A Pro-life Message Many Don’t Want to Bear

(Feminists for Life is a non-sectarian non-partisan organization.)

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Happy Anniversary, Diaconate Class of 2009!

Today, the memorial of the Queenship of Mary is the third anniversary of ordination for the diaconate class of 2009 for the Diocese of Winona.

To my brothers, David B., David D., Vern, Chris O., Chris W., Preston, Joe, John, Eduardo, and Rich, ad moltos annos!

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Church of the Week

Chapel of the Immaculate Conception

Mount Saint Mary’s University

Emmitsburg, Maryland

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What Do Men and Women on the Street Say about the Marriage?

Here is another interesting video pertaining to the Marriage Protection Amendment. Listen to what the common person in Minnesota has to say about protecting marriage as a union of one man and one woman.

Be informed. Tell your neighbors and friends, and vote “yes” on the Marriage Protection Amendment to the Minnesota constitution on the upcoming November ballot. Remember, leaving the question blank on the ballot is the same as casting a “no” vote.

http://youtu.be/dGBcciIBjMg

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The Salvation of the Just

I spent a lot of time in airports a few days ago and had time to observe people. There was the Jamaican guy flirting with the waitress, the Chinese family with Chinese passports bantering back and forth, the maintenance man approaching me with a huge smile praising my beard and proudly showing off his attempt to grow one while complaining of the few gray strands, and finally the young Italian couple from Naples who spoke no English with whom I struck up a delightful conversation in Italian.

The Office of Readings for that day had left me thinking of the phrase “The Salvation of the Just.” As I observed these people, and others, I saw what appeared to be humanity at its best on a daily basis but I wondered if humanity, even in its natural goodness, is sufficient to enable one to see God, one day, face to face. Said differently, is living a life of natural virtue, without acceptance of the Gospel, adequate for heaven? Is living a moral life without a decisioned adherence to Jesus and the Church “good enough?”

There are many in today’s world who would say yes. Many would marginalize Christian faith and praxis as extraeneous and only one of many roads to paradise. Those who do include the so called “liberals” who embrace a false notion of ecumenism as well as the “conservatives” who seem to not move beyond a moralism that binds and restricts.

I am left with this: God’s grace is at work. We must acknowledge His freedom. He draws to himself whomever He wishes. Those of us who have heard the Gospel better pay attention and say “yes” to it for we are held to it. To those who have not heard we will be held accountable for we are to give witness. Finally, humanity in its purity is celebratory and of notabile dignity.

The Salvation of the Just comes through the Church and her proclamation of the Gospel. May we give faithful witness to it.

Posted in General Interest, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Virgin Mary ‘crosses the finish line’ with Olympic gold runner: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

The Catholic News Agency has a wonderful article about an Ethiopian runner who won the 5000 meters race recently, and who carried the image of the Blessed Virgin and the Christ Child with her throughout the race. She won the gold medal, and tearfully displayed the image of the Blessed Virgin and the Christ Child to the cameras after crossing the finish line.

What a splendid example of lay evangelization! She had her moment to witness to the world, and she took it.

To read the article, click on the link:

Virgin Mary ‘crosses the finish line’ with Olympic gold runner :: Catholic News Agency (CNA).

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I Want to Live, I Want to Love and Die For You

A number of months ago I ran across this catchy song by I Nomadi, a group from Italy that has been playing together for forty years. The song’s name is Io Voglio Vivere which translated means, I Want To Live.

I know it is in Italian so most of you will not understand the lyrics but the melody to my ears is wonderful. I thought you might like it too.

See if you can see the cross in several places in the video. Watch carefully.

Oh yes… there is a pretty young woman in the foreground. Don’t be distracted. Nothing immodest.

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Deacon Bob’s Homily: 19th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Cycle B

Here is my homily for this weekend.

Audio: 19th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Cycle B

Text:

19th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Cycle B

1Kings 19: 4-8; Eph 4: 30 – 5: 2; John 6: 41-51

August 11/12, 2012

Have you ever had to walk a long way without food or water? Perhaps some of you who have served in the armed forces remember those marches in boot camp. Maybe others here have been lost for a day or two in the wilderness and had to find your way without food or water. I recall my earlier years as a long distance runner and struggling through a marathon – over 26 miles – without food or water.

