Two reasons why Obama thinks religious freedom does not apply to business

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)
1/3/2013
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

Hobby Lobby founders are modern Daniels facing the lions.

According to Obama, there are two reasons why freedom of religion, promised in the First Amendment, does not apply to you as an employer. Federal prosecutors are presenting the sub-stellar arguments against Hobby Lobby, a chain of arts and craft stores. Hobby Lobby is the first to face the wrath of the administration for fighting back against its unconstitutional mandates requiring religious employers to pay for employee contraceptives, sterilizations, and abortifacients.

The Greens of Hobby Lobby are being compelled in a manner eerily similar to Daniel.

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LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Hobby Lobby is a chain of arts and crafts stores run by David and Barbara Green, an evangelical Christian couple. They run their stores by following Biblical moral principles. Specifically, they pay their employees at least $13 per hour, well above minimum wage, and they provide free healthcare to them.

However, because healthcare does not include aborting and destroying life, their employee health plan omits abortion-inducing drugs. Conversely, as evangelical Christians, they do not find contraception and sterilization immoral, and their employee plan does permit those activities.

In the main, their healthcare plan meets or exceeds the requirements of the Obama administration on every front, with the exception that it does not pay for the termination of life.

For Obama, this is unacceptable and as of Tuesday, Hobby Lobby is subject to fines of $1.3 million per day.

In the case of Hobby Lobby vs. Kathleen Sebelius, the administration is making two arguments.

First, the administration says that a secular, for-profit corporation is not entitled to freedom of religion.

The following excerpt comes from CNS News.

"Hobby Lobby is a for-profit, secular employer, and a secular entity by definition does not exercise religion," said Acting Assistant Attorney General Stuart Delery in a filing submitted in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma.

"Because Hobby Lobby is a secular employer, it is not entitled to the protections of the Free Exercise Clause or RFRA [the Religious Freedom Restoration Act]," Delery told the court on behalf of the administration. "This is because, although the First Amendment freedoms of speech and association are 'right[s] enjoyed by religious and secular groups alike,' the Free Exercise Clause 'gives special solicitude to the rights of religious organizations.'"

Such an interpretation of the First Amendment could also affect employers such as Catholic Online.

The second pillar of the administration's argument is that the law is generally applicable, which means it applies across the nation to all employers. Such laws may violate the individual's conscience, but the government may enforce them. The reason is that the law does not target a specific religious group, but applies equally to all employers, no matter their background or belief.

The Greens asked for a preliminary injunction, however this was denied by Supreme Court Justice, Sonia Sotomayor. Now the business has to choose between bowing to Obama or accruing fines of $1.3 million per day for non-compliance.

The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, in representing the Greens, said they will continue their appeal before the Tenth Circuit. However, the price for Hobby Lobby, should they lose could be the death of the business in the face of crushing fines.

In a modern sense, the Greens are truly Daniels in Darius's court. The king has condemned them, and us by extension, to the Lion's Den. If the case is lost, then it will be to a power greater than ourselves to save our freedom, and our nation.

RELATED: Catholic business wins minor victory against Obama mandate

� 2013, Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.

- - -

Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
Missionary Intention: Middle Eastern Christians. That the Christian communities of the Middle East, often discriminated against, may receive from the Holy Spirit the strength of fidelity and perseverance.

Keywords: Hobby Lobby,

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1 - 10 of 22 Comments

vance
5 months ago
Judy, I share your sentiments. The days of reckoning are here. Obama has a strong Marxist Media Complex that ran a successful propaganda blitz on the American people. Again, our "Silent Majority" of the Bishops and priests shoulder part of the blame. My hat comes off to a Minnesota Bishop who ran an aggressive campaign against Obama but his efforts fell on the deaf ears of the brainwashed liberals in that state. Hang in there and fight the good fight. God bless.
judy claar
5 months ago
Vin, Yes, we are fast becoming a nanny state, with not much of any freedoms at all. And we only have ourselves to blame. At least the ones who voted Obama in. I hope that most of them live for at least 20 years so they can see how their vote and their God changed the world. That is, unless we have a miracle. Pray for the Conversion of sinners, including me. Blessings..
Vin
5 months ago
It appears the government is trying to take away the humanity of a human being, that is the ability to do what is right on their own by adhering to their own religion and conscience. Is this what we have come to? A secular government issuing the only orders that the populace is to listen to and obey? From what I gathered from this article, there is no room in the discussion for individual concerns, only collective ones or what is best for the country, Well, in the long run, no country can prosper when the creative and productive portion of the populace is reduced to acting as robots. Much as this administration does not want to admit it, we are still human beings with God given minds of our own.
Phil
5 months ago
Does not the Bible time and again foretell the demise of the vicious kings and rulers who defy God and persecute His people? Yet, it is my heart that stands convicted for not purposing to pray for the conversion of these who use their authority for the perpetration of evil.

