The Washington Post breathlessly asks “Who’s funding the Catholic bishops’ religious freedom campaign?” Shockingly it appears to be mostly the Knights of Columbus. Yeah that’s really newsworthy. I guess we will have to send out the albino monk assassins to take care of that leak.
Though of course the Washington Post is strangely incurious about the Soros funded group in opposition to the Fortnight for Freedom campaign.
58 comments
Wow! You mean the Catholic bishops’ campaign is being funded by–*gasp*–Catholics?!
Peace,
–Peter
I think you didn’t read the whole article, the point is right here:
>Knights of Columbus life insurance sales neared $8 billion in 2010
Life insurance? Is that the only kind they sell? No, they have health insurance too.
So, an organization that made billions from health insurance is funding groups trying to derail a threat to their business.
That’s the point.
But hey if you can’t make money from sick people than what is the point of Jesus?
the real question is that raised by LesFemmes: Who is paying for the rockstar type $145 an hour bus by the poverty loving nuns on the bus?
@salvage, I just talked to my Knights Agent this week and the programs he offered were permanent and term life, long term care, annuities and disability income. As these programs were presented to me I didn’t understand any of them to be health insurance.
It’s a St. Louis Post Dispatch piece distributed by Religion News Service and picked up by the Washington Post.
@ Mike Google is hard:
https://www.google.ca/#hl=en&sclient=psy-ab&q=knights+of+columbus+health+insurance&oq=knights+of+columbus+health+insurance&aq=f&aqi=g2g-bK1&aql=&gs_l=hp.3..0l2j0i8i30.2182.4193.2.4832.17.17.0.0.0.0.288.3472.0j7j10.17.0…0.0.2-vAIc6YrQk&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=3ab40ad1030bf09c&biw=1920&bih=970
But to be fair I had no idea there was such thing as Knights of Columbus insurance or that they were backing this whole “Women! Your Wombs Belong to US” campaign until this story. Then I went and did some research and found out how Obamacare is against the KoC’s financial interests.
Isn’t that neat? They way they can mix their religion and business? After all was it not your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who said “Yea, I cure the lepers who are only insured. The other lepers are lazy looters and moochers and they should be allowed to die so that only the rich will thrive.”
I may be paraphrasing a touch there.
The Knights of Columbus rock. ‘Nuff said.
I found this interesting, a bit on the history of fraternal insurance companies
http://mason.gmu.edu/~ihs/s92essay.html
BTW
Salvage, weren’t you just going on a month or so ago about how this contraceptive coverage wasn’t going to raise insurance costs?
So if this was true then, why could Obamacare be against the Knight’s financial interests?
Someone whose knowledge of the Knights of Columbus comes from Google searches is someone whose soul-reading of the Knights of Columbus reveals a lot more about him than about the Knights of Columbus.
Because Obamacare is the first step towards a single payer insurance scheme. Every other single Western nation has universe health care and as such the demand for insurance in those countries is quite low.
That’s why all the American insurance companies are fighting tooth and nail. See they don’t want you to pay for you health care via taxes, they can’t make billions by refusing to pay out when you need it that way.
The contraception angle is a great hook for them, they can get y’all worked up about it because SEX! SEX! WOMEN ARE HAVING SEX!! AAAAHHHH! that stops you from giving the issue any more thought.
Maybe they don’t like giving class 1 carcinogens out like candy.
http://mason.gmu.edu/~ihs/s92essay.html
Huh? Who is giving class 1 carcinogens out like candy?
From the Mayo CLinic:
How do birth control pills affect your risk of cancer?
Scientific evidence suggests using birth control pills for longer periods of time increases your risk of some cancers, such as cervical cancer and liver cancer, but it also decreases your risk of other types of cancer, including ovarian cancer and endometrial cancer.
