LCMS Ping
This is our first time using the new LCMS Ping List. If you would like to be added to the list, let me know, either on this thread or via freepmail.
Also, lightman will ping this article on the more general Lutheran Ping List.
Posted on 02/14/2012 11:56:13 AM PST by Charles Henrickson
LCMS reacts to contraceptive mandate 'accommodation'
Missouri Synod president says church remains ‘deeply concerned’ about health plan mandate despite White House statement
ST. LOUIS—February 14, 2012—The Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison, president of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, issued a statement today in response to President Obama’s health plan “accommodation” for religious groups, which was announced last week:
“In response to President Obama’s announcement Friday concerning an ‘accommodation’ to a previous mandate that health plans must cover all forms of birth control (even those that can kill the unborn), The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) remains deeply concerned. We strongly object to the use of drugs and procedures that are used to take the lives of unborn children, who are persons in the sight of God from the time of conception. Drugs such as ‘Plan B’ and ‘Ella,’ which are still included in the mandate, can work post-conception to cause the death of the developing child, so don’t be fooled by statements to the contrary.
“We see President Obama’s action Friday as significant, in that it appears to have been prompted by the many voices united in concern over an infringement of our religious liberties. But the ‘accommodation’ did not expand the exemption for religious employers, nor did it restrict the mandate in any way. It simply described a temporary enforcement delay and a possible future change—a change that, unfortunately, would not adequately protect religious freedom or unborn lives.
“We remain opposed to this mandate because it runs counter to the biblical truth of the sanctity of human life. We are committed to working to ensure that we remain free to practice the teachings of our faith, that our religious rights are not violated, and that our rights of conscience are retained. Freedom of religion extends beyond the practice of our faith in houses of worship. We must be free to put our faith into action in the public square, and, in response to Christ’s call, demonstrate His mercy through our love and compassion for all people according to the clear mandate of Holy Scripture.
“The government has overstepped its bounds. This controversy is not merely about ‘birth control’ and the Catholic Church’s views about it. It’s about mandating that we provide medications which kill life in the womb. And moreover, and perhaps even more ominous, it is about an overzealous government forcing coercive provisions that violate the consciences and rights of its citizens. We can no longer expect a favored position for Christianity in this country. But we can, as citizens of this great nation, fight for constitutional sanity against secularizing forces. As we have vividly experienced in discriminatory state legislation with respect to homosexual adoption, we, and our institutions (and those of other religious citizens of good will), are being robbed of the right to the free exercise of religion absent government intrusion or threat. The next assault will come upon church-related retirement facilities. How much longer will it be legal in this country to believe and act according to the dictates of biblical and creedal Christianity?
“Jesus bids us, ‘Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's’ (Mark 12:17). We will pray for and support our government where we can, but our consciences and lives belong to God.”
Missouri Synod president issues statement on recent HHS decision and religious freedom
It doesn’t appear Obama is going to back down. Apparently, he believes he can ride out this storm thru November. That all depends on the percentage of Christian liberals still willing to vote for the man.
Interestingly, Santorum seems to maintain his surge, and I suspect a lot of his popularity has do do with his social stances. This is going to be interesting.
This is our first time using the new LCMS Ping List. If you would like to be added to the list, let me know, either on this thread or via freepmail.
Also, lightman will ping this article on the more general Lutheran Ping List.
I don’t see this “compromise” as a compromise. Seems to me, if the health insurance company is mandated by the government to provide these “medications” and “services” free of charge to the “patient”, the religious organization is going to be paying for it through higher premiums.
I don’t see this “compromise” as a compromise. Seems to me, if the health insurance company is mandated by the government to provide these “medications” and “services” free of charge to the “patient”, the religious organization is going to be paying for it through higher premiums.
I don’t see this “compromise” as a compromise. Seems to me, if the health insurance company is mandated by the government to provide these “medications” and “services” free of charge to the “patient”, the religious organization is going to be paying for it through higher premiums.
To echo and paraphrase Rev. President Harrison, “Do not be fooled by language to the contrary, the individual mandate allows Obamacare health panels to ^require^ a woman to abort a child.”
I’m guessing the ELCA, UMC, UCC and Unitarians love it, though, right?