To have to travel long distances without food and water is not only very difficult, it is extremely dangerous.  You soon will collapse and be unable to continue the journey. Yet, we regain our strength quickly after eating and drinking. We are quick to recover.

What would you say if someone were to tell you “Eat this once a week and drink this once a week, every week (if you are prepared), and you will live forever, but if you do not eat and drink, you will die”? What would you think? What if an angel poked you in the ribs when you were exhausted and down and out from the demands of daily life – work, family, community –  and what if that angel were to tell you that if you eat this and drink that you will be able to go a long way?

The question is, “What is it that sustains you in your life, especially when life may seem dry and exhausting? To whom or to what do you turn? What is the source of your strength?”

We hear in the first reading today that Elijah fell asleep under a broom tree. His journey was difficult and he was exhausted. He hadn’t eaten or drunk anything to sustain him under the hot sun. He was fleeing from danger – from death – for you see the wicked queen Jezebel was out to kill him. Then an angel of God appears to him and tells him to eat and drink. Although Elijah’s recovery is not instantaneous, it is rapid and we hear that strengthened by that food he walked forty days and forty nights (over 300 miles actually) to Mount Horeb where God was present. Yes, Elijah was near dead, but he was given new life strengthened by the food provided to him by God.

The older I get, the more I can identify with the weariness of Elijah. The older I get, the more I realize how much I need to be fed and refreshed frequently. The older I get, the more I realize in other words, how much I need the Word of God and the Bread of Life – the Bread of Life that sustains me and the Word of God that refreshes my soul.

My friends, we as Catholics know that we cannot live without the Mass, without the Eucharist, without receiving the Body and Blood of Jesus. It is the source of our spiritual energy.  It is the source of our strength. It is the source of our lives as Christians! We are to be fed by his Body, strengthened by his Blood and refreshed by his Word.

In last week’s first reading from the book of Exodus, if you recall, the Hebrew people became hungry and thirsty when they left Egypt and traveled in the desert, and they began to murmur against God and Moses. Even though they were being fed with manna – bread sent from heaven – even though they drank from the spring of water gushing from the rock, they grumbled.

In today’s Gospel we hear how the people in Jesus’ time had just been fed with the multiplication of loaves and fishes, and yet they murmured, they grumbled, against Jesus.

Do we grumble against God and his Church, even though each day we can be fed with the Body of Christ and refreshed with his Blood? Why do we murmur and grumble? Is it because we don’t listen to the Truth?

Truth stands alone, but error requires the grumbling of many people. Truth is powerful; grumbling and murmuring are weak.

If we don’t listen to God’s word of truth then we will not believe.  We will lack faith. Faith comes from hearing God’s word spoken and proclaimed by his sacred ministers – the bishops, priests and deacons. Faith comes from reading the Word of God and reflecting on it. Faith comes from encountering Jesus Christ. If we listen to truth, then we will have faith and our hearts will be open to Jesus’ Real Presence and to the graces given to us in the Eucharist. If we do not listen and believe, then we turn away from our nourishment, we turn away from the Eucharist, we turn away from Jesus himself.

We all need to stop grumbling against God and the Church and start listening and believing!

As Jesus tells us today, God the Father draws to himself whomever he wishes. God the Father draws us and God the Son lifts us up with his Body and Blood.  God the Son takes us who have been called and raises us up to new life by our partaking of his Body and Blood which is a sharing in his life, death and resurrection. This is such a mystery! It is called the Paschal Mystery! It is a gift to which we must respond with faith, acceptance and gratitude, not with idle murmuring and disbelief.

God gives us himself in the Eucharist which sustains us on our journeys of faith.

My friends, God wants to feed us. God has sent his Son Jesus to accomplish this. Jesus gives us living bread from heaven. Jesus is that bread. We must come to believe in him and eat his Body and drink his Blood in order to have life. The bread that Jesus gives is in fact his flesh and blood

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Courage – The Church’s Ministry to Men and Women with Same-Sex Attractions – A Personal Account

As I have mentioned in previous posts, the Catholic Church has a wonderful ministry called Courage that provides emotional, psychological and spiritual support to men and women experiencing same-sex attractions. More and more dioceses in the United States are establishing Courage chapters, and the diocese of Winona is laying the foundation for its chapter.