The effect of birth control pills on breast cancer risk isn’t quite clear. However, some studies do show a link between pill use and breast cancer. Key factors seem to be how many years you take the pill and how recently you last used the pill. In one study, use of birth control pills led to a higher risk of premenopausal breast cancer in women who took the pill for four or more years before having a baby. Other evidence suggests that 10 or more years after you stop taking the pill, your breast cancer risk returns to the same level as if you had never taken birth control pills.
————–
At the same time, other large studies, including one published in the New England Journalof Medicine in 2002, found no increase in breast-cancer risk among pill users. Further complicating the health-risk equation, it’s already well-established that the pill offers some protection to women from ovarian and endometrial cancers. One recent study of 46,000 women over the age of 40 by the Royal College of General Practitioners found that, despite a small increased risk of breast cancer in women under 45, pill-users as a whole actually live longer than other women. But this becomes less surprising when you figure that women who pop the pill tend to be healthier to begin with (for one thing, they have to see a doctor regularly in order to get a prescription).
Oh and while you’re howling about how women shouldn’t take the pill because of cancer please remember:
Alcohol: The use of alcohol is clearly linked to an increased risk of getting breast cancer. Women who have one drink a day have a very small increased risk. Those who have 2 to 5 drinks daily have about 1½ times the risk of women who drink no alcohol. Too much alcohol use is also known to increase the risk of several other types of cancer.
Didn’t your god turn water into alcohol?
I work for the Knights we do not sell health insurance. What is bad for the Church is bad for us it is our duty to defend the church
What Types Of Insurance Does Knights Of Columbus Offer?
Knights of Columbus offers several different kinds of insurance. With Knights of Columbus you can get your life insurance, long term care insurance, !!!!!!! —> and medical insurances<—-!!!!!!! conveniently in one place. There will be no more trying to remember who you have what insurances with, making life just a little bit simpler. It’s also good to know that bundling all your insurance needs with one provider often results in lower premiums.
———–
I wonder, when they refuse to pay our for "per-existing conditions" do they say "Yes, that's what Jesus would do to protect this year's profits and bonuses!"
>What is bad for the Church is bad for us it is our duty to defend the church
I guess paying all those abuse lawsuits would be pretty bad for the Church so you’re against the children who were abused and raped?
Dear Salvage,
I’m concerned about you. Why are you so angry at anyone who is a believer? Good people are as upset as you about evil done in the past and present. They, whether believers or not, try hard to be honest, caring people and make this a better world. Your comment, “Women! Your Wombs Belong to US”, is not worthy of you as a seeker of truth. Your negative comments to everything we say is not accomplishing anything. Join with all of us who do seek truth and justice for all mankind and be a positive influence to the good.
Salvage,
You are lost – the Knights offer Long Term Care Health Insurance. That is for nursing homes! That is it! Life insurance and nursing homes. You need to read your own google link! There are some sites in your link that vaguely indicate that K of C is a “health insurance” provider. But health insurance could mean many things – that is very broad. Those sites offer no specifics. In this case, it is long term care. Here is the K of C link http://www.kofc.org/un/en/insurance/index.html. And to point out how truly lost you are, Obama pulled the plug on long term care almost a year ago: http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Long-TermCareFirstCasualtyinObamacare/2011/10/14/id/414546. So no, there is no conflict of interest. K of C has nothing at stake in this except defending the faith – that is why they are called “knights.” Move along please – your misinformation campaign will not work here. The internet works both ways man – we can look up stuff to. I am also a Knight by the way – I know you are wrong.
>I’m concerned about you.
No you’re not, you don’t know me, this is more of that artificial “Christian love”, don’t be silly. Once again I could vanish tomorrow and it wouldn’t make a difference to you.
>Why are you so angry at anyone who is a believer?
I’m not angry with anyone who is a believer. The only anger I have shown here is for anyone who defends and or enables child rapists. I think it’s quite natural and perfectly healthy to be angry at that sort. Tell me if I’m wrong about that.
