Although largely unreported by the mainstream media, a decision announced two and a half ago weeks ago in Washington has ignited a call to action here in Madison and in religious communities across the country. The decision: confirmation of a federal mandate that all private health plans must include coverage for all FDA-approved contraception, including abortion-inducing drugs, as well as sterilization and similiar services.
What it means is that some religious organizations will be forced to violate their religious beliefs. As Madison Diocese Bishop Robert Morlino stated in a letter that was read in local Catholic congregations a week ago, the mandate “strikes at the fundamental right to religious liberty for all Americans, of any faith.”
The reaction to the mandate has come largely from the Catholic community so far. Letters from more than 100 bishops were read in the congregations of their dioceses one week ago.
Rachel Zoll of the Associated Press finally lit on the story last Friday, and dug into the depths of the outrage and the nuances of the mandate. Her story includes a mention of how the Madison Diocese dealt with a somewhat similar State of Wisconsin mandate in 2009. The hope then was that the imminent federal health care reform would offer more grace. Instead the opposite occurred.
Protestant Leaders React
The president of the Madison-based InterVarsity Christian Fellowship wrote a column published on InterVarsity’s website last Friday expressing his own outrage at the ruling. “The mandate compels a religious community to act contrarily to its understanding of Scripture,” Alec Hill wrote. “In doing so, it violates a long-held American social contract.”
Hill urged InterVarsity staff and students, and others, to “stand in solidarity with our Catholic friends on the health care mandate. I urge you to contact your elected representatives and to ask your pastors to speak out.”
Another national Christian leader, Chuck Colson on his daily Breakpoint radio program, last week issued a similar call. “We’ve got to stand with all Christians and protest the Administration’s outrageous assault on religious liberty. Our religious freedom is in grave peril.”
The Madison Catholic Herald reports that the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act has been introduced in Congress (H.R. 1179, S. 1467) in an effort to uphold the religious rights of conscience that Americans treasure. The Catholic Herald website has contact information for elected officials.