{"id":12790,"date":"2013-01-03T22:30:07","date_gmt":"2013-01-04T03:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/?p=12790"},"modified":"2017-01-24T17:52:47","modified_gmt":"2017-01-24T22:52:47","slug":"while-the-president-is-on-vacation-sign-this-petition-at-the-white-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2013\/01\/while-the-president-is-on-vacation-sign-this-petition-at-the-white-house.html","title":{"rendered":"While The President is On Vacation, Sign This Petition at the White House"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/85\/2013\/01\/hangglider.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-12791 aligncenter\" title=\"hangglider\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/85\/2013\/01\/hangglider-1024x728.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"354\" height=\"251\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A few minutes ago, a citizen named Nick left a comment with a link to <a href=\"http:\/\/wh.gov\/Uyhf\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">a freshly minted petition he has drafted over at the White House<\/a> in the post where Mike Huckabee said he intends to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2013\/01\/mike-huckabee-on-hobby-lobby-we-will-stand-with-them-in-their-resistance.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">stand with Hobby Lobby.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>I will admit to you that I signed the petition immediately. <!--more-->It has only 9 signatures currently, so it\u2019s not much higher than a kite right now.<\/p>\n<p>No, I don\u2019t fear agents in black helicopters coming for me in the middle of the night, nor does the prospect of the White House having my e-mail address bother me one teeny-weeny bit. Especially when it is so easy to send their stuff to the junk mail box, saavy?<\/p>\n<p>I signed this particular petition because it is brief, to the point, and broad enough to include every business that has an objection to being coerced into providing services that violate their consciences.<\/p>\n<p>Now, the HHS Mandate <em>could<\/em> be modified in the future to allow individual employees the opportunity to decide for themselves whether they need\/want contraceptive, abortifacient, and sterilization services. You know, the HHS could provide a few options that would allow folks to make their own choices to do things contrary to the teachings of various faith groups. This would make things a lot less troublesome for businesses owned by folks who find these services objectionable. And, of course, folks like the Catholic Church, and her affiliated organizations. If people had a choice, see, they would be able to sin (or not) on their own time, and on their own dime, like we all usually do anyway.<\/p>\n<p>But that is not the case right now. The HHS, acting like we live in the 19th Century, can\u2019t seem to summon the capacity to make a menu of options available to folks, despite our 21st Century capacity to do so.<\/p>\n<p>And did you see the news out of France?<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p id=\"yui_3_5_1_23_1357273979523_262\">An inquiry launched this week by the ANSM health regulator will review prescription practices by doctors, who it says may be over-prescribing higher-risk third and fourth-generation pills.<\/p>\n<p id=\"yui_3_5_1_23_1357273979523_209\">While all oral contraceptives are associated with a risk of\u00a0blood clots, a number of studies suggest the most recent third and fourth-generation pills carry a higher risk than their predecessors.<\/p>\n<p id=\"yui_3_5_1_23_1357273979523_219\">The\u00a0European Medicines Agency\u00a0says the risk of an embolism, or blood clot, is twice as high for women using third and fourth-generation pills than for those using earlier versions, although it remains low. The risk of a stroke is the same.<\/p>\n<p id=\"yui_3_5_1_23_1357273979523_275\">On Wednesday, France\u2019s health ministry said it would stop reimbursing prescription costs of third-generation pills from March 31, bringing forward a cut-off date from September 30.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/france-may-curb-riskier-oral-contraceptives-145336275--finance.html;_ylt=A2KLOzJ4W.ZQa1sA0hfQtDMD\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Read the rest.<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>So I signed Nick\u2019s petition, which reads like this,<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><em>WE PETITION THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Exempt Hobby Lobby from the healthcare mandate requiring them to provide abortion-causing drugs to employees<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The mandate requiring employers to provide abortion-causing drugs as part of their health insurance coverage for employees violates the religious rights of and exercise by employers. Therefore, Hobby Lobby and similarly-founded Christian organizations should not be required to pay for drugs that might cause abortions. This includes emergency contraception, the morning-after pill or the week-after pill. This petition is not limited to Christian business owners, but includes any religious affiliation whose beliefs oppose abortion.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>You can sign it too, right here ==&gt;&gt; <a href=\"http:\/\/wh.gov\/Uyhf\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">http:\/\/wh.gov\/Uyhf<\/a><\/p>\n<p>I signed it for another reason. A different commentator, going by the handle \u201cFreethinker,\u201d tried to leave this message in the <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2012\/12\/support-hobby-lobby-heres-how.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">Support Hobby Lobby. Here\u2019s How<\/a><\/em> post combox. I did not publish it (sorry, I don\u2019t do pseudonyms), but it seems a bit ironic to me. This is what you call freethinking?<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>And at the end of the day, the SCOTUS will decide that all must serve the state and obey. All businesses, regardless of the \u201creligious beliefs\u201d (a.k.a. superstition) of the owners, will be required to obey the HHS mandate or go out of business. If your \u201creligion\u201d doesn\u2019t like what the government is doing, you are free to leave the country. Or be sent to jail. The choice is yours.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cReligion\u201d is to be confined to the four walls of a religious building, period. It has no place in the public square, or running a business.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Sounds like the chains of yesteryear to me. The SCOTUS, POTUS, and Congress, see, serve the people; not the other way around. The State is <em>ordered<\/em> when it protects citizens and families. It is <em>disordered<\/em> when it doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>Which is why I signed the petition and hope you will too.<\/p>\n<p>Nick is going to need a lot of help, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2012\/02\/fyi-the-hhs-mandate-petition-skunked-the-competition.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">as I know from experience<\/a>. The White House site is glitchy, and a pain to interface with, but patience is a virtue, and those burdens are light. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2012\/01\/the-hhs-mandate-petition-catches-air-and-user-tips.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">user tips I came up with<\/a> the first time around probably still apply.