>Good people are as upset as you about evil done in the past and present.
Maybe, but in the case of the Catholic church the anger seems more directed to the victims, the victims’ support groups and nuns who’d rather help poor people than bother women going to get abortions.
>They, whether believers or not, try hard to be honest, caring people and make this a better world.
No, they do not try to be honest, if they were they wouldn’t be believers in insanity like your god. Praying for people may give you the illusion that you care but it’s pretty lazy asking a god to do good stuff for you. And better world? Ha! Demand that the Vatican and all the churches involved in the abuse cover up hand over all relevant documents (without a court order) apologize for the deceptions and slimy legal tactics, sell all their BILLIONS in assets to compensate the children and whatever is left over is used to make Africa self-sufficient. I know, I know asking your church to give up its vast wealth would be craaaazy! After all did not Jesus say unto his flock “Yea, ye shall know my Father loves ye when your house has so many rooms you never use half of them and ye shall have more servants than fingers and toes. Oh and a gold throne, St Peter will need one.”
>Your comment, “Women! Your Wombs Belong to US”, is not worthy of you as a seeker of truth.
So… a woman does have control over her womb? She can have absolute right to do with it as she pleases? No, of course not! She’s a woman and as your religion teaches she is second class, this isn’t misogyny, it’s all the way back to Eve, after all this original sin business is all her fault right? Your god punished women with painful and fatal childbirth. I suppose abortion offends it because she’s escaping her punishment.
And before you get all huffy puffy indignant with an “Oh, no, no no!” first tell me why can’t women be priests again? What is it about the penis that makes it impossible to be a cleric without one?
> Your negative comments to everything we say is not accomplishing anything.
I’m not trying to accomplish anything, this is a blog, it’s meaningless and it’s funny you should think otherwise. If you guys post something that I think is wrong I will explain why it is wrong. What makes me right by default at the very least is none of you ever answer my points or questions.
For instance, tell me why women can’t be priests, yes I know there is a catechism but it just says women can’t be priests doesn’t really say why. I guess they think the answer is self-evident and to the Vatican I’m sure it is but to the rest of the modern world it isn’t. We have this crazy idea that women and men are equal in all things that don’t require upper body strength.
>Join with all of us who do seek truth and justice for all mankind and be a positive influence to the good.
“Us”? “Us”? Really? You think the Catholic Church is interested in the truth? This is the same organization that insists to Africa that condoms don’t stop AIDS? The same gang that runs a bank for the benefit of the mafia? Whose last director was found hanging from a bridge? The same pack that knowingly allowed children to be raped? Who still fight tooth and nail against justice for the victims’?
What? Do you think I made all that up? That it isn’t public record? That is isn’t facts? You’re not interested in truth or justice, you’re interested in comfort and safety. That’s what your religion does for you, it makes you feel secure, that no matter what happens you’ll be okay in life and death because your god is real. To maintain that feeling you will let your god’s representatives on Earth get away with anything. Even raping children and you think that makes you one of the good guys?
You’re only interested in the “good” for yourself.
Now say “Oh salvage, he’s just angry!!” See by couching what I say in a negative emotion you give yourself permission to ignore it all and carry on without giving it any thought.
Why don’t you go read up on SNAP’s webpage? Get the story from the other side?
Nah, you just listen to Bill Donohue when he tells you stuff like ““The refrain that child rape is a reality in the Church is twice wrong: let’s get it straight – they weren’t children and they weren’t raped.”
Yes, that man is certainly all about the truth and justice and he’s one of your leaders, be proud and make sure you donate twice as much next time you go to church to pay his salary.
Dear Salvage,
I do care for you as a fellow human being and yes – don’t take offense – I pray for you. I’d love to be able to answer some of your statements, but obviously that would just makes you more upset. Peace, Brother. God bless you.
Dear Salvage,
I do care for you as a fellow human being and yes – don’t take offense – I pray for you.