One of the basic understandings in Courage is that members are men and women who happen to experience same-sex attractions. They refrain from using the terms “gay” and “lesbian” because these labels are definitional rather than descriptive, and they are laden with political overtones. Courage members are men and women made in the image and likeness of God. They experience, in their brokenness, an attraction to members of the same sex. They also want to live chastely in accord with their dignity and the teachings of the Church. They are men and women, indeed, of great courage and they embrace their dignity by establishing chaste friendships, develop a plan for life that includes frequent Mass, regular confession, devotion to the Blessed Mother, and regular spiritual and sometimes psychological direction.

I ran across this splendid article recently that was written by David Prosen and published in the January/February issue of Lay Witness magazine. The article is a bit lengthy, but it is very much worth your time to read. It speaks volumes as to the experience of a same-sex attracted man living in fidelity to the Church. It is reprinted here with permission of Lay Witness magazine.

I am Not Gay . . . I am David

David Prosen
From the Jan/Feb 2011 Issue of Lay Witness Magazine

 

Are people born “gay” or do they choose to be gay?

The answer to both questions is no—although in many passionate debates generated by this topic, we are quick to dismiss objectivity. In reality, these questions provide a smoke screen to a much bigger problem that is pervasive in our society, in religious circles, politics, and clinical settings. The problem I speak of is the idea that homosexuality is an identity.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that every individual must “acknowledge and accept his sexual identity” (no. 2333). This refers to the “physical, moral, and spiritual difference and complementarity” of both genders which are “oriented toward the goods of marriage and the flourishing of family life” (Ibid.). At the most basic level, our identity is rooted in the fact that we are created in the image and likeness of God—”Male and female He created them” (Gen. 1:27).

I used to believe I was a “gay” person. I had been attracted to the same gender for as long as I could remember. Because this attraction was present from early on in my life, without my conscious choice, I concluded that I must have been born this way. After all, that’s a logical conclusion . . . right?

The attraction I had to the same gender when I was a little boy was normal and similar to what many boys experience. Boys look for heroes, role models who they respect and want to emulate. For me, the attraction to men started out with normal admiration but then began to take some dysfunctional turns. As a child, I was often made fun of and told by my peers that I wasn’t like them. This made me question what the difference between us was. At this point, shades of covetousness characterized my admiration. I secretly wondered, “If I looked like so-and-so, would I be accepted?”

In puberty, this attraction or admiration became eroticized. The derogative homosexual label was given to me by my peers, and I yielded to their accusations because I truly did have a sexualized same-sex attraction. Eventually, I embraced this label and called myself “gay.”

Although I didn’t freely choose same-sex attractions, I did willfully choose to act upon them. My decision to sin brought me intense pain, loneliness, and—worst of all—separation from God. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith explained this reality in a statement that observed, “As in every moral disorder, homosexual activity prevents one’s own fulfillment and happiness by acting contrary to the creative wisdom of God. The Church, in rejecting erroneous opinions regarding homosexuality, does not limit personal freedom and dignity realistically and authentically understood.”[1]

Eventually, in my brokenness, I responded to the Lord’s loving call to forgiveness and healing. He has brought me through the valley of shame and out of the darkness of my past and shined His light of truth upon the many lies I believed about myself—especially the one that claimed that I was a “gay” person.

Defining Terms

By defining myself as a “gay” male, I had taken on a false identity. Any label such as “lesbian,” “bisexual,” or even “homosexual” insinuates a type of person equivalent to male or female. This is simply not true. One is not a same-sex attraction, but instead experiences this attraction.

In his book, Growth into Manhood, Alan Medinger shows that homosexual tendencies and behaviors have been around for thousands of years, but the idea of a homosexual identity only began to evolve about 150 years ago with the emergence of the term “homosexual.”[2]

In a later study, Medinger further demonstrates his findings, revealing a number of untruths that tend to surface when one accepts homosexuality as an identity:

+I must have been born this way.

+If I was born that way, God made me this way.

+If God made me this way, how can there be anything wrong with it?

+It’s in my nature and I must be true to my nature.

+If it’s my nature, I can’t change.

+If I try to change I would be trying to go against my nature and that would be harmful. +Accepting myself as gay feels so good—I feel like a thousand pound load has been lifted off of my back—so it must be okay.

+If people can’t accept my being gay, then something is wrong with them.