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/wh.gov\/Uyhf\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Sign Nick\u2019s petition<\/a>, share it around, and say a prayer for its success. Will it succeed? Well, who would have thought that the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/events\/124519804379663\/?fref=ts\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Standing With Hobby Lobby movement<\/a> would number over 26,000 participants (up from 5,000 around noon today)? \u00a0It would be neat to move from the hang glider to something a little more airworthy, yes?<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/85\/2013\/01\/300px-Vought_F4U_Corsair_USMC.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-12792 aligncenter\" title=\"300px-Vought_F4U_Corsair_(USMC)\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/85\/2013\/01\/300px-Vought_F4U_Corsair_USMC.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\"><\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A few minutes ago, a citizen named Nick left a comment with a link to a freshly minted petition he has drafted over at the White House in the post where Mike Huckabee said he intends to stand with Hobby Lobby. I will admit to you that I signed the petition immediately.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":140,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,41,37],"tags":[188,8,148,102,793,806],"class_list":["post-12790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-living","category-praying","category-working","tag-barack-obama","tag-funstuff","tag-hhs-mandate","tag-politics","tag-stand-with-hobby-lobby","tag-wh-petitionhobby-lobby"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>While The President is On Vacation, Sign This Petition at the White House<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A few minutes ago, a citizen named Nick left a comment with a link to a freshly minted petition he has drafted over at the White House in the post where\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2013\/01\/while-the-president-is-on-vacation-sign-this-petition-at-the-white-house.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"While The President is On Vacation, Sign This Petition at the White House\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A few minutes ago, a citizen named Nick left a comment with a link to a freshly minted petition he has drafted over at the White House in the post where\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2013\/01\/while-the-president-is-on-vacation-sign-this-petition-at-the-white-house.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Why I Am Catholic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-01-04T03:30:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-01-24T22:52:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/files\/2013\/01\/hangglider-1024x728.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Frank Weathers\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Frank Weathers\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2013\/01\/while-the-president-is-on-vacation-sign-this-petition-at-the-white-house.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2013\/01\/while-the-president-is-on-vacation-sign-this-petition-at-the-white-house.html\",\"name\":\"While The President is On Vacation, Sign This Petition at the White House\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-01-04T03:30:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-01-24T22:52:47+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/e10b038fe974070cf79eed8a68e30ebc\"},\"description\":\"A few minutes ago, a citizen named Nick left a comment with a link to a freshly minted petition he has drafted over at the White House in the post where\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2013\/01\/while-the-president-is-on-vacation-sign-this-petition-at-the-white-house.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2013\/01\/while-the-president-is-on-vacation-sign-this-petition-at-the-white-house.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2013\/01\/while-the-president-is-on-vacation-sign-this-petition-at-the-white-house.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"While The President is On Vacation, Sign This Petition at the White House\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/\",\"name\":\"Why I Am Catholic\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/e10b038fe974070cf79eed8a68e30ebc\",\"name\":\"Frank Weathers\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/34cf0388f197f1eac3cb08280847f207?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/34cf0388f197f1eac3cb08280847f207?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Frank Weathers\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/author\/frankweathers\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"While The President is On Vacation, Sign This Petition at the White House","description":"A few minutes ago, a citizen named Nick left a comment with a link to a freshly minted petition he has drafted over at the White House in the post where","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2013\/01\/while-the-president-is-on-vacation-sign-this-petition-at-the-white-house.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"While The President is On Vacation, Sign This Petition at the White House","og_description":"A few minutes ago, a citizen named Nick left a comment with a link to a freshly minted petition he has drafted over at the White House in the post where","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2013\/01\/while-the-president-is-on-vacation-sign-this-petition-at-the-white-house.html","og_site_name":"Why I Am Catholic","article_published_time":"2013-01-04T03:30:07+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-01-24T22:52:47+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/files\/2013\/01\/hangglider-1024x728.jpg"}],"author":"Frank Weathers","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Frank Weathers","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2013\/01\/while-the-president-is-on-vacation-sign-this-petition-at-the-white-house.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2013\/01\/while-the-president-is-on-vacation-sign-this-petition-at-the-white-house.html","name":"While The President is On Vacation, Sign This Petition at the White House","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-01-04T03:30:07+00:00","dateModified":"2017-01-24T22:52:47+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/e10b038fe974070cf79eed8a68e30ebc"},"description":"A few minutes ago, a citizen named Nick left a comment with a link to a freshly minted petition he has drafted over at the White House in the post where","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2013\/01\/while-the-president-is-on-vacation-sign-this-petition-at-the-white-house.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2013\/01\/while-the-president-is-on-vacation-sign-this-petition-at-the-white-house.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2013\/01\/while-the-president-is-on-vacation-sign-this-petition-at-the-white-house.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"While The President is On Vacation, Sign This Petition at the White House"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/","name":"Why I Am Catholic","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/e10b038fe974070cf79eed8a68e30ebc","name":"Frank Weathers","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/34cf0388f197f1eac3cb08280847f207?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/34cf0388f197f1eac3cb08280847f207?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Frank Weathers"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/author\/frankweathers"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/140"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12790\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}