I don’t take offence, I take indifference.
> I’d love to be able to answer some of your statements, but obviously that would just makes you more upset.
No, it’s not me you would upset if you actually looked at the facts, quite the opposite.
Like I said, you need your religion and the comfort it brings so you’ll never give any aspect of it any thought. It’s this sort of mentality that allowed the abuse to continue so don’t feel that you’re alone or even unusual.
I’m with you, NiceLady, I shall also pray for those whose hearts are hardened and deafened, including my own hardened heart.
The so called Canadian who calls himself Salvage continues to insert his paid for opinion into any and all conversations that might be adverse to the present American administrations agenda. The K of C do not offer health care. Not even the Canadian K of C. The story here is that Catholics are starting to wake up and realize that the Church militant must live up to it’s name. Catholics are supporting Catholics, how mind boggling, how wonderful. Dear Salvage, I respect your opinions on religion, however I don’t agree with them. The tide is turning and your paycheck will dry up soon.
>The so called Canadian who calls himself Salvage
Do you talk like this in real life?
>continues to insert his paid for opinion into any and all conversations that might be adverse to the present American administrations agenda.
Ha! Ha! Yes! I am paid by the Obama Administration to influence the opinions of the dozens of readers of this blog. You are very smart.
> The K of C do not offer health care.
No, they offer health insurance as part of an overall one-stop package of insurance. Hospitals offer health care.
>Not even the Canadian K of C.
Yeah, that’d be because we pay for our health care via taxes? It’s a cheaper and simpler system that means if people get sick they don’t lose their life savings / homes / children’s futures. I know, it’s a horrific thing and as a result of this blasphemy against capitalism insurance companies don’t make billions refusing to pay off. Damn you socialized medicine! Insurance companies are people too! And did Jesus not say unto his flock “Yea thou shall pay insurance companies thousands of dollars a year but ye will suffer in silence when they tell thou that cancer is a pre-existing condition and your policy invalid. And ye will thank the Free Market for making the richer rich so that my Father’s bounty can trickle down to the poor. As long as they are not gay.”
> The story here is that Catholics are starting to wake up and realize that the Church militant must live up to it’s name.
Yeah, you should go back to burning Protestants, homosexuals and anyone who says the Earth goes around the sun. The good old days huh?
>Catholics are supporting Catholics, how mind boggling, how wonderful.
Even the ones that hurt children and protect the ones that do?
>Dear Salvage, I respect your opinions on religion, however I don’t agree with them.
That’s pretty close to how I feel but I actually don’t respect your opinions, I think them deeply silly and ludicrous but I do respect your right to believe and express them.
>The tide is turning and your paycheck will dry up soon.
Actually it’s not, here’s another fact for you to ignore:
Pew survey: Doubt of God growing quickly among millennials
Washington (CNN) – The percentage of Americans 30 and younger who harbor some doubts about God’s existence appears to be growing quickly, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey. While most young Americans, 68%, told Pew they never doubt God’s existence, that’s a 15-point drop in just five years.
In 2007, 83% of American millennials said they never doubted God’s existence.
More young people are expressing doubts about God now than at any time since Pew started asking the question a decade ago. Thirty-one percent disagreed with the statement “I never doubt the existence of God,” double the number who disagreed with it in 2007.
——-
Must be so frustrating to be your god, all that power and it can’t convince educated people that it’s real.
So, no, the tide is not turning. And even if I am getting paid? Doesn’t mean I’m wrong but it’s cute the way you’d rather make stuff up than actually address my points. Easier too I imagine.
>I’m with you, NiceLady, I shall also pray for those whose hearts are hardened and deafened, including my own hardened heart.
So lazy! Why don’t you just tell me where I’m wrong? That would be the way to convince me, present facts that put my opinions in doubts. It’s happened lots of times before so I know it can be done, believe me.
Nah, just ask your god to do stuff, that’s the theist way!
