I intend to give them more of my business.God bless them.
Is there anything else we can do to show support for Hobby Lobby?

Where is the freedom of religion in this country? what is wrong with them? so if my religion does not permit me to provide this why should I? this is not like a life or death situation at least in most cases…The government should then provide a special insurance or help given to these women that decide to kill their babies…period!

Period nothing. When the whole contraception mandate began to make the news, I saw articles that indicated hormonal contraception is already available on the cheap—perhaps $4 or $5 at a local pharmacy in Washington, D.C. This mandate is not about providing medical care (because contraception is not medical care), and it is not about helping the poor (because the hormonal contraception is already cheap). It is about sticking it to serious Christians. That’s persecution, by definition.

The Cathecism of the Catholic Church does NOT run the show in America. Federal and State Law come before Canon Law. Period. As long as Hobby Lobby pays their fines, no problem.

No one is forcing Hobby Lobby to directly provide or directly pay for abortion-inducing drugs.  No one is forcing Hobby Lobby employees to pay for or use contraceptives.  The mandate requires employers to provide insurance.  This is “remote agency” for the employer and this requirement has been the law of the land since Bush was president.  Under the Bush Justice Department, the EEOC required employers, per Title 7 of the Civil Rights Act, to include contraceptives—including IUDs—in their prescription drug plans.  Most of the readers of the Register who have health insurance through their employers have contraceptives available under their health plans.  (Most of those plans probably include abortion, as well.)  Is the Register going to start advocating that its readers: (1) go without health insurance that includes these services, or (2) quit their jobs that include such insurance?  We Americans, we Catholic Americans, have made our peace with paying an infinitesimally small part of our insurance premiums to help fund contraceptives, and in most cases, abortion also.  Buying insurance is simply not the same thing as using contraceptives or abortifacients.  If the Bishops were so concerned about this problem, why didn’t they complain during the Bush years?

Catholic democrats need to be blamed for their support of this anti-Christian administration. This is the type of judicial decision we have to look forward to for decades. The decision to deny freedom of religion to Catholics and other Christians should not surprise us. After all, the Catholic democrats’ candidate voted for the legal killing of girls and boys outside of their mom’s womb even after they survived the attempt to kill them in the womb. His effort to “transform” America includes transforming America from a country where freedom of religion was cherished to one where it is under assault.

Andy,

Read what you wrote:
“We Americans, we Catholic Americans, have made our peace with paying an infinitesimally small part of our insurance premiums to help fund contraceptives, and in most cases, abortion also.”

Really?

I am a Catholic American.  I have not made my peace with paying ANY amount of MY money that goes toward killing babies.

Not. a. single. penny.

In this world, I trade my talent and time for a small amount of money to use on my family’s wellbeing.  I am NOT ok with any of my resources (of which I am a steward) to be used on the death of innocents.  Anyone who has “made their peace” really has no idea what an actual abortion looks like, how the child squirms when legs and arms start coming off…

I’ve read where a religion that considers insurance a form of gambling is allowed to opt out of obamacare. anyone hear similar? thanks JMJ+

God Bless the Greens!!!!! More Catholics and Protestants need to follow their example and grow a spine and stand up for the Truth. I plan to make more purchases at Hobby Lobby. The world needs more people like the Greens.

Andy, use of the word “directly” does not save your argument. The employer previously was not compelled to financially support contraception, and now is.

In your example of a Catholic who holds private insurance that covers contraception (and/or abortion), the policyholder does have the right to opt out of the coverage if he or she can’t stomach the idea of paying a few pennies a month in premiums for those coverages, with the potential cost of having to go find a different job. Prior to the mandate, the employer would have had an analogous right to offer a plan that did not include those coverages, with the potential cost of driving away some of its prospective workforce. The mandate precludes employers from making that decision, and therefore they must pay hundreds or thousands of dollars a year on aggregate to provide those coverages to their employees.

