The Catholic Church is the first Christian church, the oldest, long experienced in the petty politics of man, long observant of human nature and all of its tendencies and weaknesses. Pope John Paul II allied with Ronald Reagan to bring down Communism, the Marxist Evil Empire while keeping that war cold. That Pope knew evil when he beheld it. He had no confusion about its nature. Not so contemporary American Catholic leaders.
Witness the contemporary American Catholic Church, many of whose leaders and priests commonly embrace socialist, even Marxist social doctrine. Witness too Archbishop-Designate Timothy Dolan of the Archdiocese of New York who “engaged” Mr. Obama, speaking to him in person mere weeks ago. The Church embraced, arguably lobbied for, Obamacare, for its redistribution of wealth, its unconstitutional and freedom-destroying individual mandate and its multiple usurpations of other freedoms, including the freedom of religion, apparently because it believed Mr. Obama would give the Catholic Church a pass. The Church did all this while cynically “engaging” the Obama Administration in the expectation that like so many Obama allies before them, the Church would be “accommodated” while the religious liberties of those disfavored by the Obamites would be crushed. Church leaders obviously expected that because of their support of “The One” and his doctrine it would be granted special dispensation in grateful and dutiful recognition of its devotion to the fundamentally transformative power of Barack Obama.
Not so much.
Archbishop-Designate Dolan is now bewailing his lot and complaining that Mr. Obama promised to exempt the Catholic Church from the Obamacare regulation requiring Catholic organizations to provide insurance for birth control and abortion to its female employees, but who could have imagined it, Mr. Obama was less than honest:
It seems to be at odds with very sincere assurances that he gave me, that he wanted to continue to work with the church in these endeavors and views and projects he shared a passionate interest in, so I can’t figure it out. When I left the Oval Office, where I was very grateful for his invitation to be there, I left with high hopes. That nothing his administration would do would impede the good work that he admitted and acknowledged in the church. And I’m afraid I don’t have those sentiments of hope now.
This is how an Archbishop-Designate of the Catholic Church diplomatically says “The ##@^&**&## lied to me!” All the Church gained for the efforts of Archbishop-Designate Dolan and other high-ranking churchmen was a year to implement the otherworldly, revealed wisdom of “The One.”
No less a wise man than Winston Churchill said: “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” The Catholic Church should have the advantage over all other Christian denominations in understanding this truism, yet it—like so many other Christian Americans—refuses to recognize that Barack Obama is a Marxist, and that with Marxism, there is no compromise, only the destruction of all that stands in its path. Compromise and accommodation were impossible before Dolan walked into the Oval Office, and Mr. Obama knew it.
Even now, after three years of Mr. Obama, many talking heads and ink-stained pundits express amazement that he could be so politically tone-deaf as to blatantly tread on the First Amendment. “Surely,” they seriously intone, “the fierce and growing backlash against this policy will cause him to compromise. Any conventional, rational politician would do that.”
Not so much.
What they willfully fail to recognize is that Barack Obama is not a rational, conventional politician, a matter I addressed at PJ Media in February of 2011. To be sure, he dissembles and lies like one, and he certainly wants to be reelected, but even on an issue as clear as this, even when he knows he is unabashedly trampling the Constitution and thereby causing the banding together in the defense of religious liberty of denominations that usually have little or nothing in common, he cannot, he will not, compromise. There is simply no such word in the Marxist dictionary, no such concept in Marxist thought except as a temporary trick, a lie on the path to the attainment of a Marxist goal.
And what middle ground, what compromise is possible when religious liberty is at stake? Despite the shameless lies of HHS Secretary Kathleen Sibelius and Mr. Obama claiming that their policy is merely a matter of the health of women, of fairness and similarly witless platitudes, the fact remains that religious liberty exists without infringement or it does not exist. Catholic—and other religious institutions–are forced by government to support policies in direct contravention of their respective faiths, or they have religious liberty. Can a compromise that forces churches to abandon only some of their faith be possible? That’s what any compromise would require. The Founders didn’t think so and put matters of faith beyond the voracious grasp of government, and so it remained until the ascension of our first Marxist president.
Mr. Obama’s “accommodation” is one of the most bald-faced political lies in American history. Mr. Obama said the issue (which he provoked) should not be treated as a “political wedge,” and added:
Under the rule, women will still have access to free preventive care that includes contraceptive services, no matter where they work — that core principle remains. Religious organizations won’t have to pay for these services, and no religious institution will have to provide these services directly.
