We now have the US government dictating who is and who is not sufficiently religious to escape the ObamaCare abortifacient mandate.
The Obama administration is claiming that a dedicated Christian publisher of Bibles and ministry material is insufficiently religious to qualify for an exemption to the contraception mandate in the president’s health-care overhaul.
According to a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday in the District of Columbia by Tyndale House Publishers, the company has been refused a “religious employer” exemption because the Health and Human Services Department categorically maintains that any for-profit publisher is not a “religious employer.”
Not a religious employer? They publish Bibles. The Obama administration could grant Tyndale a waiver as it has granted waivers allowing unions to escape ObamaCare, but it has chosen to fight Tyndale in court.
Tyndale House has been in business for 50 years, and Christian publishing is all they’ve ever done.
That the mandate is coming from a department headed by a confirmed scofflaw just adds to the insult.
This is where civil disobedience should start.
Absolutely! Just as OWS staged nationwide protests and squatted for over a year just because [some] Americans actually made their OWN money, we should start our own movement.
I propose the creation of “Occupy – Federally Unified Carnal Knowledge!” Though I can’t exactly spell out the acronym here, I’m sure you get the point. When the likes of Tyndale House, Mardell’s and even the Catholic Church can’t stand on their own principles against government “mandates,” it’s time to stand and shout, “Occupy-Federally Unif…” (Or any part, thereof!
America?!
America was founded to escape exactly this rape of the individual’s conscience.
Agree with physics geek. We have to openly defy these people.
The religious employer exemption is a fraud. To be a religious employer, you have to only hire those who share your religious faith. But if you hire janitors on the basis of religion, you can be sued for religious discrimination. This administration is filled with very bad people.
If the majority of people in this country could pull together long enough to simply ignore these mandates, and then subsequent juries refused to indict, and then later juries refused to convict under jury nullification – then the government would eventually have to give up on this law.
Sadly, there will always be juuuuusssssst enough people willing to go along to get along, or squeal about the “rule of law” (as if that meant anything anymore under this administration), or want to appear as ‘reasonable’ or appeal to ‘common sense’ that such widespread disobedience won’t happen.
Only peaceable option left is voting the ba$tards out in November – and then hold Romney’s feet to the fire for the next 4 years.
If things continue down the path they are now, the leftists get their way in the short term for sure – but they aren’t going to like the end result for the simple reason that when the producers stop producing (wealth, products, jobs, tax money, etc.) those same leftists may be in power but they won’t have anything left to confiscate for redistribution.
At that point it’s every man for himself (and his family), and the non-producers (who by definition have been getting by on handouts instead of fending for themselves) are going to find out real quick what true hunger, poverty, privation, and starvation are all about….
While I generally agree with Bryan, I think he misses a point here. As my co-blogger wrote:
“Just because a company prints Bible’s and other religious literature doesn’t mean they are a religious entity. Using that argument you could also say companies that manufacture pews and pulpits should also be exempt.”
linl: http://www.insureblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/obamacare-vs-god.html
Actually, it shouldn’t matter WHAT a company does, but what its owner(s) want.
Liberty means being able to practice your beliefs in the public square, including the marketplace.
(In any case, being forced to provide a luxury for other people is slavery. You’re saying these people shouldn’t get a religious exemption because they have a business — I’m saying they shouldn’t be enslaved PERIOD.)
You get no argument from me, Rob (good to see you, BTW, I also hang out – well, lurk – at AoSHQ). Bob’s point was that, if we’re going to have these waivers (and neither of us is in any way in favor of them – the whole ObamaTax needs to be scrapped) is that the argument that because one publishes a certin type of book (or builds pews, or whatever) doesn’t automatically make one a “religious” entity.
And Muslims will receive a religious exemption from obamacare because they consider insurance to be “gambling.” But stick it to Christians!