If the government wants to provide contraceptive services directly, or to fund Planned Parenthood and other organizations that provide them, Catholics & others can lobby against that, but it is the government’s prerogative to do so. However, to echo John Roberts and the gang, funding contraception through taxation is different from mandating participation in the market for contraceptive insurance. You’re right that paying for others to use contraception is a lesser degree of participation than using it yourself, but Catholics should not be forced by the government to “make their peace” with either form of participation.

(Per your assertion that the same requirements on employers were in place under Bush, I’d be interested to get more info from you on that, and on what if anything this mandate changes, as you understand it. Surely some new requirement has been added? Thanks.)

Posted by Dan on Friday, Dec 28, 2012 6:04 PM (EDT):

The Cathecism of the Catholic Church does NOT run the show in America. Federal and State Law come before Canon Law. Period. As long as Hobby Lobby pays their fines, no problem.

Dan,
Your statement is nonsense and you know it. The more ignorant citizenry will certainly agree with your comment despite the flaws. The fact is the Obamacare mandate pertaining to having employees pay for abortificents and contraception is a violation both of the Green’s religious beliefs and my beliefs as a Roman Catholic as stated in the First Amendment of the Constitution. Your comment about the Catechism and Canon Law shows even more ignorance. You are obviously ignorant of the cost of the fines by saying “As long as Hobby Lobby pays their fines, no problem.” The fines will be $1.5m per day for Hobby Lobby. That is over $40m per month. Just another example secular statism from this regime that is hell bent on destroying both freedom of religion and capitalism in this country.

Andy, I am one of those who pays premiums to a health plan that provides abortions on demand, the Pill, sterilization, etc., all contrary to the Church’s teachings.  Notice I did not say I pay for the abortions, etc.  I need health insurance and at this point it matters not where the money comes from.  The executive branch will see to it these women are paid for, at the taxpayer’s expense.  Again, it’s the old shell game of moving $ around so Obama and cohorts get what they want.  It will happen regardless.  They could fund it directly out of taxes, that is how arrogant this group of people are.  To do this against people’s wills who DO NOT want to pay for “Reproductive Health Care” because of religious objections is de facto persecution - and so is unconstitutional.  My premiums and how they are used, just as taxes, are out of my purview once they are out of my hand.  This will all end in the Supreme Court when Obama and his cohorts are given a verbal thrashing o what they are doing to these people of religion.  That’s why we have a first amendment.  Why not shut down all these liberal media outlets or anyone who disagrees with Obama?  It’s all in there, in the first amendment.  No can do.  Otherwise, it’s time to rewrite the entire constitution.

Federal and State Law is not supposed to cause religious liberty to be infringed upon. And the Hobby Lobby family is not Catholic.  So our Catechism has nothing to do with them or their objecting to violating their consciences which have been formed by their religious convictions.

Chris is right.  This is not health care (I am a nurse but you do not have to be one to figure this out).  This is about forcing Christians to cow tow to an oppressive government.

I used to be a Democrat but the party left me when they made abortion a sacrament.  Catholics who vote for any candidate in this party, which enshrined intrinsic evil in its platform, are supremely ignorant of their faith, slaves to the propaganda of the mainstream press that lies to make liberals look good and conservatives look like evil monsters and/or are very naive. 

Hobby Lobby needs to remember that the Pill and IUD are also abortafacient.  If they are going to cover those and not cover Plan B, then they are being rather inconsistant.  Even a partial resistance is is a good thing.  If Hobby Lobby were in my town, I’d make a point to shop there.

They are standing up for what the believe in. If we had more of that in this world, I doubt we would condone the military industrial complex, gun availability, sex and violence glamorized by Hollywood, etc.
Stick to the truth of Christ and see what happens. God bless them.

