Category Archives: religious freedom

Sacred Space, Sacred Place: Religious Freedom, the Pill and the Womb

A Guest Post 
By: German Munoz, Ph.D.
March 13, 2012

Obamacare and Religious Freedom
American President Barack Hussein Obama wants to implant a socialist state in America which will control the entire society.  This is not a secret to those who do not rely on the Obama media.  However, he faces several obstacles.

One is the Constitution of the United States which is intrinsically anti-socialist.  Another obstacle is a Catholic Church strengthened with faithful American bishops in communion with the Bishop of Rome, the Pope.

Interestingly, the President attacked both obstacles on February 2012 by undermining the religious freedom protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution, and by trying to undermine the authority of the bishops by mandating some Catholic institutions to offer in their insurance policies sterilization services and birth control pills, including those which induce abortion.

Naturally, these are services which the Church considers sinful.  As a result, the Catholic Church will take this matter to the courts to prove that Obamacare and the Department of Health and Human Services are in violation of the religious freedom and freedom of conscience protected by the Constitution.

The Government’s Position and a Response
Obama supporters respond by arguing that many Catholics use birth control pills and that some “Catholic” organizations back the President.  They argue that this issue is not a constitutional one, but simply an effort to give women access to birth control.

This response by government supporters leads to some counter-arguments and reflections:
·         This is a constitutional matter because the Church is being coerced by the government to sell products or to participate in activities it considers sinful, and contrary to Her teachings, and this is a violation of the First Amendment.

·         The fact that some Catholics use birth control pills is totally meaningless as an argument on behalf of artificial birth control because they are not the head of the Church. The truth is that the head of the Church is Christ and the bishops must look to Him and not to the people to make faithful decisions.

·         Many so-called “Catholic” groups supporting Obama are not Catholic at all, for they are not under the authority of the bishops and are not following Catholic teachings, and some are financed by anti-Catholic billionaires.

·         Which constitutional principle gives the President the right to force an insurance company to give “free” birth control pills to its policyholders?

·         Why should some insurance policyholders pay for the products involved in the sexual acts of other insured people?

·         Will the order by the government to give free pills be compensated by the insurance companies with higher premiums for other more important medical items, or with dropping them from their policies?

·         Over 80 per cent of women already get birth control pills through their insurance policies and in America there are many ways to get inexpensive or even free pills, so why is Obama picking on the Catholic Church to provide these products?

·         Will the government next force the Catholic Church to pay for abortions?
                                                   
The Sacred and the Veil
The truth is that the Catholic Church’s teachings on life exist in a totally different moral universe compared to the socialist agenda of the government.  The Obama world is alien to any sense of the sacred.

And yet, man, made in the image and likeness of God, must abide by a moral order to live as he ought.  In this moral order he will come in touch with the sacred and respect it.

For instance, when the ancient people of Israel carried the Ark of the Covenant, they covered it with a veil for it was considered sacred.  The same applies to that part of the Jewish Temple considered most sacred, and which was covered by a veil.

Also, the Tabernacle in the Catholic sanctuary, where the body of Christ resides, has a veil at its entrance to respect the sacred.

The Veil before the Womb: Sacred Space, Sacred Place
Not surprisingly, girls are also created with a veil covering and protecting their private parts. This is not because girls and women are sacred.  After all, only God is intrinsically sacred.  It is because in the womb, God, men and women collaborate in the creation of human beings, who have a soul.  This makes the womb a sacred place and a sacred space.

This veil is at the entrance of the vagina which leads to the uterus. It is called the hymen.  It is not there by accident. The veil is a sign that there is something important, something sacred that takes place in the womb. Therefore, it is not there to be ravished or abused with hormones, chemicals and other toxic elements in a birth control pill and in other anti-life devices implanted in this sacred place and sacred space.    

The Church’s Teachings on Female Purity
The Church understands that today She is competing against the “religion of the self”, which tells people that they have the right to do whatever they want with their bodies and souls. 

On the other hand, the Church teaches that we are created by a loving God who has revealed to us the proper way to live and that we have to surrender to Him and to His teachings to find joy. 

The Church recommends the following:

  • Maintaining virginity, that is, the physical and spiritual veil until marriage, though She understands that those who have unwisely lost their virginity before marriage can restore a spiritual virginity by remaining in abstinence until their marriage.

  • Having sex within marriage so if the woman becomes pregnant there is a family unit to raise and love the child, for over 40 per cent of our children do not have a family.

  • Encouraging those living together unmarried but committed to each other in a loving way to marry as soon as possible.

  • Opening the marriage to life.

  • Preserving the life of the unborn.

  • Using natural family planning if there is a need to prevent conception.

  • Preserving marriage so that women and their children do not go from partner to partner, a behavior which hurts the mother and the children.
The Church’s main concern is maintaining the purity of the girls, their happiness within their marriage, and their desire for children.  However, the Church will not force people to follow Her rules.  The Church opens the door to those who want to leave Her, but has always Her doors open to those who want to return to Her.

