight of hand that changes nothing.
Okay, so our Founders “bequeathed to us a legislative system that is supposed to pass laws with the consent of the governed through their elected representatives, rather than being governed by executive branch imperial edicts passed down from on high.”
Can anyone ever take that away with a legalistic shell game of unjust laws? If the Founders are our true governmental authorities, when and where do we begin to ignore the impostors? Rahab the prostitute broke the “law” and lied about the spies to her “authorities” and wound up in the faith Hall of Fame in Hebrews 11:31.
Rahab. The prostitute. HELOOOOOOO?!?!?!
Blind obedience to authority is not Scriptural (general obedience is). Law is a useful gift from God for restraining evil on earth, but when it becomes a tool for codifying evil as good?
I wish more Freeper believers would begin having a conversation on this topic because it’s needed. The fretful, indignant approach ain’t cutting it in this era because the authorities are not listening (thus violating their oaths they took before the Founders and God).
I think the author gave obama too much credit in allowing obama's ignorance as an excuse. Obama knew very well he was trashing the Constitution...he simply did not give a damn....he thinks he is a king.
I am so glad to see that Baptists are speaking out against the tyrant! All Christian churches need to be on guard against the muslim tyrant in the White House.
Our representatives in Congress are not protecting us from Obama’s tyranny.
Until they come out and accept that, I would assume their original rejections remain in place.
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