If, after reading the previous post, you still harbor doubts about how ObamaCare's comprehensive insurance plan will trample the consciences of pro-life Americans, check this one out.My guess is that this story will affect you in several ways.
1) You'll respect and applaud the decision of Belmont Abbey College to change the school's insurance policies when they discovered the previous plan included coverage of contraception and sterilization. (Keep in mind also that among the so-called contraceptives included in such insurance plans are chemicals which induce abortion.) Because Belmont Abbey College is a conservative Roman Catholic school in North Carolina, its action was simply an act of conscience, a faithful duty to follow the teachings of Christ.
"As a Roman Catholic institution, Belmont Abbey College is not able to and will not offer nor subsidize medical services that contradict the clear teaching of the Catholic Church," said Belmont Abbey President William Thierfelder. "There was no other course of action possible if we were to operate in fidelity to our mission and to our identity as a Catholic college."
2) You'll then scratch your head over the hypocrisy and mean-spirited agitation shown by some of the teachers at this Catholic school who were so upset with the decision that they filed a formal complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. These teachers, rebelling not only against their employer but also at at the doctrines of the Church, argued that the refusal of the new insurance plan to cover "birth control" constituted sexual discrimination.
And finally, 3) You'll be outraged when you read that the bureaucratic busybodies of the EEOC agreed with the disgruntled teachers and is now attempting to force the Catholic college to abandon its Catholic ideals. "By denying prescription contraception drugs, Respondent (the college) is discriminating based on gender because only females take oral prescription contraceptives," wrote Reuben Daniels Jr., the EEOC Charlotte District Office Director in the determination. "By denying coverage, men are not affected, only women." Thus the government has directed the college to change its insurance policy or be taken to court.
This, ladies and gentleman, is happening in the United States of America. And it's happening despite all the protestations coming from the government that ObamaCare will not be coercive, that conscience clauses will not be completely overthrown, that freedoms of speech and religion will still be protected, and so on.
But the coercion has already begun. Even before the next shoe drops, our freedoms are being significantly suppressed.
The story from LifeSiteNews includes contact information with which you can express your concerns to officers of the EEOC. I do hope you'll use those contacts. However, I also encourage you to forward this post to friends, family members and fellow church members. Let them know how precarious our Constitutional rights have become -- not somewhere on the horizon, but right now.
And forwarding this post to your political representatives is also a good idea. These politicians keep telling us to be calm and quiet, assuring us that our government is sane and kind-hearted and has nothing in its agenda to take away our freedoms. We are supposed to trust their wisdom and benevolence. They'll take care of us.
But, as this move of the federal government against the Catholic ideals of a Catholic institution clearly reveals, the government isn't waiting "to take care of us."
They're doing it now.