Dan, the Constitution is the law of the United States.  I strongly suggest you re-read the First Amendment—as many times as necessary to get the point.
-
Andy, this is really very simple.  The employee is not allowed to pay anything.  If we learned anything from credit card reform, we ought to know that the insurance companies will. not. eat. costs.  Who else is left?  The government?  LOL!  If they intended to pick up the tab, they could be doing it now.  That leaves us suckers.
Before the mandate, state laws varied.  Most, from what I understand, were more lenient about exemptions, so you can’t be sure people who care weren’t taking advantage of what was formerly allowed by law.  Before the mandate, ‘Catholic’ insurers/plans could exist and as far as I know, they did (albeit not everywhere).  The mandate meant to put an end to their even being able to exist.
I can’t make a judgment call on anyone’s behalf, but personally, I’m already accustomed to paying everything out of pocket thanks to a steep deductible.  Spit in Caesar’s eye?  Sure, why not.  Of course, I am still holding onto hope that the courts will deep-six this travesty and it won’t come to that.

In response to post by Dan: No one anywhere at anytime has said that “Canon Law supersedes Federal or State Law” ever. So that is a lame & rather ignorant argument, this is all about our right to practice our faith (of any denomination). 

In response to post by Andy: I am heartfully saddened by your statement. I believe it is called “splitting hairs”. What you aren’t seeing or you are refusing to see that we are all now, whether we agree or not, FORCED to pay for abortifacients. Not only will employers be required to offer this so called health insurance but individuals themselves will have to buy the same. I agree with Chris in that this is about the persecution of Christians in a modern day format. Nothing less than that.

I am spending time in prayer…lots of prayer. Because my husband and I will be faced with fines of over $2000.00 a year because we cannot afford to purchase health ins for me and we have about $150.00 too much income for me to qualify for any health programs. Thank you President Obama & thank you to all of those who bought the beautifully painted lies he spewed forth.

If I had to chose between the Catechism of the Catholic Church or man made laws, I’d fight for the Catechism.

If a law is unjust and goes against our God given Natural rights, we have the duty and responsibility to disobey them.

She can’t be much of a justice: her hair is still black.

There is no anti catholic or anti-Christian crusade in this country. We all need to stop thinking that way…unless of course being a victim suits you. The Pope and church are wrong on this and many issues. Morning after pills do not cause abortions. They keep an egg from being fertilized AND STOP ABORTINS FROM HAPPENING! Unwanted pregnancies do not occur when people use contraception. This is a good thing.

Religion prohibits the use of contraceptives;  at least in the Roman church. Religion has no right to interfere with others use of contraceptives or interfere with access to them.  Access is an obligation of the employer due the employee as part of the salary benefit package. In the guise of ‘religious freedom’ the church is expressing intolerance to a diverse, plurlistic nation;  as such is acting unAmerican.
It would make much greater sense for the church to preach its message to its flock.  98 per cent of Catholics have used contraceptives.  If the church persists with a message which defies logic, remains in mystical past, it will be forever out of touch and the youth of America, who will grow past it and without the church.

God bless you, Stand by your faith. More insurance company’s should be this way I love your store.

The Greens seem to think contraceptives are okay, but abortifacients are not. When will they accept the facts on the package inserts that come inside boxes of birth control pills? It states that suppression of ovulation is inconsistent, but it has *abortifacient properties*. The pill has been around since the 1960s and modified over the years, but the mechanism of action remains. This is common knowledge. People like the Greens caused the prolife movement to fail due to their obstinance in sin. They say, please end abortion but don’t take away my pills. If I were a judge, I wouldn’t be convinced either.

So, our government goes out of its way to honor the religious beliefs of the Fort Hood shooter, thereby not requiring him to shave his beard, but it does not honor something more morally important, the beliefs of Christians regarding what they consider to be life-taking - abortifacients.  I’m guessing that if this came to the courts via Muslim beliefs, and Sharia law, that the court would take a different stance.

There is a Hobby Lobby store 15 miles away from my house.  I already put the address in my phone and will stop and shop there whenever I can.  We have to support businesses that stand up to their principles.