The Knights of Columbus do not sell health insurance. If they did, I would have purchased some when I was unemployed. It would be nice to see something from the Knights as proof…not something from a random Google result.
Yeah, that’s how Google works, when you punch in “Knights of Columbus health insurance” it randomly makes pages up.
http://www.kofc.org/un/en/insurance/products/longtermcare.html
Thanks for the link!
Long term care and health insurance are not the same thing…at least in the USA. Health insurance covers sick and well visits, etc. while long term care covers extreme ailments that are life changing if not
ending…stroke, etc.
To the best of my knowledge, most Americans do to have long term care.
Should read “do not have long term care.”
Yeah, fair enough but it’s weird the official KoC page doesn’t say it has heath insurance but a bunch of brokers and affiliates say they do.
I have no idea what to make of that, my paranoid side wants to say that the KoC are being deliberately coy to avoid the appearance of conflict on interest. Or perhaps the central
or KoC proper doesn’t but they lend their name out to others that do? But they do seem to suggest that KoC can cover all your insurance needs and health is the biggest one so it would be odd that they don’t.
At any rate it’s ridiculous that America doesn’t have universal health care, it’s truly bizarre that you’ll spend billions to bomb Iraqis but go crazy at the thought of your tax dollars being used to help your own people.
Salvage, I am really disappointed you’re not a woman.
What an odd thing to say.
salvage – So Americans use no tax dollars to help our own people? And you honestly think you are not ridiculous?
Medicaid and Medicare are both U.S. federal health care programs which have a combined budget that surpasses the entire defense department budget (not just the budget for Iraq). Geez – you’d think you would know that since you know so much about that and you know Google and all….
>So Americans use no tax dollars to help our own people?
No, that is not what I said, I guess reading comprehension isn’t your thing, what I said was “it’s truly bizarre that you’ll spend billions to bomb Iraqis but go crazy at the thought of your tax dollars being used to help your own people.”
Please re-read my comment and let me know which parts are giving you trouble and I’ll try and make it simpler.
> Medicaid and Medicare are both U.S. federal health care programs which have a combined budget that surpasses the entire defense department budget
Not really, the US defence budget is about 22-25% of the total budget but please show me a link that breaks it all down.
But so what? My point still stands, America will march off to war, blowing billions to kill millions but can’t seem to figure out a way to make going to the doctor affordable for citizens.
And yes, there are programs for the very poor and prisoners and your leaders but for the working poor, the middle class? Well they get to pay thousands to insurance companies (if they can) whose priority is profit. That’s fine in most things but when it comes to health care it turns pretty evil pretty quick with people being told their policies don’t cover their pre-existing condition and of course deductibles.
I know, I know, it would have been awful if America hadn’t invaded Iraq for all those WMD and used the money to make sick people healthy! Your god! Could you imagine the horror of that?!? People getting cured, keeping their homes, being able to afford to send their children to school! But then there would be more Muslims here and less in Hell for your god to torture so I can see why you be against it.
Is the proposal now that the Knights of Columbus *do* make billions of dollars selling health insurance, they just hide the fact that they sell it — from, among others, the people they sell insurance to? And they have hidden this fact in order to, what, have a hidden reason to give lots of money to the Church, against the day the government might reorganize the insurance business in a way contrary to their secret interests?
Well I do know they sell insurance and I do know that there are organizations that have the name KoC that do sell health insurance, I don’t know if they make billions but I’m sure the profit is pretty sweet.
So it would be in their interests to maintain an open market, they know that if the government comes in and people start paying for their health care via taxes it’s the beginning of the end.
So it’s inconceivable that they would lobby and use their influence to protect their industry?
Yeah, it must be. I’ve never heard of any Catholic institution being dishonest to protect their interests.
I also know that your religious liberty would be destroyed if insurance companies had to cover contraception. I mean that’s all Catholicism is! Making sure women get pregnant every time the have sex. You take that away and you people have nothing!
