The President is accused of ignoring religious freedom around the world — including in the USA.
The man who used to head the U.S. Office of International Religious Freedom claims that the Obama administration not only neglects religious freedom overseas, it is attacking it here at home. Dr. Thomas Farr says that the Obama administration decided recently not to exempt religiously-affiliated groups from a rule requiring employers to offer birth control coverage to their women employees. The new rule stems straight from the Affordable Care Act.
Most women employed in the U.S. will have the costs of their birth control covered with no co-pay, effective August 1. The rule always exempted employers, such as churches and other places of worship, whose primary purpose is imparting religious beliefs. But many liberal religious groups argued that this denied women their rights. They pressured the Obama administration to apply the requirement to all religious-affiliated organizations as well. The Obama administration gave religious employers an extra year to comply with the new law.
In effect, the President has agreed to force every Catholic institution, every Jewish institution, and every Protestant institution, to provide birth control products even if it violates their religious beliefs. Some argue that is a direct violation of both freedom and religion. Catholic Bishop Timothy Dolan called the rule a direct assault on freedom of religion in America and a complete violation of our First Amendment rights. Dolan is currently archbishop of New York and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. He will soon be elevated to cardinal. Dolan says that he told the President, “that I was terribly let down, disappointed and disturbed.”
The rule reminds me of a gospel song that asks a question about moral and spiritual decay: It’s titled, “How Much Further Can We Go?”