This is just another example of how Obamacare is bad for this country. While we may not be able to stop Obamacare now, we do have an opportunity to stop future mandates. As talked about in this blog post http://www.mandateamendment.com/mandate-amendment-two-for/ the precedent has been set for more and more of these affronts to our freedoms. I ask that you support the Mandate Amendment to the Constitution. https://www.facebook.com/mandateamendment

Neither Dan nor Andy seem to have any understanding of the role of the Catholic faith in the lives of ordinary Catholics.  Pity.

The Pelosi/Obama Affordable Care Act is a monstrous piece of legislation.  And Obama has been particularly dishonest in his description of it, and his subsequent holdings for the most diabolical provisions.  History will not deal kindly with the duplicity and anti-Catholicism of Obama, Pelosi or Sebelius.

Where are my Religious Freedom??  They’ve been stripped away by Obama and the Marxist Democrat Party.  We can thank their accomplices who are the ‘Say Nothing’ and ‘Do Nothing’ Bishops and priests. We can also thank the 52% of Catholics who voted for Obama and the Party of Death and Deceit.

In response to Dans comment that the Catholic Church does not run things but laws came before Canon law, all i can say to that is God gave us the first laws. The Catholic Church upholds those laws. We answer first to God, not to man

I hope more companies stand up and follow Hobby Lobby.  This is moral courage that only comes from God. Do not be afraid to live and speak the truth.
Joh 15:18 “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.
Joh 15:19 “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.
Joh 15:20 “Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. 

“If the church persists with a message which defies logic, remains in mystical past, it will be forever out of touch and the youth of America, who will grow past it and without the church.” - Jesuitical graduate of Boston College

Youth in America: a dying breed.

Dear “Jesuitical graduate of Boston College”, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry at your comment. The mere fact that you felt comfortable enough to say that access to contraceptives is “an obligation of the employer” and “Religion has no right to interfere with access to contraceptives” is astoundingly ignorant. Go visit your local pharmacy or supermarket and you will find contraceptives readily available for a reasonable price, as they have been for decades. As for the “obligation of the employer”- the only obligation your employer has is to pay you for doing your job satisfactorily, they are not obligated to fund your bedroom activities.  If Boston College let you graduate with such ignorance, shame on them! You need to call the Bursar and ask for a tuition refund because you have graduated as an uneducated fool.

To Jesuitical (sic) graduate of Boston College;  I can’t imagine by your statements “Religion has no right to interfere with others use of contraceptives or interfere with access to them.”, and “Access is an obligation of the employer due the employee as part of the salary benefit package.”, that you actually graduated college let alone a Jesuit college.  On the other hand, Jesuit colleges in the last 50-60 years have performed such a disservice to the Church and this nation, I’m not surprised you at least attended a Jesuit school. 

The Church nor anyone else is interfering with “access to” or “use of” contraception.  They’re as available to the mindless masses as a short drive to their pharmacy or supermarket.  They are far, far more readily available and inexpensive than truly life saving medications which Obamacare-less will be soon rationing. 

As for employers having an “obligation” to provide for any medical coverage you are disseminating a falsehood.  Employers have never been required by law to provide coverage, but have been given incentives to do so via tax breaks and group insurance rates. It has become customary, and through the magnanimity of employee benefit packages that this insurance has been available to employees at cost saving rates.  The ultimate answer is for them to stop providing the insurance they have never been obliged to provide.  They are unwilling because of the ramifications to the families of their employees and perhaps to contracts formed with them.  So when punitive fines are tryanically assessed at 1.3 million dollars a day for Hobby Lobby, and they can no longer afford to pay for employee health care, that’s a good thing?  Well it’s what Obama certainly wants because his goal is single payer premium - the federal government pays all.  Quite frankly, you sound rather un or ill-informed about much to do with religion, government and the workplace. 

