When President Obama took the oath of office three years ago, he swore to defend the constitutionally-guaranteed rights of all Americans. There were no asterisks denoting exceptions for health care providers, religious employers, service members, or military chaplains. More than three years later, his inaugural words fail to match his actions and those of his administration.
President Obama gave America a preview of his warpath against organized religion and people of faith when he undid parts of a President Bush Executive Order protecting health care providers from being required to perform, participate in, or provide a medical procedure with which they had religious or moral objection.
But in the past month alone the Obama Administration has gone guns-a-blazing, full-force against both religion and the Constitution.
First, President Obama and his “Catholic” Secretary of Health & Human Services Kathleen Sebelius finalized a rule that will require Catholic employers to cover and pay for contraception – including abortion drugs – and sterilization. The fact that the Catholic teaching excludes artificial contraception or abortion matters not a single bit to President Obama. HHS argued that a one-year exemption is all religious organizations need in order to comply with this law. What President Obama and Secretary Sebelius do not get is that religious organizations and people of faith do not need time to renounce their faith; they need their First Amendment views to be protected.
Second, President Obama’s Secretary of the Army – a political appointee – silenced Catholic chaplains from speaking out against this HHS rule attacking religious freedom. If you are Catholic you heard in your Sunday Mass a message from your Bishop that “We cannot — we will not — comply with this unjust law.” But not if you were serving in the military defending the freedoms of other Americans. Instead, the Army’s Office of the Chief of Chaplains attempted to censor the reading of the letter from Archbishop of Military Services Timothy Broglio. After a conversation between Archbishop Broglio and Army Secretary McHugh, it was decided that line would be eliminated.
Non-Catholics, those not in the military, and even those who support the use of abortion drugs and contraception should take offense at and be outraged by the actions of the Obama Administration. It could just as easily be something other than sterilization or abortion drugs next time. This HHS rule requiring religious entities to act in contravention of their teachings is a clear violation of their rights to exercise freely their religions. The gag order on Catholic chaplains amounts to an obvious violation of free speech. Who or what is next?
The Administration tried to backtrack, but the “compromise” is merely the “Obama-Sebelius” fig leaf. The widely-reported press conference “accommodation” does nothing to respect the religious liberties of employers. After proclaiming an economic fallacy – that the costs would be magically paid by someone else other than the employer – Sebelius and Obama finalized the rule without any actual changes. More empty rhetorical gestures – more attacks on religious liberty.
President Obama and Secretary Sebelius are receiving the backlash they are due for this reckless, errant, and unconstitutional requirement being forced upon the country. Their audacity to pay only lip service to the First Amendment concerns of Americans and to finalize the rule without protecting people of faith shows just how out-of-touch they are with the American people. But, perhaps more concerning is that their rule shows how selective they are with protecting the rights of Americans.
And, for that, the Obama Administration is an abomination.