+If people can’t accept my being gay, then they don’t accept me because that’swho I am.[3]

When I read these, I was floored. I believed each and every statement deep down to my core. When I was engaged in this lifestyle, it made perfect sense to go along with what felt natural. However, it was logical only because it appeared to be truth. In reality, lies had to be built upon lies for them to add up to something with the semblance of truth.

I believed I was gay. But I was also certain that I didn’t choose this for myself, and so I believed that God must have made me this way. However, Scripture verses like the following made no sense in light of my feelings: “If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall be put to death, their blood is upon them” (Lev. 20:13).

How could a God of love create me this way and then condemn me to hell? I began to do what many other Christians struggling with same-sex attraction do and searched for “pro-gay” theologies for explanations. I desperately wanted to be in a loving relationship with the same gender, but at the same time, I had a gnawing feeling in my heart that this was wrong.

Time for Truth

Looking back, I believe that my search for truth and struggle against accepting this lifestyle was ultimately the way in which the Holy Spirit convicted me. Still, this gnawing feeling—that same-sex attraction was not God’s plan for my life—was not easy for me to reconcile with because I believed that my sexuality alone was my identity.

Ignorance of this distinction is dangerous. My false beliefs regarding my identity deterred me from accepting the conviction in my heart from the Holy Spirit. St. Paul acknowledged this very same process, explaining:

Because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator . . . God gave them up to dishonorable passions. Their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in their own persons the due penalty for their error (Rom. 1:25-27).

Only after I accepted the truth that acting on homosexual attractions was a sin did I begin to ask for the strength and the grace to carry that cross—and the Lord abundantly poured these upon me. Several years later, He showed me that homosexuality was a false identity that I had embraced. And at this point, my integral healing began as I searched out who I really was. My reflections led me to the discovery that I never truly believed I was a man, and yet I didn’t think I was a woman. In that searching process, I realized that I did not fully identify with either gender.

Through the sacraments—especially the Eucharist—as well as counseling, spiritual healing retreats, and much prayer, Christ revealed to me that I am a man. I have many masculine traits that I was never aware I possessed—such as courage and strength. I can never adequately express the tremendous joy I felt when I began to internally recognize and accept the fact that I am a man, I am masculine, and I do belong in the world of men. At the same time this recognition occurred to me, my attraction to men continued to decrease drastically and my attraction to women increased.

Identity and the Church

At the beginning of this article, I mentioned the discussion over whether persons are born homosexual or if they choose to be. Neither is true because same-sex attraction is an experience—not a type of person. Accepting homosexuality as an identity, which has largely been affirmed in our culture, brings so much confusion. In order for a Christian to justify homosexual behavior, he or she needs to alter and contort Sacred Scripture.

Many individuals from within are trying to force the Catholic Church to change her stance toward homosexuality because it seems like discrimination against those who are just “being themselves.” But it is not discrimination when we identify and seek to correct falsely held beliefs.

The problem has not just effected those dissenting in our Church. There are very good Catholics and even good priests who wrongly assert that people cannot change their sexual orientation. These people may have the best of intentions, but for whatever reason they have bought into the lie that homosexuality is a type of person.

The Church’s response to those suffering with same-sex attraction offers us this perspective:

The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God’s will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord’s Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition (CCC, no. 2358).

There is hope for those who have same-sex attraction, and we must not abandon efforts to help others understand the truth. This is not to say that God will “change” His creation, the person, because He did not make them this way or intend for them to experience this attraction. Rather, God can change the person’s way of thinking by revealing the lie that the individual has accepted and assimilated into their sense of self.

Once the lie is exposed, wounds that led to this lie such as abuse, rejection, or lack of affirmation in one’s gender identity can be addressed, healing can begin, and the person’s true identity can emerge. When this healing process begins, the attraction to the opposite sex for many has increased.

Courage, the Catholic support group for those with same-sex attraction, as well as many Christians, refrain from using words such as “gay,” “lesbian,” “bisexual,” “transgender,” or even “homosexual.” Words can have powerful effects. Because these words are labels which insinuate that homosexuality is an identity, they reinforce untruths and continue to escalate the problems in our society and our Church. As Catholic Christians, I encourage each of us to be careful with our speech and eliminate the use of labels and instead use the words “same-sex attraction” which more accurately describe the experience that these men and women go through.