To Tom; “no anti catholic or anti-Christian crusade in this country.”  Are you joking or simply a buffoon?  You may have heard of the ACLU or any of a multitude of so-called civil liberties groups that have as their end goal to remove religion from the public square, and hence to end its necessary and moralizing influence on public policy.  They, like you, want the state to reign supreme.  The Becket Fund, noted in this column, along with the Catholic League and the Acton Institute are just a few of the notable organizations in the battle everyday to preserve the liberty you seem so prepared to mindlessly give away. 

If you have health insurance through your employer, then chances are very likely that you are already contributing to contraception and abortion.  This is the reality of pre-Obamacare and will not change post-Obamacare.  Moreover, this has been the law of the land since 2000 under Bush.  I don’t see many of you complaining about how Bush “waged war” against religious freedom, even though under Bush’s Justice Department, employers were required to provide contraceptives—including abortifacients like IUDs—in their health plans.  The point I’m trying to make is that most of the Register’s readers who have health care through their employers are already contributing to contraceptives and abortifacients.  Why the hullabaloo?  Are any of you who are in that category, i.e., receiving employer-based health care, ready to give it up because some tiny fraction of your premiums goes to contraceptives?

EJ, removal of religion from government protects us all and our ability to worship as we see fit.  I no more want to give money towards public displays to shiva or those of atheists than those folks want to give towards nativity scenes. I have not once seen or heard of a lawsuit that would seek to take away our right to worship, or remove any religious symbols from public places…as long as they are being done with private funds, on private property.

I can only assume that by “public square” you meant “government”. Which would mean that either you haven’t really thought too much about this, misunderstand the issue all together, or that I am not the buffoon here.

Tom,  Contraceptives are supposed to prevent fertilization but the manufacturers assure us that if they fail at that they have the back-up action of preventing implantation (in effect, an early abortion). Devices such as the IUD are designed to prevent implantation, not conception. So how can you ever know when you use a ‘contraceptive’ that it actually prevented conception and not implantation?

Because Andy, if my company CHOOSES to provide that then I can CHOOSE to work there or not. If my company CHOOSES to not provide that, it is their CHOICE and I can CHOOSE to work there or not. And instead of getting all your news and talking points from places like HuffPo, do your own research. Your statements about Bush are false for 2 reasons - 1) Bush was not sworn in until Jan 2001 and 2) places like Hobby Lobby would have protested before. Nice try though. Amazing how liberals are never for CHOICE unless it is to force us to accept the “right” to CHOOSE TO KILL 3000+ innocent children a day.

Andy, you keep missing the point.  The law is an immoral one.  As a supposed Catholic, you should be working against it by any means.  Instead, you and our “Boston College graduate” are engaged in apologetics for mandatory health insurance plans that provide not only birth control, but abortifacients and sterilization services.  Please tell me that someone as ostensibly intelligent as you can see the gross immorality of that.  Furthermore, tell me that you can see how that clearly violates the 2nd Amendment.

EJ Weber is right on the money on all his comments.  ObamaCare is an intrusion, an overstep, by the federal government.  That Roberts found it constitutional was a sleight of hand only because, being a conservative, he didn’t want to “legislate from the bench” as activist liberals are wont to do.  The knaves in this country will see what ObamaCare is like in 20 or so years when it morphs into a single-payer system (liberals & Democrats dream) like Canada and Great Britain have.  When you have government-controlled, rationed medicine you will pine for the insurance companies and choice in health care. 
And seriously, anyone who supports abortion - well I question their moral bearings. 
Most of those supporting ObamaCare etc are Democrats attempting to rationalize why they support that morality-challenged party.  Wake up America.

So the Republican party is not morally challenged? That is a laughable thought. Neither of the major parties in this country are more morally sound than the other. Sure, the Republicans talk about morals…but do no better than the Democrats.

I am not a fan of the Affordable Care act, though I am in favor of people recieving treatment without going bankrupt. Contraception stops abortions because the children are then planned for and wanted. It is a good thing. Hobby Lobby should, and will, end up paying for this for their employees. If not? Shut the doors.

