Monthly Archive for February, 2012

Whatever Happened to Facts?

Y’know, I read the Catholic Bishops’ statements and have to wonder what world they’re living in when they claim martyrdom for not being allowed to prohibit other people from having no-copay contraception.  “If I quit this job and opened a Taco Bell, I’d be covered by the mandate.”  Surely nobody with a brain thinks that’s reasonable?

And then I see the comments on Facebook.  Not from my friends, but from a horrifically large number of their friends.  “It’s not about contraception, it’s about religious freedom!” they shriek.  Well didn’t you just drink that bandwagon hook, line, and sinker.  Only, somehow, it’s only about the kind of religious freedom that involves telling women what they can and can’t do with their bodies.  It’s not, apparently, about

  • Allowing employers to opt out of providing insurance that covers blood transfusions because they might be Jehovah’s Witnesses
  • Allowing employers to opt out of providing coverage for mental health because they might be Scientologists
  • Allowing employers to opt out of insurance entirely because they might be Christian Scientists

Nope, it turns out religious freedom means working to make sure their employees, regardless of faith, get pregnant even when they don’t want to. Yes, that’s clearly their goal.  They’re not paying extra for the coverage, the insurers are saving money by providing it so premiums won’t be raised to cover it, and they already have an exemption for religious employees.  Yet they demand that all employers be allowed to not offer contraceptive coverage for all their employees.  See full discussion at Camels With Hammers.

Or is it just another case of “Obama did it, so it must be bad.”  I mean, if the Pope’s pronouncements are supposed to have such sway over US law, why aren’t the bishops (and the Santora, and the Gingrinches) screaming to get universal health care enacted?  Obama got us closer than we’ve ever been, against huge opposition, and now he is the one waging war on Christianity?

Could we go back to a time when you at least had to pretend to have facts on your side?