Heart Knowledge

Earlier, I spoke of the importance of recognizing that I am a man and feeling it internally within my heart. Fr. Larry Richards’ challenging book Be a Man! helped me obtain even deeper healing. Intellectually, I knew that God was my Heavenly Father, but I didn’t really know and believe it with my whole being. And then I read the following passage in Fr. Larry’s book:

When we were baptized, the sky opened up just like it did upon Jesus, and spiritually, God the Father, the Creator of the universe, looked at you and me and said, ‘You are my beloved Son.’ You stopped being a creation and you became a son of the Father by the power of the Holy Spirit.[4]

Talk about the power of words! In Jesus, we are sons and daughters of the Creator of the universe. He truly loves us more than we could ever imagine. This is our true identity; this is who each of us truly is.

Isaiah 43:4 states, “You are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you. . . .” Fr. Larry brought this verse home to me in a very personal way by explaining:

We must enter into a relationship with God knowing that truth. We must know that our relationship begins where Jesus began, with the knowledge that we are loved by the Father. The God of the universe looks at you and says: ‘I love you!’[5]

This touched me deeply. Before this inner healing took place, I had known with certainty that God loved everyone. But when it came to Him loving me personally, I only knew this intellectually— not in my heart. Fr. Larry helped me to connect this truth from my head to my heart.

I am grateful to God for showing me my true identity in Him. Now, I embrace my masculinity and know that I am a man of God. In Jesus, I know I am a beloved son of God who is uniquely and wondrously created, and whose name is David.

[1] Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, “Some Considerations Concerning the Response to Legislative Proposals on the Non-Discrimination of Homosexual Persons,” July 22, 1992, no. 3.

[2] Alan Medinger, Growth into Manhood (Colorado Springs, CO: Waterbrook Press, 2000).

[3] Medinger, “Calling Oneself ‘gay’ or ‘lesbian’ Clouds one’s Self-Perception” fromSame-Sex Attraction: A Parent’s Guide. Eds. John F. Harvey, OSFS, and Gerard V. Bradley (South Bend, IN: St. Augustine’s Press, 2003) p. 173.

[4] Fr. Larry Richards, Be a Man! (San Francisco, Ignatius Press, 2009), p. 43.

[5] Ibid., p. 37.

David Prosen, a therapist and chapter leader of a Courage support group, holds an MA in Counseling from Franciscan University of Steubenville. He is a member of both the American Association of Christian Counselors (AACC) and the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH).

For more information on Courage, the support group for men and women with same-sex attraction who strive to follow the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, visit www.couragerc.net.

 

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R.I.P. Msgr. Ralph Beiting

I learned that Msgr. Ralph Beiting died yesterday. Beiting was the founder of the Christian Appalachian Project (CAP) and was a Catholic missionary in eastern Kentucky since 1950.

My sister spent a year working with Msgr. Beiting in the 1980s. She met her future husband there also.

Msgr. Beiting soon found out after being assigned to that part of the country that to minister to the people there would require he attend to their financial and material needs as well as their spiritual. Back in the 50s, Catholics were not welcome in that part of the country. It took a while for him to gain the trust of the people there.

Beiting built churches, raised money, founded the CAP, and celebrated over 60 years of priesthood in Appalachia.

Here is the link to an interesting article in a Kentucky newspaper:

www.wvxu.org/news/wvxunews_article.asp?ID=10283

May he rest in peace.

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To Know Jesus is to Embrace the Cross – Teresa Benedicta of the Cross

Our Gospel reading at Mass today is the familiar story in Matthew of Peter’s confession of faith that Jesus in the Messiah, only seconds later to be rebuked by Jesus for not realizing that this requires the Cross.

“Get behind me, Satan. You are thinking as men think, not God!”

Yes, to know Jesus is to embrace the cross. There is no other way. Jesus silences those who say they know him but try to dissuade him or others from accepting the cross. Over and over again in the Gospels, especially in Luke, Jesus rebukes evil spirits and silences them for although they know who he is, they refuse to accept the cross; they want to take another route.

There is no other.

This is not a reason for despair, or even sadness. It is, in fact, the source of our joy and our hope. The cross is the sign of love…. great love.

Today is the memorial of Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. She knew well in her life that to accept Jesus is to embrace the cross. She once wrote that it (the Cross) is the destiny of all Christians. She lived it out in her life.