HHS Secretary Sibelius said:
We think this is a very workable solution,” and added that it respects “religious objections.
The Obama administration has been very careful to characterize this as an “accommodation” rather than a compromise, a word to which they seem allergic where religious freedom is concerned.
There is no such thing as “free preventative care.” Mr. Obama, like all despots, believes all he need do is mandate unreality and it will be manifested through the force and majesty of his word. There is no constitutional power allowing Mr. Obama to ignore any part of the Constitution. There is likewise no constitutional power allowing Mr. Obama to force any private industry or business to provide “free” goods and services. Marxist despots, of course, take such power for granted. Those who dare oppose it are beaten, raped, tortured, re-educated or simply killed. In our new Marxist democracy, Mr. Obama mandates and dares a feckless Congress to stop him. He dares the courts to overturn his holy writ and the Lamestream, lap dog media praises him, or at the least, remains silent.
It has often been correctly observed that Mr. Obama doesn’t understand–or respect–free enterprise, but he doesn’t have to. Insurance companies will not provide free contraceptive services. They can’t if they wish to stay in business. They’ll simply raise their premiums accordingly, which will, in turn, raise the ruinous taxes that Obamacare will increasingly demand. His “accommodation” is unicorn horns and fairy dust. The issue is not who pays to violate the tenets of a church, but whether government can ignore the First Amendment and mandate such violation.
“How stupid does Mr. Obama think we are?” some have observed. This too doesn’t matter. Conventional, rational politicians pay attention to such things as public opinion and avoid unnecessarily rousing the public’s wrath. The Marxist ruler has no such concerns, and with the willing help of the press, Mr. Obama can ignore the Catholic Church—and all its allies in this matter–with impunity.
The Catholic Church, however, with its long history, intellectual tradition and diplomatic experience, should have known better. Marxism is inherently hostile to religion–it has never been otherwise–and Barack Obama respects no petty impediments—like the Constitution—to his enlightened rule.
American religious freedom under Barack Obama? Not so much.
I am not Catholic, but it frightens me so much that all of this is happening. What frightens me more, is that I’m unable to engage a Catholic friend of mine in a conversation about this – she seems unfazed, and uninterested.
Dear Jane:
This is unsurprising. Much of the American Catholic clergy–and probably most Catholics are socially progressive. Perhaps she simply is an Obama supporter and/or a proponent of choice as it relates to abortion issues. It is these folks that are willing to overlook the Constitutional issues involved, as they must to embrace much of the Progressive agenda. Such people never seem to realize that unless they forcibly abolish democracy–a task for which they are ill-suited–the pendulum will eventually swing against them and the precedents they put in place when in power will be harmful to them when they are out of power. Such is Progressivism…
What a lot of hooey over the simple regulation of some basics of health insurance. What a lot of hooey over a simple emergency room fee added to your taxes if you don’t have insurance. The Catholic Bishops said not one word when the exact same mandate was passed into law in 28 states. Neither did anyone else. All the Republicans are trying to do is get some publicity at Obama’s expense. Can’t you see the conservative movement has been bought by a few billionaires? Unless you folks are on the payroll…
Dear Sam:
Thanks for taking the time to read and comment. I must disagree; more than half the country–if the latest polls conducted by the media can be believed–were very much against the individual mandate, as well as the entirety of Obamacare and remain so to this day. Considering the way the Lamestream media does its polling, I can only conclude the actual number opposing it is closer to 60-70%.
My point remains that the issue is not who pays for such things, but whether an elected–or in this case–unelected governmental official can mandate that faith-based organizations–essentially churches–must in any way provide health related or other services that violate their religious principles. Until Barack Obama, this was a line politicians avoided crossing, primarily because it’s plainly unconstitutional. Mr. Obama, however, recognizes no power but his own and accepts no limitations, Constitutional or otherwise.
You do, by the way, know that most of the big money in politics these days comes from progressive billionaires like George Soros? After all, Mr. Obama is bragging that he’ll raise a billion dollars for his campaign. That’s certainly not coming from conservatives.
Insurance must remain nothing more than a commercially available product rather than a government mandated entitlement. If it does not, if the individual mandate remains in place, there is literally nothing the government cannot mandate.
Do you imagine that Progressives will always be in power? Unless that is possible–and Mr Obama is working toward that end by establishing a right to vote fraud, etc.–you’ll not like the mandates Conservatives will impose when the political pendulum swings their way.
Better to ensure maximum, constitutional liberty for all and the smallest possible government. Wouldn’t you agree?