Natural Family Planning
Fortunately, Catholics who want to control their procreation can rely on many methods which go under the name of “natural family planning”. They have up to 98 per cent success rate in avoiding pregnancy.

Natural family planning does not require paying large sums of money to the “pharmaceutical industrial complex” and it does not lead to many medical problems associated with the pill, such as strokes.

Unfortunately, the cultural elites do not want our girls to know about natural alternatives to artificial birth control. Amazingly, only one per cent of those using natural family planning end up in divorce.

Conclusion
The Church has awakened to see a power-hungry, ideologically driven and truth-challenged President trying to undermine Her.  In addition, many of Her members do not practice Her teachings.  This is a time for prayer, penance, courage and love for Catholics so they are able to defend both the Church and the Republic.


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I love everything that my dear friend and brother in Christ Dr. Munoz writes but this piece has got to be my favorite of all his writing.  God bless you, German!

     
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Archbishop Nienstedt on Religious Freedom

I picked this piece up over at Father Z’s blog.  Please read carefully as it is an ACTION ITEM:

I also call on bloggers who are reading this to pick it up.
From His Excellency Most Rev. John Nienstedt, Archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis in The Catholic Spirit.  My emphases and comments:

A serious threat to religious freedom
September 15, 2011 8:00 am
Archbishop John C. Nienstedt
[…] [T]here has arisen a very serious threat to the religious freedom of all religious institutions, especially our Catholic health care programs and Catholic social services, a threat posed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Under HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius (a Catholic), [I am glad H.E. mentioned this.  She says she is CATHOLIC.] the department is imposing a “preventative services” mandate requiring all private health plans — including ones administered by the church and its agents — to provide coverage for surgical sterilizations, prescription contraceptives approved by the FDA, and “education and counseling” for “all women of reproductive capacity.
Seismic change in approach
Unfortunately, this is the logical result of a seismic change in this administration’s approach to religious groups involved in providing social services to, among others, the poor, the homeless, the sick, the immigrant.
It began when President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton started using the term “freedom of worship” as distinct from what we have always known as “freedom of religion.”  [Qui bene distinguit, bene docet.]

Under the concept of “freedom of worship,” church agencies are restricted to hiring employees only from their own denomination and providing services for clients only from their own denomination
.
Such a concept restricts Christian believers in their charitable outreach to society and, in effect, encloses them within their own sanctuaries[Sounds like the usual, liberal “rawlsian” approach: side-line as obstacles all positions which don’t fit in the desired consensus those in power are trying to bring about.]
This is radical secularism at its epitome. It is an affront to the centuries of Christian service offered by churches to clients of all backgrounds, color or creed. And, it is the slippery slope to a completely secularized state wherein people of religious conviction will be required to privatize their beliefs and in doing so, at least for Catholics, render their faith meaningless[Meaningless might be a little strong, but the Christ, the Perfect Communicator, gave the Church a command to communicate in Matthew 28:19: “Going therefore, teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” We have a faith we practice ad intra and a faith we must practice ad extra.  Furthermore, this ad intra/extra dynamic was an essential goal of the Second Vatican Council.  What is going on here is a secularist effort to marginalize the Church and drive a Catholic voice from the public square.  This will be easier to do the weaker our Catholic identity becomes.  This is why I am constantly ranting about a “Marshall Plan” for the Church.]
Action steps
I highly recommend two steps.  The first is to write Secretary Sebelius (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 200 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, D.C. 20201) or your congressional officers to oppose this mandate and to demand that it be rescinded. These letters need to be received before the end of September. [Get that?  END OF SEPTEMBER.]
Secondly, letters should also be sent to federal congressional representatives to support a bill, [NB] the “Respect for Rights of Conscience Act,” (H.R. 1179, S. 1467), that would protect conscience rights in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). This legislation is needed even more so in face of HHS’s mandate to require all private institutions to cover contraceptives and sterilizations.
As Cardinal DiNardo, chair of the USCCB Pro-Life Committee, wrote last week:
“Those who sponsor, purchase and issue health plans should not be forced to violate their deeply held moral and religious convictions in order to take part in the health care system or provide for the needs of their families, their employees or those most in need.  To force such an unacceptable choice would be as much a threat to universal access to health care as it is to freedom of conscience.”
(The cardinal’s letter can be found online HERE).
Lesson from history
The “preventive services” mandate is a significant threat to religious freedom that should put all Catholics on notice that there are many in government and in our culture who will sacrifice long-held and cherished liberties on the altar of so-called reproductive autonomy.
I ask you to join with me today in taking action to preserve our religious freedom and conscience protection.  History reminds us that “evil triumphs when good people do nothing.
This is a time for believers to act and let our representatives in government know that this is an unacceptable course of action!
God bless you!

WDTPRS KUDOS to Archbp. Nienstedt.
He did not flinch from using the word “evil”.
He urged people to WRITE.
Perhaps some readers here will have some language and strategy suggestions. 

 Thank you for reading and fellow bloggers, please do share this on your blogs as well.  🙂

Blesssings,
Erika

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