As much as the Obama Administration may want to make some sort of accommodation” here, for political purposes, as the Executive Branch of our Federal Government the Admin probably shouldn’t, just as the Legislative and Judicial Branches of the Federal Government probably shouldn’t as well.

After all, this is indeed a Constitutional Question.

Making an “accommodation” would, in itself, be a violation of the 1st Amendment to the US Constitution, which states in part:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;…”

So then, to make an“accommodation” the Admin (as the Executive Branch; or the Legislative or the Judicial Branches) would be violating both the spirit and the original intent of the “no law” portion of the amendment, in that to make “an accommodation” would in effect be making “a law” “respecting” a “religion”, which while not precisely acting in an effort at “establishment of religion” is tantamount to doing so.

The “prohibiting the free exercise thereof” phrase of the 1st Amendment is not a consideration here either.

The Framers of the US Constitution in no way meant by that phrase that a religion, in this case the Catholic religion, could carve out for itself a niche which sets itself apart from all other entities operating here in the US under the protections guaranteed by the US Constitution. A fundamental precept of our government in the US is that we are all equal under the law.

Rather, the Framers, by that phrase meant that the Federal Government could make “no law” “prohibiting the free exercise” of the practices of a religion.

In the specific case of the Catholic religion here that means that the Federal Government is prohibited by the 1st Amendment from making a law that would prohibit the Catholic Mass, or Baptism, or Confirmation, etc., what the Catholic Church refers to as the “rites” of its religion.

In no way did the Framers intend that phrase to go beyond that and allow any religious entity to not comply with the laws of the US, as in this case, to not provide complete health insurance for its employees of its various organizations on the grounds that to do so would be a matter of a violation of “religious conscience”.

Nowhere in the phrasing of the portion of the 1st Amendment which addresses religious freedom, quoted above, do the Framers include wording addressing, or implying, “religious conscience”. To somehow read into that portion of the amendment anything more than it explicitly states would be a violation of our “strict interpretation” concept regarding the US Constitution.

As one of the Framers may have said, “Beware the tyranny of the Pulpit.”

And for all of us who live under the protections of the Constitution we are “In for a penny, in for a Pound.”

Rather than pursue true reform that would empower individuals, the administration has chosen a massive aggrandizement of federal power over employer-provided coverage intended in the longer run to bankrupt private insurance coverage to pave the way for single-payer government monopolized health care that will treat us as serfs or even breedstock over whom decisions are made on the basis of something akin to Dr. Zeke Emanuel’s “whole lives” rationing system.

True reform would empower individuals and allow market forces to impose discipline on prices.

I want to thank you for courageously speaking out against this assault upon the unalienable God-given right to freedom of conscience of all Americans at a time when another right – the right of all of us to freedom of speech similarly acknowledged by the First Amendment – hangs by a thread. We face a looming darkness in this world. Many in Europe understand it because they have lived with it and know their history. Many of them fear we Americans are at even greater risk of falling under its spell because we have not. Where will we go if freedom is extinguished in America? Where will we find refuge?

God endowed us with certain rights for a purpose. Rights are not ends in and of themselves. They are the sine qua non of each of us being able to choose to follow the call of God, or not, free of being “nudged” or more forcefully coerced by the state. That is why your stand is so important to us and, IMHO, in the eyes of God. So many have forgotten that the rights we so proudly declare ownership of as Americans come only from God, and never from the largesse of a mortal political class. The HHS mandate is a fine example of how so-called “rights,” manufactured out of thin air by mere mortal rulers, inevitably have the effect, whether intended or not, of impinging on the legitimate rights we are endowed with by God.

To a large extent the source of this animosity toward the American Catholic Church and its charitable service affiliates has to do with it standing in the way of an agenda of so-called “social and economic justice” or collective salvation that illegitimately arrogates to Caesar the authority to use our individual call to charitable acts as a pretext for collectivizing the citizenry as they are led down the “Road to Serfdom.” Did Jesus not say “render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s?” Is it Caesar’s to confiscate from us our responsibility to tithe as a pretext for confiscating all wealth and redistributing it so that everyone’s “needs” are met to the extent determined appropriate by the ruling class? This call to defend religious freedom must also be a call to reclaim our responsibility as Christians from the modern bureaucratic state.

This nation is one based upon a revolutionary ideology informed by the Judaeo-Christian faith tradition that has enabled Catholics to pursue their paths toward God and their Church to flourish. It was a revolution accomplished before the first shot was fired – largely the product of the work of ministers of the faith – admittedly mostly Protestant – who formed what the King of England scorned as the “Black Robe Regiment.” Our nation was born of that first great awakening. It renewed the pledge of the preamble to the Declaration during the second great awakening that produced the antebellum movement to abolish first the African slave trade and then slavery itself. For over 100 years our nation has drifted from its faith and founding ideology, while purveyors of various European collectivist ideologies have worked “progresively,” incrementally, imperceptably to cause generations to forget who they are and to prepare them for surrendering what cannot be surrendered – God’s unalienable rights. I believe we are at the beginning of a third great awakening that offers the opportunity to renew our faith in God and bring about the “fundamental restoration” of our constitutionally limited republic rather than its “fundamental transformation” into just one more oppressive, decadent collectivist society. I consider you a member of this generation’s “Black Robe Regiment” and hope you consider that a compliment.

God bless you.

http://romancatholicreport.com/id192.html

There is no end with this approach.