Posted by Jesuitical graduate of Boston College on Saturday, Dec 29, 2012 10:27 AM (EDT):

Religion prohibits the use of contraceptives;  at least in the Roman church. Religion has no right to interfere with others use of contraceptives or interfere with access to them.  Access is an obligation of the employer due the employee as part of the salary benefit package. In the guise of ‘religious freedom’ the church is expressing intolerance to a diverse, plurlistic nation;  as such is acting unAmerican.
It would make much greater sense for the church to preach its message to its flock.  98 per cent of Catholics have used contraceptives.  If the church persists with a message which defies logic, remains in mystical past, it will be forever out of touch and the youth of America, who will grow past it and without the church.

To the “Jesuitical graduate of Boston College,”
If you truly believe this and are a graduate of BC then it is further proof of how low that Catholic In Name Only university has sunk and should no longer be considered even remotely a Catholic University. Your statement also shows absolute complete ignorance of the US Constitution, particularly the First Amendment as well the teaching of the Catholc Faith. If the “youth” of today reject the teaching of the Catholic Faith then the problem is not the Truth taught by the Church but with the ignorant and self-centered, relativism and materialism of the youth themselves. God’s Truth will never and cannot change. It is forever. Right is right and wrong is wrong. You may want to try to twist it to justify your beliefs but in the end you will fail and Truth as expressed by Christ’s Church will prevail.

Legislate from the bench=Judge came to a decision based on law that I do not agree with.

Election Year Rules
Three simple rules to help elect the right person for the job.
1. Vote against the incumbent; spread the graft around.
2. Register as a Democrat or Republican; either way you get to vote against them twice.
3. Don’t vote for anyone you wouldn’t invite home for supper; remember your family also eats there.
4. If a politico promises to cut your taxes or do anything to make your life easier, hide your wallet; buy gold or other precious metals.
5. If you recognize the name, vote for someone else.
6. If the man’s a known crook, vote for him. At least he’s honest about one thing and you know what you’re getting.
Remember the main reason politicians work so hard to get re-elected is that they don’t want to live by the rules they impose on the rest of us. Of course, these are more than three rules; judging from the way they keep reaching in our pockets politicians can’t count anyway.

Such a penalty tax is not necessary nor is it proper for the State to coercive anyone to become a contraception provider or be penalized for not supporting the contraception mentality that promotes promiscuity and thus the sexual objectification of the human person.

I am behind Hobby Lobby decesion, I am Catholic and I beleive in my relgion and will follow its teachings.

I wonder when the owner’s of a big private corporation will just say screw it, close their doors and take their wealth to the beach.  How much government hassel is it worth?  You want to help your employees, but then how many of them voted for the “King”.

Let me add one final thing.  Obama is not through with Catholics.  He has four more years to do unexpected things to us that are true forms persecution - as in this abortion holocaust - as true as persecutions by the Romans at the time just after Christ.  One million Christians (all of whom went to Mass) were killed in terrible ways in the first three centuries of Christian history.  As we visit the National Mall in January 2013 in our March for Life, I expect very large crowds.  Unfortunately MSM will simply ignore this as it has for the past 40 years (in the same line as Obama, their darling). Obama will probably be out of D.C. for that day.  He ignores, and through this game of his (ignoring us) he does damage in hiding all the millions of true Catholics who have NOT resigned themselves “in a peaceful way” (what a condescending remark!).  The time will soon becoming when ignoring these people will not be enough.  There is a possibility that true life-giving persecutions will begin against Catholics (martyrdom) which will simply be ignored by all.  I will be a “witness” if there is a direct confrontation with my love of Christ.  Sorry about Andy, guys and gals.

Reply to Tom on Sunday, Dec 30, 2012 12:28 PM

There are two ways people can get help with medical bills:  private charity or governmental coercion.  A private charity will donate funds under whatever name they choose to give (Catholics give in the name of Jesus Christ, hopefully).  On the other hand, the government holds a loaded gun to the head of your neighbor and picks his pocket to get the money to help you.  If anyone is so naive they do not believe that last sentence, just withhold paying your taxes for a few years.  You will find out how compassionate is the government.  And yet you seem to think the government option is OK.  I hugely disagree.  The Affordable Care Act will be reviewed by history as one of the most hateful pieces of legislation every lobbied against the working poor and true Christian charity.

