Ah, those nasty Catholics, trying to force their beliefs on others by
refusing to let the government make them violate their principles and
consciences! Here is the first slice of moldy editorial bread:
Thirteen Roman Catholic dioceses and some Catholic-related groups scattered lawsuits across a dozen federal courts last week claiming that President Obama was violating their religious freedom
by including contraceptives in basic health care coverage for female
employees. It was a dramatic stunt, full of indignation but built on
air.
And the other thin slice, in conclusion:
This
is a clear partisan play. The real threat to religious liberty comes
from the effort to impose one church’s doctrine on everyone.
Everything in between the two is complete bologna, and rotten bologna at that, as Jonathan S. Tobin writes on Commentary's Contentions blog:
The Times
argues that the government’s attempt to compel the church to violate
its principles was not a violation of its rights and further claims the
inadequate “compromise” proposed by the White House should have
silenced their concerns. This is an absurd distortion of the facts, but
far worse is the way the Times — following the Obama
campaign’s playbook — tries to claim that Catholics seek to impose
their beliefs on others. Quite the contrary, it is the government fiat
that employees at Catholic institutions are provided with free
contraception that is the imposition. The point here is not so much to
advance the cause of women’s health — the justification advocates of the
government’s position seek to use — but to demonize a faith group that
has the temerity to stick up for its rights.
Religious freedom is not just the right to, as the Times
puts it, “preach that contraception is sinful and rail against Mr.
Obama for making it more readily available” (though in fact, the Church
is not seeking to curtail the availability of contraception to the
general public). It is also the right not to have its institutions
forced to either pay for or facilitate the receipt of services that run
contrary to its principles.
It bears repeating that one needn’t share the Vatican’s views on
contraception to understand that a government dictat that would coerce
churches to dispense it is a violation of their religious liberty.
Read his entire post.