I am beginning to understand St. Faustina's heart. Have mercy on them, O God, have mercy! For the sake of Thy sorrowful passion, have mercy on them. They neither know what they are doing, nor the horrible eternal torment that awaits them.
Lourdes
5 months ago
Is very simple, if your insurance doesn't pay it then you have to cover the expenses. This is the case for a lot of other illnesses and procedures.

I am a catholic and I know what I should do. My religion does not approve the use of birthcontrol, therefore I don't use any even if my insurance covers it. I am happily married with 2 beautiful kids and a 3rd child on its way. I respect life and at the end of my days I will be relieved to know that I did the right thing.

The Greens like any other christian entrepeneours tshould be proud that they stand up for what they believe. Our Lord and savior sees these things and at the end we know who will be in heaven in eternity with our Lord. As a catholic that is our goal in life =)

God Bless you all!
Thomas
5 months ago
Alisa Smith post is what most people of little or no faith in God believe. First if I believe in a moral position, I must act in a moral way. If I believe abortion is wrong then I'm a hyprocite if I let my money be used to support the killing of Children in the Womb. Hypocracy seems to be the mantra of the left. Second the government is already going after religious organization, see HHS mandate. Alisa when will the strong arm of government come for your right, that are guarenteed in natural law, and the US constitution. It won't be long. If you don"t like the company you work for, keyword WORK FOR, find a company you agree with, you're not required to stay, your not a slave.
DLL
5 months ago
Laws are being revised to change especially any moral law and to me this is deliberate. Moral law in fact protects law from becoming a bully on society. To provide free contraceptive health care is no freedom. No one is saying no one if they prefer to,can have an abortion or but contraceptives. This whole business is like saying everyone should have the right to be given a car for free as a human right. The problem is fundamental reasoning more than a moral issue even. Common sense is that free contraceptives or abortions does not make any sense at all. In the United States have contraceptives,abortions or an automobile just simply pay for it. This is an attempt to diabolically deny religious freedoms especially on a moral basis. It is in fact criminal. Contraceptives and abortions as free healthcare is not a necessity. Let the Obama administration explain why it is. I do not get it. It makes no common sense.
judy claar
5 months ago
And NOW IT BEGINS...the foreboding, the apprehension is over. It has arrived. We are reaping what we have sown, in supporting Obama for Two elections. The damage was done in letting him in at all. But that was the vote of the majority of my Christian brother's and sister's. I guess that it is the Reality I must accept. And I am having a very hard time doing it. What behooves me the most is, that Catholic brother's and sister's voted for the termination of Life! Put contraception and sterilization to the side. They voted for Obama knowing full well that it would mean the Destruction, the Termination of Life!

WOW!

I have to admit that Catholics who voted for Obama Did Not have blinders on. And I am sick. Deacon Keith, Vance, Jo Ann. Rob, Bill Sr., myself and others, voiced what we could about some of Obama's evil ways. And yes, I say evil. Because if the Termination of Life is not evil then I do not know what is!

My prayers are with the Greens. But I fear WE have been digging our hole so deep, that we might just have to dig clear through to China Before some can even See any Light!

Or, this is the Ending of an Age, and the beginning of a New One. It seems to be. Blessings...
Cory Konners
5 months ago
The writter is correct in saying Obama care is unconstitional and immoral. The Greens being persecuted like Daniel is similar in a certain sense.

The persecution by our Caesar is the fault of the church, falsely taking the position that morality and religion can be separated from society and the state.

If you remember Daniel came out of the lions den and then imposed the one true religion, againsnt all others as the state religion.

Christians still want a religion that submits to an anti-God state. That simply can't be. And is the fundamental root of Americas problem.
Fred
5 months ago
The Catholic dilemma is that the Church supported Obama heavily in 2008 and then voiced some largely sterile and late opposition in 2012. The Catholic Church is finding out a lot about standing on principle. It cannot have it both ways - either it supports a baby killer as the leader of the free world or it doesn't. For those of you who voted Obama in 2012, suffer the consequences of his "fundamentally changed America" that he told us about earlier.

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