Monday, February 13, 2012

The USCCB and President Obama

So what's going on?  This is a useful overview.  Excerpts:
...what's the problem?
Well, Catholics consider paying for those things sinful. So they are flaming mad at Obama. And Catholic priests have been reading a letter to almost all Catholics at church promising that the Church "cannot–and will not–obey this unjust law." This is pretty much unprecedented.

It seems like there is some subtext to this, right?
You betcha. Many of the bishops supported Obama's health-care reform effort precisely because they believed they had assurances this wouldn't happen. Update 4:59 The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops did eventually turn against the bill as written.

Why is this a big deal though? This is a minority issue, no? 
Well not exactly. The Church has built or maintains about 625 non-profit hospitals in the United States right now. 1 in 8 hospital visits in America are to Catholic hospitals. It's the largest non-profit sector of the health-care industry by a long shot.

Whoa that's a lot.
Yeah–and then there are the schools. About 65,000 professors work at over 230 Catholic universities and colleges in America. And then there are secondary schools, etc. And charity organizations.

But aren't hospitals and schools really secular enterprises? 
So when Jesus said heal the sick and feed the poor it had nothing to do with religion? Not sure that is going to fly. But that brings up the point that the Obama administration seems to be saying; that anything a religious person does outside of a Church or with someone who isn't part of their religion is somehow not-religious. In fact, it can't help but make that judgment.

But isn't the Church just a criminal enterprise of child-molesting freaks! I can't wait until the day it dies. It is based on fairy-tales!
We've been seeing a lot of comments like this. And well, it seems unlikely that the Church of approximately 70 million people here and a billion worldwide is going to go away tomorrow. Also, a lot of people of all faiths wouldn't have non-profit hospitals. Is this how you talk to people you meet?

All right, it's not going away, but the Church's teaching against contraception is really stupid. They're just against contraception because they hate women and their bodies. 
You don't take away people's rights because you disagree with them...

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