Exactly.
The Church is just getting what happens to EVERYONE who takes money from the government.
As a fellow farmer told me back in 2000, the moment you take the very first dollar from Uncle Sugar, it has a gossamer thread attached... and the more money you take, the thicker that connection becomes.
The Church campaigned for “social justice,” which fit so very nicely in with the socialist pablum of the Democrats. The Church has held that position for decades, BTW. Now the Church is realizing, much too late, that taking alms from the government came with strings attached.
As I see it, renouncing the “social justice” doctrine is never going to happen. The Church is simply too left-wing for admission that they were wrong to lobby for charity from governments. So they’re going to pitch a fit, and in the end, they’ll sell out the rest of the faithful... once they get their carve-out enshrined in law.
Call Morty and make book on it happening before the DNC convention.
The HHS mandate has nothing to do with taking money from the government. It's being imposed on every employer in the US, whether they have anything to do with taking government money, or not.