religious freedom

The Democrats would have you believe that the Hobby Lobby case now before the Supreme Court is really about the Republican “War on Women” and their attempt to deny women access to birth control.

However, like almost everything coming out of the Democrats’ mouths lately, this is a vicious lie. No one is denying anyone access to birth control.

Under Obamacare, health insurance plans must cover all F.D.A.-approved contraception. The Green family, owners of Hobby Lobby, face millions of dollars in fines if they do not provide abortion-inducing birth control, which is in violation of their Christian faith. And Hobby Lobby employees are free to purchase their own abortion-inducing birth control, if they so choose.

The real issue at stake in the Hobby Lobby case is this: Do corporations have the same First Amendment right to the free exercise of religion as do individuals?

As discussed in the CNS article, DOJ: Free Exercise Clause Does Not Protect Kosher Meat Companies, U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verilli told the SC that the Obama Administration believes that the First Amendment right to the free exercise of religion does not apply when people do business through a corporation.

As noted in the article, The National Jewish Commission on Law and Public Affairs has submitted an amicus brief to the SC on the side of the Green family and Hobby Lobby. In their brief, they cited a 2006 complaint that was filed against a medical and dental clinic that was owned by Orthodox Jews and was closed on Saturdays, as observant Jews do not work on the Sabbath, nor do they direct non-Jewish employees to work on that day. The complaint alleged that the owners were discriminating unlawfully by closing on Saturdays because of their religious beliefs.

Via CNS:

“The Orthodox Jewish owners and operators of the clinics filed a verified answer based on rabbinic instruction that the clinics could not open on the Sabbath,” says the brief. “The religious freedom rights of the owner and operators of the clinics resulted in dismissal of the complaint.

“Could such clinics, operated by Sabbath-observing Orthodox Jews, be compelled to stay open on Saturdays if they were for-profit medical centers?” asked the brief. “Such a result is surely a blow to religious freedom but it would be possible under the Government’s interpretation of RFRA.” (Religious Freedom Restoration Act)

And Rabbi Aryeh Spero, author of Push Back: Reclaiming Our American Judeo-Christian Spirit, states:

If in order to maintain religious freedom, religious people can not incorporate, then religious people are being denied a fundamental economic right….One cannot safely be in the market place if he is told by the government that he can not incorporate. That is what Obama is basically enacting. He penalizes people for being religious. If they can’t incorporate, many are not able to go into business, and it’s certainly impossible to really expand your business beyond a mom-and-pop store.

Obama is saying he and his administration have the right to tell religion how that religion can be practiced….Obama and colleagues believe, as they phrase it, only in ‘freedom of worship’ not freedom of religion….They confine religious freedom to the four walls of a building for worship. They do not believe that outside these walls, one is free to practice beyond what Obama decides….

Seth Lipsky, founder and editor of The New York Sun, echoes this theme in his NY Post article: ObamaCare, fear & George Washington’s letter to the Jews

He quotes George Washington’s famous letter to the Jews of Rhode Island after a visit there:

….“May the children of the stock of Abraham who dwell in this land continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants — while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid.”

Lipsky continues:

I have often thought about that sentence — which echoes Micah 4:4 in the Hebrew Bible — for years. It’s not an unconditional welcome: Washington prays that the Jews “merit” as well as “enjoy” good will. But neither is it limited to the Jews: The prayer to be able to sit in safety is sought for “every one” so that “there shall be none to make him afraid.”

There is that word — “afraid.”

It is hard to imagine right now that the families before the Supreme Court are not afraid. David Green, owner of Hobby Lobby, has spent a lifetime building a company that may be forced to choose between its religion and millions of dollars in fines, or even dissolution….

Right before the ’08 election, when Obama said, “We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America,” those of us who were not totally “drunk on the Kool-Aid” heard something very ominous in his words.

But not many of us could have possibly imagined that his plan included transforming “The Land of the Free and Home of the Brave” to: “Land of the…Afraid.”

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7 Comments | Leave a comment
  1. Alain41 says:

    Fascists can’t have religion and they use the law to outlaw it. Thereby, Hobby Lobby, and Tammy Hood and her Merry Army, become the outlaws. What’s our motto again? Oh yeah, Crush, Crush, Crush! Merry depends on your point of view. 🙂

    The phrase, Be afraid, is fairly common (there are examples in the Bible) and the 1986 movie, The Fly, popularized, Be afraid. Be very afraid. But I like Shakespeare from 1605: Bring it after me. I will not be afraid of death and bane, Till Birnam forest come to Dunsinane. (Macbeth Act 5 Scene 3). (The scene’s opening line is classic too: Bring me no more reports; let them fly all.) If you’re interested in a reminder of how great Shakespeare’s writing is, this scene is top-notch. http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/macbeth_5_3.html

  2. Maynard says:

    On Shifra’s link…

    U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli told the Supreme Court…“…once you make a choice to go into the commercial sphere…you are making a choice to live by the rules that govern you and your competitors in the commercial sphere.”

    In other words, the government gives you the “choice” between having your liberty and earning a living.

    It’s sad and ironic to remember that people once came from the Old World to America to pursue religious freedom.

  3. idaho_karen says:

    Hmmm, if you just rule that a corporation is made up of individual people, then what mental jujitsu do you have to do to say religious freedom is not the right of a corporation?

  4. LucyLadley says:

    Shifra, thanks for making us even more aware of this attack on our faith. Rabbi Aryeh Spero, author of Push Back: Reclaiming Our American Judeo-Christian Spirit & Seth Lipsky both had profound thoughts. Your post challenged me to dig a bit deeper. I did a search on the word “afraid” in the bible & came up with Isaiah 8:12-13. “Do not call conspiracy all that this people call conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. But the Lord of hosts, him you shall regard as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. Judeo-Christians understand this. Unbelievers do not understand this & keep attempting to bully us into being afraid.

  5. Dave says:

    Some day every knee shall bow to Jesus Christ. Because He will be right in front of them. They will still either love or hate Him but all will bow in His presence in Jerusalem.

  6. Alain41 says:

    In other Eric Holder news, the Sentencing Commission in the Judicial Branch unanimously passed Holder’s request to revise (reduce) sentences for non-violent drug offenders. Along with that approval, there was some critical remarks of Holder that he disrespected the Commission by directing the deputy AGs to implement the reduced sentence guidelines before approval. One Commissioner disagreed and said that implementation before approval was the highest praise for the Commission. I believe that he was drinking kool-aid.

    I’ll take the criticism broached, but it would have been better if they had delayed the vote so they could ask questions of Holder, etc. As it is, Holder didn’t show up at the hearing and the vote shows that Holder ignoring them was the way to go.

    http://www.nationalreview.com/article/375540/judge-holder-disrespected-judicial-branch-sentencing-change-christine-sisto

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