So yeah, it’s a ridiculous idea that the KoC are using religion to protect their financial interests. I don’t think religion has ever been used to manipulate anyone ever! Well okay, all the other religions but not yours, just one of the many ways yours is the One True Religion.
I have no reading comprehension issue – we spend more on Medicaid and Medicare than defense – look it up yourself. No one is going crazy over tax dollars being spent on healthcare. We are already spending tax dollars on healthcare and people like you pretend we don’t and are dishonest enough to say that is not what they are saying.
Wow – I’ll have to let dh know that we’ve only been intimate 7 times. Weird……
>I have no reading comprehension issue –
So then you do understand that America went to war with Iraq and spent billions while refusing to spend billions on health care?
> we spend more on Medicaid and Medicare than defense – look it up yourself.
http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/defense_budget_2012_3.html
>No one is going crazy over tax dollars being spent on healthcare.
Really? Funny because on YouTube there are a bunch of Teabaggers screaming about who it’s socialism / communism / fascism etc and must be stopped! I think they had a protest or two?
>We are already spending tax dollars on healthcare
And everyone in America is covered! Right? No one ever goes broke paying the hospital bills? Patients aren’t shunted to county hospitals to make way for insured sick people?
Yes, you spend tax dollars on health care for soldiers, prisoners, government employees, the very poor, the even poorer in Africa but everyone else? What do they have? They can spend thousands on insurance that they can’t depend on.
It’s amazing that you think that’s a good system.
>Wow – I’ll have to let dh know that we’ve only been intimate 7 times. Weird……
Well I’ve been told that your god gets very angry when women have sex without being married by one of it’s representatives. And that sex’s only purpose is procreation hence there is no need to fund any sort of birth control for sluts.
I know, you have sex for other reasons, I’m not saying it makes sense but that is what I have been told by many Catholics.
But tell me, if a woman has sex without being married, just for fun, does that anger your god?
From your first sentence, it remains clear that dishonesty is your best policy. The USA does spend billions in healthcare already. Apparently you are the one who has a reading comprehension issue since no where did I state my opinion on our healthcare system.
“I mean that’s all Catholicism is! Making sure women get pregnant every time the have sex.”\
More samples of your brilliance, Salvage? Supposedly Catholic have told you this? What Catholics? No one here certainly, just like Barefoot Mommy it’s news to us, it’s a truly laughable idea.
Before Obama’s push for health care reform, the majority of Americans were covered by private insurance and somewhere around 90% were happy with their coverage. The majority of people without private insurance also had access to either government insurance through Medicaid and Medicare or through local health departments. Yes, some people fell through the cracks and everyone wants to take care of those people. However that is not reason enough to destroy the system that was already providing care for the vast majority of people.
>Before Obama’s push for health care reform, the majority of Americans were covered by private insurance and somewhere around 90% were
Wow.
And you got these numbers from where?
>Supposedly Catholic have told you this?
When an unmarried woman has sex just for fun does this make your god happy, mad or indifferent?
Whether unmarried people, men or women have sex or not or for what reasons or whether this makes God, happy, glad, mad or sad does not impact the fact that married people have sex for another reason than procreation. What Catholics have told you sex is only allowable for procreation? That was what you said now defend it.
Can you think of no negative consequences for sexual relations outside of committed relationships?
And the numbers came from surveys done during the time of Obama’s push for health care. Look it up and keep looking for the budget expenditures comparing department of defense and all government healthcare spending. By the way, healthcare of soldiers is in the department of defense budget.
Let’s put on our Catholic protestant protection gear on and burn Salvage at the stake! Maybe at the next K of C barbecue we can throw him on the pit like we do with all those who disagree with our infallible opinions! Canadian bacon!
Dear Salvage,
I heard about a book that might interest you. It’s called “Modern Physics and Ancient Faith” by Dr. Stephen M. Barr.