Missing the Point About the Contraceptive Mandate

We at Answers in Genesis have been praising God this week for the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of the Hobby Lobby company regarding its free exercise of religion as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. It should have been an easy decision, but the vote was 5-4. Four justices ultimately had wanted to decide to oppose the free exercise of religion for certain Christians—the Christian owners of Hobby Lobby, who did not want to offer abortion-causing drugs to their employees as mandated by Obamacare. Instead they wanted to abide by Christian principles and not be forced to accept a secular view on the sanctity of life (i.e., not be involved in killing children in the womb).

Denying the sanctity of life by four justices and tens of millions of Americans is reflective of something alarming in our culture. Many who supported the Obamacare mandate seemed either to miss the biggest problem with the law or flatly opposed what God says in His Word. (Or they just didn’t care.) Regardless, many people have bought into the false religion of man’s word determining truth—and that it is greater than God’s Word on a host of issues.   Continue at Ken Ham

Is Religious Freedom Under Attack in the USA?

Actually, I don’t believe it’s “religious” freedom that is under attack in America, but “Christian” freedom is certainly under fire in this nation. Increasingly, we are seeing a court system and legislature that want more tolerance of a certain form of religion, but at the expense of an intolerance of Christianity. More and more this culture seeks the absolute tolerance of the religion of secularism and its moral relativism, but at the same time intolerance of the absolutes of Christianity built on the foundation of the absolute authority of the Word of God.

Personally, I believe the U.S. Supreme Court case about Obamacare and Hobby Lobby (our lead article on the Court’s important decision today will be posted soon) has been just another blatant example of the attempted erosion of Christian freedoms in this nation. Yes, the news this morning from the U.S. Supreme Court was encouraging, but how did this nation even get to the point where Christian-owned businesses would be forced to offer abortion-causing drugs in its health coverage for employees?   Continue at Ken Ham

Hobby Lobby wins Enormous Victory in Federal Court

I have written previously about Hobby Lobby on this site and about the battle they are waging against Obamacare’s abortion mandate. Today the Christian-owned company has won an enormous victory. A federal court has issued an injunction so that Hobby Lobby will not be required to purchase insurance plans that provide abortion-inducing drugs to their employees. The Obamacare mandate would require them to purchase the coverage or face crippling fines. The federal court says otherwise. 

Specifically, the court’s ruling says that the owners’ “rights” are “substantially burdened by the contraceptive-coverage requirement” and that the mandate causes “an irreparable harm” to the company. Continue at Denny Burk

Do Morning-after Pills Cause Abortions?

In my previous post, I made the claim that the government will fine Hobby Lobby $1.3 million dollars per day until it complies with Obamacare’s abortion mandate. In the comments, I have received a good bit of push-back from readers claiming that the HHS mandate does not require coverage for abortifacient drugs. In particular, critics are telling me to “check my facts” and realize that morning-after pills are not abortifacient. This erroneous objection reveals that there is some confusion out there about what the “facts” really are. For this reason, I think a response is warranted. 

 

First, pro-lifers define abortions as any measure that causes a fertilized egg or fetus to be destroyed. Pro-lifers believe that all human beings have an inalienable right to life from conception to natural death. Notice that it’s not from implantation to natural death, but from conception to natural death. When sperm unites with an egg, a new human life comes into being. In the normal course of events, that new human life travels down the fallopian tubes and into the mother’s womb where it implants into the uterine wall. Pro-choicers often say that an abortion can only occur after implantation. Pro-lifers contend that abortion can occur before or after implantation. Human life is at stake from the time of conception, and anything that destroys that life is abortifacient.  Continue at Denny Burk

Does Anyone Care What Happens to Hobby Lobby?

I am astonished that more Americans aren’t in an uproar about what is happening to Hobby Lobby right now. As many of you know, Hobby Lobby filed a lawsuit earlier this year to try and get relief from Obamacare’s abortion mandate. The case is still pending appeal, but the Supreme Court just rejected their request for an emergency injunction. In response, the Christian owners of Hobby Lobby have said they have no intention to pay for the abortion-inducing drugs required by Obamacare. That means that beginning on January 1, the United States government will fine Hobby Lobby $1.3 million dollars per day until Hobby Lobby complies.

This is the most egregious violation of religious liberty that I have ever seen. The United States Government is forcing these Christian business owners to pay for abortion inducing drugs in their employees’ insurance plans. It doesn’t matter that the law violates their religious liberty to conduct business in a way that is consistent with their conscience. Obamacare mandates that these Christians comply or face fines that will put them out of business.

When the controversy over the abortion mandate erupted earlier this year, the American public by and large got the impression that this was about conservatives who wanted to ban contraception. Nothing could be further from the truth. No one wants to outlaw contraception. This controversy is about the fact that the government is forcing pro-life business owners to pay for chemical abortions. If the federal government can force citizens to purchase items that they believe to be immoral, where will this end?   Continue at Denny Burk