Microsoft word - who is controlling who

There have been some prominent people complaining that President Obama and his health plan are forcing churches to behave immorally by purchasing birth control via health insurance. Sufficient to make the evening news several times. Most of the complainants are politicians running for office and representatives of the Catholic Church. This merits a bit of thought. Begin with Jehovah’s Witnesses. Many of them believe that blood transfusions are against their religious beliefs and therefor immoral. It is so immoral they sometimes die rather than submit to a blood transfusion. The members of that sect pay taxes that support Medicare. Medicare provides blood transfusions. Should they be allowed to not pay taxes to support Medicare because they believe blood transfusions are immoral? No, it does not work that way. Continue with conscientious objectors. They pay taxes that support our military. Should they be allowed to not pay taxes due to their beliefs? No, it does not work that way. There are many more similar examples that can be listed. More to the point. When an employer pays part, or even all, of the premiums for health insurance, the employer does not purchase aspirin, antibiotics, surgery, or any particular health expense. They help pay for an insurance policy, a health insurance policy. Just like Jehovah’s Witnesses do not specifically purchase blood transfusion, those who help pay for the policy do not buy each medicine or pay for each consultation between doctor and patient. The claim that Obama care would force them to behave immorally is blatantly false. The Catholic Church claims that birth control is immoral. From Pope Paul VI’s landmark encyclical letter Humanae Vitae (Latin, "Human Life") in 1968 : Contraception is "any action which, either in anticipation of the conjugal act [sexual intercourse], or in its accomplishment, or in the development of its natural consequences, proposes, whether as an end or as a means, to render procreation impossible." That belief itself is outright immoral. In this world, with so many places so over populated, to attempt to prohibit anyone from using any type of birth control is fundamentally immoral. If you support the Catholic Church, you are supporting that position. If you are a member of that church and practice any type of birth control your behavior is hypocritical. A recent article on this topic in Newsweek reported that 98% of polled Catholics have used birth control. When essentially all of their parishioners use or have used birth control, their hypocrisy must be rated as extreme. When the Pope begins to excommunicate its parishioners who practice birth control they can then spout off about their position. The Catholic Church puts pressure on legislatures to prohibit birth control in the U.S. They also pressure congress to exclude birth control from our aid to other countries. They press to have the topic of family planning and birth control excluded from doctor patient conversations. That is immoral. That is the opposite of what is being claimed, it is religion imposing on Congress. That is unconstitutional. The people I have seen on the various news programs complaining about this claimed intrusion into religion have all been male. Here is a news bulletin to them and to the Catholic hierarchy: Men don’t get pregnant. As a male, I claim it is NOT the place of males to force medical advice and restrictions on women about birth control. Almost all the Catholics have abandoned this absurd and immoral belief. It is time for their bureaucracy to get the message. This is not an example of the government controlling religion. The Catholic Church is imposing religious beliefs on the U.S. government. They have been for a long time. This is in direct contradiction to the U.S. Constitution and it is past time to call a halt to this behavior.

Source: http://www.bkelly.ws/who_is_controlling_who.pdf