The Attacks on the Catholic Church for its Defense of Life & Its Protections of People’s Right of Conscious . . . The Responses

The Response from members of Congress on the Attacks on the Catholic Church for its Defense of Life & Its Protections of People’s Right of Conscious is the subject of this Big B File.

On Monday, February 13th, The Big B Files posted the following Question on the Facebook pages of Missouri Senators Claire McCaskill (D-MO) (a CINO) and Roy Blunt (R-MO) as well as Congressmen Lacy Clay, Russ Carnahan and Todd Akin . . .

What is your stance on the Obama Administration forcing the Catholic Church, Catholic Charities, and other Religious based businesses and organizations to violate their consciences & Religious beliefs and pay (via insurance premiums) for contraception and abortions?

There is currently a bill in the Senate called the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 2012 (http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-112s2043is/pdf/BILLS-112s2043is.pdf). As a Roman Catholic, I ask will you stand up for your Catholic constitutiants and the Catholic Church and vote yes for the bill or will you side with President Obama and vote no on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 2012?

Yesterday afternoon, I did get a direct response from Congressman Lacy Clay and a response from someone named Jim Atkinson who I would have to presume is speaking on behalf of Senator McCaskill since she has to respond herself and quit hiding under her desk. I have not heard from Congressmen Russ Carnahan and Todd Akin as of now. Here is what Congressman Lacy Clay said in response to the above Facebook question . . .

(Congressman Wm. Lacy Clay) Hello Mr. Hewing, I disagreed with the administration’s initial HHS rule regarding contraception coverage. I think that conscience matters, as does my own faith tradition, but we also have a very real responsibility to protect the health of every woman. The common sense compromise announced by the President offers a reasonable and thoughtful approach to this issue, and the Catholic Hospitals Association agrees

Congressman Clay did not say whether or not he would stand with Catholics like myself and vote yes on the bill or stand with Obama and vote no on the bill, although from what I can determine that I believe that he would stand with Obama and vote no on the bill . . . exactly what a CINO does. Jim Atkinson who I would have to presume is speaking on behalf of Senator McCaskill posted a response on the Senator’s Facebook page . . .

Religious practices in the United States are trumped by secular law all the time when there is a conflict. Thus, Native Americans who believe in using peyote as part of their religious rituals were fired from their government jobs for doing so, and the US Supreme Court upheld it in 1990.

Likewise, traditionalist members of the Sikh religion believe that a man should avoid cutting his hair, and should bind it up in a turban. So what if an orthodox Sikh gets a job as a construction worker? He can’t get a hard hat on over the turban. Does he have the right to forgo the hard hat on the construction site, so as to retain his turban? The question went to the US courts, and they said Sikhs have to wear hard hats. If a brick fell on the turban and killed the Sikh worker, his family could after all sue the construction company for negligence since it did not require him to wear a hard hat.

Or there are many instances in which Muslim religious laws and practices have been over-ruled in the United States by the courts. American law forbids Muslim-American men to take a second wife, something legal to them in many of their home countries. State law tends to award community property in cases of divorce instead of the much smaller payments men can make to divorced women in Islamic law, even if the couple have specified in their marriage contract that Muslim law (sharia) will govern these issues.

The above response is the most chilling response from a member of Congress or anyone speaking for a member of Congress to date! The Big B Files does applaud Congressman Lacy Clay for responding to the Big B Files and being a stand up kind of guy for doing so. And that is the Big B Files. Click on the comments link below and let me know what you think . . . . I’m Bryan Hewing.