Why I Am Catholic
Though I’m on leave, I sheepishly came back aboard the good ship YIMCatholic again to do some light housekeeping. And I was also looking for the keys to my Mustang. I found them hanging on the hook in my stateroom. Go figure.
So since I’m here for a few minutes, I figure I’d pop off a tiny post on stuff I’ve seen on the HHS Mandate in between my break of deep reading and Lenten reflections. The first item to share is this great cartoon that I saw this morning. Bill Maher, and many others, don’t see the truth is this,
But Mr. Maher has a problem with seeing transcendent truth in any form. Idea #1: Pray for him as a Lenten work of mercy.
For the benefit of Mr. Maher, who I hear is spilling the “true” reason why so many of us don’t agree on the latest naked power grab by the Administration regarding healthcare, I present the true story of the HHS Mandate in a form that perhaps he can appreciate. Framed in the manner that folks of his ilk attempt to pander (<<== previous word irony alert!) to the public, I present to you Velvet Jones, the Prophet of Prophylactics,
See? The HHS Mandate makes all kinds of good sense when framed in the freedom of contraceptives mold. Oh, and don’t e-mail me in abject horror that I would broach such a subject as prostitution on a Catholic blog. Unless you just haven’t read your Bibles closely as the oldest profession, among other perversions, is mentioned a number of times therein. Like by Our Lord here.
But if Catholics were really upset at the easy availability of contraceptives, which last time I checked, are readily available everywhere from the nearest truckstop, minimart, and drug store/grocery store, and have been for some time, I think you would have heard the outcry from the Church long before now. No, something else is afoot, and as the cartoon above suggests, Father Z. says the President, as he so readily gave his apology to our irate Afghani friends recently, should do the same for Catholics.
Mr. President, you owe me and millions of American Catholics an apology.
You apologized to Islamic extremists and other Muslims abroad and in the United States for something done against the Islamic faith by mistake.
What you are doing to the consciences of Catholics and indeed all American, contrary to the 1st Amendment, you persist in doing on purpose.
As President you have offended me. You have offended millions of Catholic and all American citizens who enjoy religious liberty under the 1st Amendment and who, as human beings, do not deserve to be so demeaned.
You think American military personal should be held accountable for their mistake. Why should you, Mr. President, not now be accountable for what you are doing deliberately?
You owe us an apology for demeaning our Catholic Faith.
Idea #2: Let’s apologize for electing him in the first place by, you know, not re-electing him in November.
Long time readers know that I’m a gear-head (I mean, I came back to find the keys to my Mustang, right?), and I’m a racing fan as posts here, and here will attest to. But I’m not a big NASCAR fan, and I figure Danica Patrick would have been better off staying in the seat of an Indycar, even though Mammom would counsel heading to NASCAR (and Danica listened to him). Well, in Mark Steyn’s recent article in National Review Online, titled The Perversion of Rights, when questioned about the (framed in the Mainstream Media Approved Method) “birth control mandate,” Danica pulled a no-brainer reply that makes me wonder if she’s blown a gasket somewhere,
For some reason, Michelle Fields of the Daily Caller sought the views of the NASCAR driver and Sports Illustrated swimwear model about “the Obama administration’s dictate that religious employers provide health-care plans that cover contraceptives.” Miss Patrick, a practicing Catholic, gave the perfect citizen’s response for the Age of Obama:
“I leave it up to the government to make good decisions for Americans.”
That’s the real “hot topic” here — whether a majority of citizens, in America as elsewhere in the West, is willing to “leave it up to the government” to make decisions on everything that matters. On the face of it, the choice between the Obama administration and the Catholic Church should not be a tough one. On the one hand, we have the plain language of the First Amendment as stated in the U.S. Constitution since 1791: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
On the other, we have a regulation invented by executive order under the vast powers given to Kathleen Sebelius under a 2,500-page catalogue of statist enforcement passed into law by a government party that didn’t even bother to read it.
Commissar Sebelius says that she is trying to “strike the appropriate balance.” But these two things — a core, bedrock, constitutional principle, and Section 47(e)viii of Micro-Regulation Four Bazillion and One issued by Leviathan’s Bureau of Compliance — are not equal, and you can only “balance” them by massively increasing state power and massively diminishing the citizen’s. Or, to put it more benignly, by “leaving it up to the government to make good decisions.”
Yeah, I’m sticking with Steyn’s way of thinking, and not agreeing that Leviathan steamrolling the Church, like it intends, is the best thing for us. In a racing analogy, the constitutional principle is akin to an Indycar, while the Code of Federal Regulations approach is like a Sprint Cup heavy-weight. They both can make it around Laguna Seca, or Watkins Glen, for example, but the superior car and driver does it cleaner, and faster. Guess which one that is?
Yes, Leviathan is facing more and more challenges, as the good folks over at The American Center for Law and Justice report,
The mandate and compromise by the Obama Administration’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) are facing new challenges each day.
The latest legal challenge comes from seven states and a host of organizations – including two private citizens, two religious non-profit organizations and a Catholic school. They have filed a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of HHS regulations, which we have contended from the very start violate the free exercise of religion and the conscience rights of millions of Americans.
Just this week, we sent a legal analysis to HHS Secretary Sebelius on behalf of nearly 70,000 Americans urging that the troubling language in the regulations be removed. And, now an opinion editorial I have written explaining why the mandate and compromise are unacceptable is making the rounds in papers across the country. The article appears in today’s edition of the Charlotte Observer and you can read it here.
Go read the rest. And have you seen the video put out by the Heritage Foundation? Check it out,
Oh, that reminds me. Have you signed all the petitions that are floating around? The latest petition at the White House now has 2,279 signatures.Links to them all are embedded here.
OK, I’m heading back ashore. If I don’t pop in again, I’ll see you all on 3/01/2012.
Ciao!
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In