I pity Sotomayer when she meets our Maker and has to answer to God for the decisions she made and how they affected millions of people and led millions on the path of sin.

Hi Wes, Whether the law is immoral or not is not the only question.  There are three related questions:  (1) to what degree is it immoral?  (2) Does that degree of immorality preclude a Catholic’s participation in it? (3) Does the Bishops’ guilty silence over the last 40 years on issues of religious freedom make their current crusade against Obamacare look simply partisan?  Regarding (1), yes, I think the law is immoral.  Regarding (2), I do not believe, under Catholic teaching of remote agency, that an employer’s decision to provide health care or an employee’s decision to purchase health care is culpable.  Actually using the contraceptives/abortifacients to contracept is immoral, of course.  Regarding (3), the Bishops’ silence in the peyote case, in the Amish social security case, and their silence for the full eight years of Bush’s presidency (it was W’s Justice Department that fully enforced Civil Rights Act to provide contraceptives under employer-provided health plans) has made their current crusade look merely partisan.  I’m sorry, but I just can’t get that excited about the remoteness of my health care premiums going toward things neither I nor my wife use.  I’m certainly not going to quit my job or drop my health care over it.

Andy, your analysis seems to be off.  Once a law is immoral, you cannot “participate” in it.  This is different in kind from other laws, for example, that do not prohibit participation but also do not require it.  For example, a law that allows abortion is immoral, but different in kind from a law that requires your participation in it, no matter how small the participation - a pinch of incense (just a pinch) - to use a past example.  Your premium, no matter how small a pinch, is still participation.  You are conflating two different concepts - “degree of immorality” and “participation”.  In any ethical system which purports to be coherent, there is simply no logic that supports participation in something immoral regardless of how “low” the immoralty is deemed to be by that system.

Yahoo for the Greens I shall start buying everything I can there, and will donate to their legal fees when I find out where to do so. I am sick of these Marxist unamerican Democrats trying to destroy our country. We all have to say NO to more of their looting. If they don’t agree with our traditions they should move to a country that is already Marxist like Cuba see how they like Marxism when they and their kids live under the oppression of it. Thank you Hobby Lobby

Abortion isn’t just a political issue; it can also be a religious one. In which case, forcing employers to pay for abortion-causing drugs violates their freedom and practice of religion, a Constitutional right.

If you agree, make your voice heard and exempt companies like Hobby Lobby from the healthcare mandate.

http://j.mp/ULnpUm

What about free will? My health insurance (BCBS)already has birth control and abortion coverage. I have been denied removing the coverage from my policy. However, I am exercising my “free will” by not taking advantage of these two provisions. Just because an employer’s health insurance has to cover the mandate, employees have the free will not to take advantage of it.

Also, even if the mandate was reversed, it does NOTHING to protect the private individual.

My money is that eventually Hobby Lobby will decide to go out of business (either by choice or due to the crippling fines).

It’s time for everyone to read, or re-read, Brave New World.  In Huxley’s novel his vision of the future shows a government that puts sexual relations above everything else.  If you are not having sex, you are suspect.  Of course, included in that world is mandatory birth control.  In his writing in Brave New World Revisited Huxley posits that as a government takes more and more of the citizen’s rights and freedoms away, that government emphasizes the freedoms involved with sexual relations.
Sound familiar anyone?  Sound like where Mr. Obama would like to see us headed?  I think so.

I find it insightful that all comments against the morning after pill (in your mind abortion) are coming from men. It is my body and I have to live with the decisions I make with my body. Why do men still think they have a say??? You think we should use not use contraceptives, should not be allowed to abort, and once the baby is born receive no assistance. WOW! Who the heck do you think you are? You want us barefoot, pregnant and totally helpless. When in all actuality had we prevented the pregnancy in the first place there might not be one more woman trying to get government assistance. Hobby Lobby will never win this fight. In fact because of their stubborness, many single moms will lose their job there because of the fines they will have to pay!

