Another attack on people of faith:

A couple of Fridays ago (27Jan12) the Obama administration continued its assault on the church and believers. This incident began in August of last year. Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of The Health and Human Services (HHS) proposed the following: all religious facilities, churches, schools, hospitals and medical facilities - that is those operated by faith based organizations would be required to provide abortions, contraceptives, and birth control to their employees. At that time not much was made of the proposal. I don't recall hearing about this on any news show on TV or radio. Last week I read in The Weekly Standard that religious organizations, including the Catholic Church, were assured by HHS that their concerns would be considered. But, they were duped.

In Portland, Oregon this means Good Sam, Providence, Emmanuel, and Adventist hospitals. It does not matter this may violate beliefs these Christian organizations hold. This ruling is not limited to hospitals and medical facilities. If you are an employee of one these groups, and you aren't a pastor, ordained or called by the church, then you must be supplied with birth control, or an abortion - even if you don't want it, or if it is against your beliefs. This is not an offer that you may choose or reject, it is mandatory. The organization must pay for this.

If you wish to get an abortion against your faith's doctrines, that's your choice - you must answer only to your God. If you use contraceptives in opposition to what your religion teaches, that's your choice - between you and your faith.

Demanding a church, a religious organization, obey the administration's edicts is no different than having a state church. A state church is not a free church. A state church preaches what the administration tells it to teach. Why does United States not have a state sanctioned church? Because the Constitutional Convention remembered how people suffered under the state religions of Europe. They gave us the 1st Amendment to the Constitution which says the government cannot tell you who or what to worship or believe in, it cannot tell you how to worship. The government must keep its hands out of our religion.

The mandate by the Obama administration violates that principle.