Teresa Benedicta of the Cross was born Edith Stein in 1891, born on the Day of Atonement in the Jewish calendar. She was born into a Jewish family, the youngest of eleven children. Her father died when she was two years old, and thus her mother had to fend for the kids as well as tend the family timber business.

At age 14, Edith lost her faith and ceased praying. She was extremely bright, attending universities studying history and philosophy. She was a student of the great philosopher Edmund Husserl who taught a form of phenomenology. Edith obtained her doctorate and was able to obtain a professorship at a German university.

One day she entered the cathedral in Cologne and noticed a woman entering the empty church with a shopping basket. The woman knelt down and prayed silently. Edith had never seen anything like that in synagogues or Protestant churchs. It was the beginning of her conversion to Catholicism.

She eventually was baptized and confirmed in 1922. She began writing books and treatises. She wanted to enter the Carmelite order, and eventually was permitted to do so in the mid-1930s taking the name Teresa Benedicta da Cruce. To escape Nazism after her profession as a Carmelite nun, she was sent to Holland, but Nazism caught up with her. On this date in 1942, because of her Jewish roots, she was gassed at Aushwitz.

Teresa Benedicta of the Cross embraced the cross.

May I suggest that all of us who bear the name Christian wear the cross around our necks every day? If you are unable or unwilling to wear it exposed to the world, then wear it under your shirt or blouse, close to your heart.

Embrace the Cross!

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Minnesota Marriage Minute – Government has a Role?

Here is another video providing explanation why the Marriage Amendment is so important in our State. It reminds us that government has a legitimate role to play in protecting marriage as a union of a man and a woman.

Be informed, then vote “yes” on the ballot this November in Minnesota!

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Quote for the Day

“If we don’t save marriage, things will get very dark. The idea that you can change the definition of marriage is a lie. If our society accepts this lie, it will fall.” – Archbishop-designate Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco

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Quote for the Day

“Praise to you, my Lord, through those who forgive one another in your love and who bear sickness and trials. Blessed are they who live on in peace, for they will be crowned by you, Most High!” — St. Francis of Assisi

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The HHS Mandate vs a Family Business

Here is a story of things to come if the HHS mandate requiring employers to provide insurance coverage for abortion, contraception and sterilization (regardless of the employers religious beliefs) is allowed to remain. I think this court case is going to go all the way to the Supreme Court, and I hope the justices have enough acumen to protect our First Amendment rights of religious liberty.

In short, this case is regarding a Colorado family who run a heating and ventilation business. The family is Catholic, and they do not want to comply with the mandate because if violates their religious liberty and forces them to violate their faith.

This business is a family-owned business with a about 250 employees. The government is, apparently, asserting that this family has a choice: Give up the practice of your faith, or give up your business.

God help us all if this kind of government intrusion continues and is allowed to stand.

Here is an extensive excerpt from the report at CNSNews:

(CNSNews.com) – The Justice Department last week presented the Newland family of Colorado–who own Hercules Industries, a heating, ventilation and air-conditioning business–with what amounted to an ultimatum: Give up your religion or your business.

“Hercules Industries has ‘made no showing of a religious belief which requires that [it] engage in the [HVAC] business,” the Justice Department said in a formal filing in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado.

In response to the Justice Department’s argument that the Newlands can either give up practicing their religion or give up owning their business, the Alliance Defending Freedom, which is representing the family, said in a reply brief: “[T]o the extent the government is arguing that its mandate does not really burden the Newlands because they are free to abandon their jobs, their livelihoods, and their property so that others can take over Hercules and comply, this expulsion from business would be an extreme form of government burden.”

Now that the Supreme Court has upheld the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and its mandate that individuals must buy health insurance, this suit which seeks to protect a small business from being forced to take actions that violate the moral and religious beliefs of the family that owns it is likely to be the next major court battle over Obamacare.

At stake is whether businesses are protected by the First Amendment—the part of the Bill of Rights that guarantees not only the free exercise of religion but also freedom of speech and of the press.

The Justice Department’s filing was made in Newland v. Sebelius–a suit brought by William, Paul and James Newland, and their sister, Christine Ketterhagen, who are Roman Catholics, and who together own Colorado-based Hercules Industries.

The Newland family founded Hercules in 1962 and have maintained it as a family-owned business ever since—growing it to the point where they now employ 265 people.