Repy to C.M. (Friday, Jan 4, 2013 3:12 PM (EDT))
The unborn baby is not your body, it is a completely separate and genetically differentiated human being.  And with the rest of your comment, you wonderfully make the case for the reasons behind the Catholic Church’s teachings about marriage and sex and babies (even if you didn’t mean to).  Thank you.

I will, absolutely, shop more often at Hobby Lobby. Thank You for fighting for the rights of unborn babies and their parents.

all these posters against abortion, yes i believe in jesus but where is the outcry when tax dollars are going to the death penalty, war, or cutting food
and housing assistance to the poor? what about the wall street bail out that the republicans like paul ryan supported! its ok for our tax dollars to go to private planes and ceo bonus i am sorry i just see so much hypocrisy anyone?

Why don’t the bishops deny ‘catholic’ politicians and judges the sacraments?
The bishops have the responsibility to shepherd the flock and uphold the faith. Sotomayor, can be a judge and rule that life does not begin at conception, but she cannot be both a judge and be ‘Catholic’. She is required to interpret the law, just as the bishop is required to defend the faith. Why should a bishop allow a judge to rule against Catholic doctrine, from the bench of the high court and continue to sit in the pew and receive the sacraments of the Catholic church.

I love when it is asserted that 98% of Catholics have used contraceptives…100% of people have sinned, but they’re not necessarily condoning sin…! My 1st Amendment rights have been violated, and it’s no accident that the writers of our Constitution placed this Amendment first in the Bill Of Rights…! Without First Amendment freedoms we are NOT a free nation…!!!

Francis Gaspari could not have agreed move. ms Sotomayor on 60 min. tonight
all these comments about her view on abortion which i am not saying is right or wrong where were all of you during the iraq war? or the death penalty?
what about all the abused children in our country right now? we is there no out cry about that? total hypocrisy!

Francis Gaspari and Jill Davis - with all due respect, to begin with, you both seem confused as to the differentiation between the teachings of the Catholic Church and Constitution for the U.S.
  Secondly, war (which may be evil) is not morally equivalent to abortion (which is always evil).  The same stands for the death penalty.  The Catholic Church recognizes the authority of the state to apply the death penalty, while holding that in today’s world such application is nearly obviated by the reality of long-term, secure incarceration.
It is hypocrisy to denounce war while not more forcefully denouncing the pro-choice and euthanasia movements and the people and parties who advance those movements.
God bless.

I find it tragically comic when people claim that men have no say in “women’s rights”. A true man stands up for the innocent, and those who cannot defend themselves. A true man does not accept—much less support—the decisions of others and their alleged “right” to do as they please as more important than defending that which is Right, and abolishing that which is Wrong. Who could esteem a man who stands by while millions are murdered? How can we have fallen so far, that we are so self-serving as to think that liberty is the freedom to do as we please, even to escape personal hardship, trumps the right of these smallest of human beings to live? Are we in this prosperous nation so perverted that we try to justify sentencing the most innocent among us (or within us) to death because killing them would alleviate a burden on society?
As for 98% of Catholics using contraceptives, where is the source for that statistic? (Apologies if I missed it up there.) I have a hard time believing that 98% of the faithful have used contraceptives for their nominal function. And it makes no sense to protest that we are hypocritical for not railing here against all the other injustices we have not yet been able to end, when this article does not address them. Not to downplay any suffering, of course, but does it not make sense, however, for us to cry out especially loudly for those who have no voice of their own?

HURRAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I WILL PRAY FOR THEM AND CONTINUE TO PRAY FOR THOSE IN GOVERNMENT WHO OPPOSE GOD’S COMMANDMENTS.  GOD BLESS AMERICAN, ONE NATION UNDER GOD….