Please add me to the LCMS Ping list. I received an e-mail this morning re: President Harrison’s response. We intend to include it in our bulletin this Sunday in the four little LCMS churches I serve here in West Texas. Keep up the good work, Pastor Henrickson! God’s continued blessings as you serve Him.
Please add me to the LCMS Ping list. I received an e-mail this morning re: President Harrison’s response. We intend to include it in our bulletin this Sunday in the four little LCMS churches I serve here in West Texas. Keep up the good work, Pastor Henrickson! God’s continued blessings as you serve Him.
Please add me to the LCMS Ping list. I received an e-mail this morning re: President Harrison’s response. We intend to include it in our bulletin this Sunday in the four little LCMS churches I serve here in West Texas. Keep up the good work, Pastor Henrickson! God’s continued blessings as you serve Him.
Please add me to the LCMS Ping list. I received an e-mail this morning re: President Harrison’s response. We intend to include it in our bulletin this Sunday in the four little LCMS churches I serve here in West Texas. Keep up the good work, Pastor Henrickson! God’s continued blessings as you serve Him.
And if not, then it means that the insurance company's *other* clients will be paying for it through their own higher premiums, i.e., forced by the government to subsidize the coverage of certain religious organization, which IMO becomes a de-facto establishment of religion.
Please add me to your LCMS ping list. Thanks!
Excuse the quadruple post!
Wxcerpt from Big Government
by Joel B. Pollak Robert Creamer–Democrat strategist, Obama 2008 campaign aide, and political architect of ObamaCare–argues that the new contraceptive mandate for Catholic institutions isn’t really about equality for women, or religious liberty.
Rather, it is about population control.
Creamer–like his wife, the pro-abortion Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL)–embraces the left-wing fallacy that children are a burden on the planet, which the state should encourage the church–and everyone else–to limit.
At 6:16-7:03 in the video below, by CNS News, Schakowsky describes abortion as “most often” a “responsible decision” to control the size of their families:
Writing in the Huffington Post yesterday, Creamer declared:
…[T]here is a worldwide consensus that the use of birth control is one of society’s most important moral priorities. Far from being something that should be discouraged, or is controversial, the use of birth control is critical to the survival and success of humanity….It is simply not possible for this small planet to sustain that kind of exponential human population growth. If we do, the result will be poverty, war, the depletion of our natural resources and famine. Fundamentally, the Reverend [Thomas] Malthus was right–except that the result is not inevitable….That’s why it is our moral imperative to act responsibly and encourage each other to use birth control.
Malthus’s late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century views, which still inspire much of today’s environmental movement, have been repeatedly disproved over the course of two centuries. Economic freedom, growth and innovation have made human society vastly more productive and efficient.
It is precisely because radical socialists like Creamer, Schakowsky and Obama detest the free economy that they continue to rely on old Malthusian and Marxist ideas.
Regardless, the indication by Creamer that the contraception mandate is not about “equality,” but population growth, suggests that the Obama administration’s challenge to the beliefs of the Catholic church may be more direct–and deliberate–than was previously suspected.
My coment
Eugenics.,is a basic tenet of socialism which includes the whole range of the “isms”. The new religions created by Marx, Lennin, and Fascists that mandates its followers practice population control, through abortion or sterilization and of course “mercy killing”. By edict Obama has not just violated the constitution by imposing a set of practices and their accompanying expences refuted by a religious group but has also sought to impose a belief system which is a defacto religion on another religious group...The results of this edict has not only created deep divisions within the groups affected which begs the question of the intent of result by the edicts issuance.
Defenders of this action quickly point to the regime decision to do so as its right because they are recipients of government funds. Those defenders convieniently ignore the fact that members of the groups affected have originally contributed those funds and were exempted from paying such costs resulting from and observing such practices that are now imposed upon them by the Obama regime.
Kindly add me...
I believe that the whole contraceptive thing is being used as a diversion to what’s really going on in our country. Congress needs to just say no to the President and get on with business of the country. Not the business of the bedroom.
Amen.
This controversy is not merely about ‘birth control’ and the Catholic Church’s views about it. It’s about mandating that we provide medications which kill life in the womb.
That is exactly what the MSM would have poeple belive.
I saw an ELCA Priestess on on the the talk show the other night, all she did was spout off about women's rights, never about God and His word related to this. The liberal church is just fine with all this.
Thanks for posting this important article.
Please add me to the ping list. thanks.
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