[net-gold] MEDICAL: PREGNANCY AND CHILDBIRTH: BIRTH CONTROL AND CONTRACEPTION : RELIGION: CHRISTIAN: CATHOLIC : POLITICS: LOBBYING: Is the Catholic Church Just a Super PAC in Robes?
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- Date: Sun, 12 Feb 2012 11:33:27 -0500 (EST)
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MEDICAL: PREGNANCY AND CHILDBIRTH: BIRTH CONTROL AND CONTRACEPTION :
RELIGION: CHRISTIAN: CATHOLIC :
POLITICS: LOBBYING:
Is the Catholic Church Just a Super PAC in Robes?
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Is the Catholic Church Just a Super PAC in Robes?
AlterNet
http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/782373/
is_the_catholic_church_just_a_super_pac_in_robes/
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A shorter URL for the above link:
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http://tinyurl.com/75hy29j
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The Bishops' opposition to the Department of Health and Human Services
rule ... was to date the most public salvo from their Ad Hoc Committee on
Religious Liberty. That effort was launched last June.... At the Bishops'
annual meeting in Baltimore this past November, Dolan took his charges
into conspiratorial territory, telling reporters that "well-financed,
well-oiled sectors" were attempting to "push religion back into the
sacristy." ...
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And the bishops have clearly been working hand-in-glove with the GOP for
some time:
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Testifying before the House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on the
Constitution last October, Bishop William E. Lori, chair of the Ad Hoc
Committee, described LGBT equality and access to reproductive care as
"serious threats to religious liberty," that "represent only the most
recent instances in a broader trend of erosion of religious liberty in the
United States."
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...investigations have already started on Capitol Hill, where Republicans'
ears are cocked for controversies they can gin up to paint the Obama
administration as anti-religion....
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So, yeah, we should call this what it is: super PAC activity.
****
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The Obama administration seems to have dared the bishops to take their
best shot on this issue. This morning, it looks as if the bishops are
winning -- the administration plans to announce a compromise, although it
seems to me that a reasonable swing voter would hear about this compromise
and think that the White House is making a quite sensible (and sensitive)
accommodation:
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... what the White House will likely announce later today is that the
relationship between the religious employer and the insurance company will
not need to have any component involving contraception. The insurance
company will reach out on its own to the women employees. This is better
for both sides, the source says, since the religious organizations do not
have to deal with medical care to which they object, and women employees
will not have to be dependent upon an organization strongly opposed to
that care in order to obtain it.
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I often see the Obama White House getting entangled in a ginned-up
right-wing controversy and seemingly unable to find a way out that will
seem reasonable to the center after the right has set the terms of the
debate. In this case, though, I suspect that the administration had its
next move worked out, and it seems like a good one to me. You're a normal
American who supports birth control access? This would preserve that
access. You're not terribly religious but you kinda-sorta think that
religious groups shouldn't have to involve themselves in stuff they
morally object to? This preserves that as well.
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The complete article may be read at the URL above.
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Related Content:
THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IS A GOP SUPER PAC IN ROBES, AND IT SHOT FIRST
No More Mister Nice Blog
http://nomoremister.blogspot.com/
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Testimony of
Most Reverend William E. Lori
Bishop of Bridgeport
On behalf of the
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
Before the Judiciary Committee of the
United States House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on the Constitution
October 26, 2011
http://usccb.org/issues-and-action/religious-liberty/upload/
lori-testimony-on-religious-freedom-2011-10-26.pdf
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A shorter URL for the above link:
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http://tinyurl.com/833quyl
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Essay
January 2, 2012
In 2012 Bishops Join Fight to Repackage Discrimination as Religious
Freedom
By Sarah Posner
RD Magazine
http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/politics/5534/
in_2012_bishops_join_fight_to_repackage_discrimination_as_
%E2%80%98religious_freedom%E2%80%99
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A shorter URL for the above link:
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http://tinyurl.com/7b4jckj
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Four days before Christmas, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops paid
for a full-page advertisement in the Washington Post, co-signed by dozens
of leaders of Catholic institutions. But the ad offered no holiday cheer.
