My employer is trying to kill me!

My employer is obviously trying to kill me.  Pope Benedict has said access to food is “a concrete expression of the right to life.”  The United States’ Declaration of Independence called for the protection of  “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”  Yet my employer is not paying my food bills.  They do no support a food insurance plan or any plan to subsidize my grocery bill.  So since my employer is not paying my food bills it has to mean that they are denying my right to food!

Now this might seem like a ridiculous argument and of course it is.  But of course it is exactly the same argument being used by those that would enforce employers to pay for contraception.   Now a sane person would look at my argument for employer bought food and make the obvious observation that since I am payed a salary and can buy food with my salary my employer is no way blocking my access for food.  The same goes for people who think they have a right to contraception in that nothing is blocking them from paying for it out of their own salaries.  Now maybe some people can’t pay for the extra-premium extra-pricey contraception that Sandra Fluke says she is paying for and costs so much more than in all the normal pharmacies.  But even those who contravene the natural law and demand hormone-based birth control are not going to be going to the poor house based on that.

Really the HHS mandate has an agenda that is just an attack on future children.  There are many things they might have demanded that insurance companies paid for regarding real world health experiences. Yet the three they choose to mandate were contraception – prevention of children, sterilization – eliminating the possibility of children, and so called Plan B after the fact contraception and abortion inducing chemicals.  The Obama Administration is like Dana Carvey’s church lady on SNL but instead of the hush tones where the answer to every problem is “Satan!” they use the same tone with “Children!”  Surprised they haven’t yet redirected Smokey the Bear to say “Only you can prevent children.”  Funny how they divorce children from sex and then equate sex with voting.

One of the saddest things about this direct attack on the 1st Amendment of the Constitution regarding religious freedom is how mostly the American people have yawned about it.  Sure there is a small segments of Catholics that are up in arms about it and the Bishops have been very vocal about it.  There is even a nice portion of Evangelicals who see this as an attack on religious freedom and have joined in on the law suits.  But mostly this is not an issue this election will turn on. Gov. Romney and Rep. Ryan have brought it up from time to time – but it is not centerpiece or major part of  there stump speeches.  The President and Vice President have also bragged about it and have made it a major part of their campaign.  We can laugh about Sandra Fluke drawing tens of people, but they certainly have made the HHS mandate seem righteous to their supporters.

I remember when the whole HHS mandate first broke and I was awed by how giant this political miscalculation was.  An administration that could be so blind to infringing religious freedom and the repercussions is just amazing.  The bubble the Obama Administration lives in  is obviously sound proof and pretty much impervious to realities other than “I heart abortion.” Audacious and arrogant is what the HHS mandate is and when there was an initial outcry they created a non-compromise that did not change the moral calculus – just fudged the moral equations. Yet again the election will not turn on this.  This is just a naked power  grab to enforce a view of the world onto religious believers and if the economy was better they might have totally gotten away with it.  Now if the President were able to win election then certainly this is something that will be decided in the courts.  But just because something is blatantly unconstitutional does not mean that they will not give it a judicial seal of approval.

I certainly hope to see the death of the HHS mandate in the short term.  The problem is that we have a culture that was pretty much open to it in the first place and we will continue to see manifestations of this mindset.  While a political election might solve one problem, the real problem is not  going to be solved by politicians and as Jesus told the Apostles some things need much prayer and fasting to drive out.