The Newlands’ lawsuit challenges a regulation that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius finalized earlier this year that requires virtually all health plans to cover–without cost-sharing–sterilizations and all Food-and-Drug Administration approved contraceptives, including those that induce abortions.

Under the Obamacare law, businesses that have more than 50 employees must provide health insurance to their employees or face a penalty…….

The Catholic Church, to which the Newlands belong, teaches that sterilization, contraception and abortion are intrinsically immoral. Last month, the Catholic bishops of the United States unanimously adopted a statement declaring Sebelius’s regulation an “unjust and illegal mandate” and a “violation of personal civil rights.”……

The Newlands currently run a self-insurance plan, providing their employees with generous health-care coverage that is consistent with the teachings of the Newlands’ church in that it does not cover sterilizations, contraception and abortifacients. They are precisely among the class of people that the unanimous Catholic bishops said have “no conscience protection at all” under Sebelius’s regulation.

In their complaint against the Obama administration, which was prepared by the Alliance Defending Freedom, the Newlands clearly explained why they could not comply with Sebelius’s regulation without violating their religious faith.

“The Newlands sincerely believe that the Catholic faith does not allow them to violate Catholic religious and moral teachings in their decisions operating Hercules Industries,” says the complaint. “They believe that according to the Catholic faith their operation of Hercules must be guided by ethical social principles and Catholic religious and moral teachings, that the adherence of their business practice according to such Catholic ethics and religious and moral teachings is a genuine calling from God, that their Catholic faith prohibits them to sever their religious beliefs from their daily business practice, and that their Catholic faith requires them to integrate the gifts of the spiritual life, the virtues, morals, and ethical social principles of Catholic teaching into their life and work.”

“The Catholic Church teaches that abortifacient drugs, contraception and sterilization are intrinsic evils,” says the complaint. “As a matter of religious faith the Newlands believe that those Catholic teachings are among the religious ethical teachings they must follow throughout their lives including in their business practice.”

The Justice Department responded by arguing that if the Newlands’ Roman Catholic faith prevented them from following the Obama administration’s command that they provide their employees with cost-sharing-free coverage for sterilizations, contraception and abortion-inducing drugs, the Newlands could simply give up their business entirely.

The Justice Department further argued that people owning for-profit secular businesses do not have a First Amendment right to the free exercise religion in the way they conduct their businesses—particularly if their business is incorporated……

“Hercules Industries has ‘made no showing of a religious belief which requires that [it] engage in the [HVAC] business,” DOJ told the court. “Any burden is therefore caused by the company’s choice to enter into a commercial activity.”

In its brief responding to the Justice Department on behalf of the Newland family, the Alliance Defending Freedom forcefully rebutted the claim that the First Amendment does not apply to corporations let alone to family-owned businesses.

“The government argues that the Newlands forfeited their right to religious liberty as soon as they endeavored to earn their living by running a corporation,” said the Newlands’ brief.

“Nothing in the Constitution, the Supreme Court’s decisions, or federal law requires—or even suggests—that families forfeit their religious liberty protection when they try to earn a living, such as by operating a corporate business,” they argued.

If the Obama administration’s understanding of the First Amendment were accepted, argued the Alliance Defending Freedom’s brief, the media would have no rights either.

“The government’s exclusionary attitude would push religion out of every sphere of life except the four wall of a church,” they said in their brief. “If for-profit corporations have no First Amendment ‘purpose,’ newspapers and other media would have no rights.”

If they refuse to sell their businesses, families like the Newlands are trapped by the Sebelius regulation. They can stop providing health insurance to themselves and their employees through the business, but then they and their employees would still be required, under Obamacare’s individual mandate, to buy health insurance, and under the Sebelius regulation all the health insurance plans they would be able to buy would still be required to cover sterilizations, contraception and abortion-inducing drugs. Their premiums would then contribute to those “services,” and the business owners would still be required to pay a penalty to the government of about $2,000 per year for each employee they did not insure.

If businesses like the Newlands’ try to simply flout the Sebelius regulation and continue providing insurance to their workers that does not cover the sterilization-contraception-abortifacient benefits that the Obama administration demands, they will be hit with confiscatory financial penalties…..

Read about it at: http://cnsnews.com/news/article/doj-colorado-family-give-your-religion-or-your-business

Posted in Ethics and Morality, Human Development and Life, Politics, Religious Freedom | 8 Comments