Instead, it aggressively highlighted the Bishops pointed confrontation
with the Obama administration: either amend a regulation requiring
employer health insurance plans to provide contraception without a co-pay,
or stand accused of religious discrimination.
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The Bishops opposition to the Department of Health and Human Services
rulewhich they describe as mandating preventive services (scare quotes in
original)was to date the most public salvo from their Ad Hoc Committee on
Religious Liberty. That effort was launched last June because, in USCCB
president Timothy Dolans ominous words, never before have we faced this
kind of challenge to our ability to engage in the public square as people
of faith and as a service provider. If we do not act now, the consequence
will be grave. At the Bishops annual meeting in Baltimore this past
November, Dolan took his charges into conspiratorial territory, telling
reporters that well-financed, well-oiled sectors were attempting to push
religion back into the sacristy.
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Unlike recent efforts to address poverty or urge Congress to extend
unemployment benefits, this campaign will not essentially consist of
clerics issuing recommendations. Staffed with ten of the Bishops brethren,
the Ad Hoc Committee will be assisted by the USCCBs former top lawyer and
now Associate General Secretary, Anthony Picarello, who served on Obamas
first Advisory Council to his Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood
Partnerships. A staff lawyer and a lobbyist have also been hired and
assigned to the effort.
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Testifying before the House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on the
Constitution last October, Bishop William E. Lori, chair of the Ad Hoc
Committee, described LGBT equality and access to reproductive care as
serious threats to religious liberty, that represent only the most recent
instances in a broader trend of erosion of religious liberty in the United
States. The problem, he went on, is like a disease that must be treated
immediately, lest the disease spread so quickly that the patient is
overcome before the ultimate cure can be formulated and delivered.
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Louise Melling, deputy legal director of the American Civil Liberties
Union, sees the Bishops framing as significant, noting that, Theyre really
trying to put a spin on whats happening, and theyre hoping that they can
convince people that their rights are the ones being violated.
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snip
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The investigations have already started on Capitol Hill, where Republicans
ears are cocked for controversies they can gin up to paint the Obama
administration as anti-religion. In his Congressional testimony, the
USCCBs Lori laid out a list of grievances, nearly all related to
reproductive care access and LGBT equality, about which he fretted, if the
label of bigot sticks to our Church and many other churchesespecially in
court, under the Constitutionbecause of their teaching on marriage, the
result will be church-state conflicts for many years to come.
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In an equally hyperbolic statement, USCCB president Dolan has charged that
the administrations decision not to defend the Defense of Marriage Act in
court could precipitate a national conflict between church and state of
enormous proportions.
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The Church has an ally in Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), chair of the House
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Late last year, he convened
a hearing on whether the Department of Health and Human Services
discriminated against the Church when it determined that contractors
serving victims of human trafficking would be required to refer victims of
sexual assault for a full range of obstetric and gynecological care,
including abortion, contraceptives, and sterilization. Because the USCCB
does not refer for these services, its $2 million contract was not
renewed, setting off a firestorm of accusations that the Obama
administration is anti-Catholic.
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Republican Chris Smith, a longtime crusader against access to reproductive
care services, charged that the Obama administrations bias against
Catholics is an affront to religious freedom and a threat to all people of
faith. The administration, he added, discriminated against the USCCB
solely because [the USCCB] fundamentally respects the innate value and
preciousness of an unborn child and refuses to be complicit in procuring
his or her violent death by abortion.
