Here’s a good measuring stick -if your enemy is the Little Sisters of the Poor, you’re probably the bad guy.
If the Obama administration had thought long and hard about the meaning of religious freedom, one of the nation’s most fundamental rights, it would not have ended up in the Supreme Court on Wednesday doing battle over free birth control with Little Sisters of the Poor and other religious non-profits.
But while writing rules for Obamacare in 2012, the administration decided to compel religiously affiliated groups to assist in offering health care plans that violate a central tenet of their faiths.
From a purely health care standpoint, Obamacare’s mandate that all employers provide birth control coverage without co-pays makes sense. As the prestigious Institute of Medicine found, this is an important part of preventive care for women.
Wisely, the administration exempted churches and other houses of worship from the start. Unwisely, it failed to exempt religiously affiliated colleges, charities and other groups, including the Little Sisters of the Poor, a group of nuns who provide care to the elderly poor, and Priests for Life, who galvanize clergy against abortion.
The administration’s position was constitutionally suspect and politically foolish.
For Obama, Christians are the enemy of his transformation of America. For Obama, the Little Sisters of the Poor are people from yesteryear who haven’t accepted his Hope and Change sermon. They’re still clinging to their religion, the poor dears. Well, he’ll just have to make them.