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Catholic Church, NOM register PACs in Minn. ahead of same-sex marriage
amendment campaign
By admin
Monday, August 29, 2011 at 1:55 pm
The Washington Independent
http://washingtonindependent.com/110931/catholic-church-nom-
register-pacs-in-minn-ahead-of-same-sex-marriage-amendment-campaign
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A shorter URL for the above link:
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http://tinyurl.com/84x9r2a
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The Minnesota Catholic Conference, the policy wing of Minnesotas Catholic
bishops, and the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) have registered
political action funds (PACs) with the Minnesota Campaign Finance and
Public Disclosure Board. The two funds join the Minnesota Family Council
Marriage Protection Fund in hopes of raising money to convince voters to
pass a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.
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The PACs will allow the groups to raise money for political activity
surrounding the 2012 ballot initiative.
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snip
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Spiritual wickedness in high places
Politics from a progressive Christian perspective
http://www.blogsmonroe.com/christianpolitics/
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The second question is much more practical.
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The Catholic Church is advocating that all of their enterprises be exempt
from requirement based on a religious belief that isnt being practiced by
98% of female Catholics in this country.
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An analogy could be the speed limit laws. Highway speed limits are rarely
enforced. Enforcement begins somewhere above 5-10 mph over the speed
limit. Thats because of a number of factors, but the net result is that
very few motorists drive at posted speeds on the highway and virtually all
levels of government and law enforcement are fine with it.
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In the same vein, a more practical response by the Catholic Church would
be an opt in system where they would only be required to offer birth
control to female employees who either self identified as non-Catholic or
explicitly requested the service.
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The final question is also much more practical.
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The Catholic Church is also an ardent opponent of abortion. One of the
primary goals of reducing the co-pays for contraceptives is to reduce
unwanted pregnancies and the high rate of abortions associated with them.
The data strongly supports the claim that even small co-pays reduce
contraceptive use. That leaves one part of Catholic Church in the
position of advocating a policy which supports the current level of
abortions. Another part of the Church spends millions to reduce abortions
and attack the current laws which allow them.
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The bottom line is that HHS understood that this would be a challenge for
Catholic institutions and provided them a year to work out an
implementation plan with the government. The White House has also
signaled that they are willing to seek common ground where Catholic
beliefs are respected but women are also receiving the care they need.
Whether or not they are going to be able to get a deal done is uncertain.
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This will likely end up being decided in the courts and in the meantime
will be just one more divisive issue that will be passionately argued and
widely misunderstood.
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Temple Summon Search for
("catholic church" OR "roman catholic") AND ("political action" OR
"political campaign funding") AND (birth control OR contracepti* OR
abortion*) returned 37,015 results
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http://temple.summon.serialssolutions.com/search?s.q=%28%22catholic+
church%22+OR+%22roman+catholic%22%29+AND+%28%22political+action%22+
OR+%22political+campaign+funding%22%29+AND+%28%22birth+control+OR+
contracepti*+OR+abortion*%29
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A shorter URL for the above link:
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http://tinyurl.com/7ygd7zu
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Content Sample:
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Abortion in the United States' bible belt: organizing for power and
empowerment
Mary A Castle
Correspondence: Mary A Castle macinnovazione@xxxxxxxxx
Author Affiliations
Senior Associate, Planning Alternatives for Change, P.O. Box 94859,
Pasadena, California 91109, USA
Reproductive Health 2011, 8:1 doi:10.1186/1742-4755-8-1
http://www.reproductive-health-journal.com/content/8/1/1
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Catholic Liberals and Abortion: Chapter Two
James Hitchcock.
Human Life Review. New York:
Winter 2011. Vol. 37, Iss. 1/2; pg. 31, 13 pgs
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Title:
Before (and after) Roe v. Wade: new questions about backlash
Author(s):
Linda Greenhouse and Reva B. Siegel
Source:
Yale Law Journal. 120.8 (June 2011): p2028
.
Title Faith, politics, and sexual diversity in Canada and the United
States / edited by David Rayside and Clyde Wilcox.
Publisher Vancouver : UBC Press, c2011.
.
Anti-abortion movement in post-Roe v. Wade Louisiana: A qualitative study
by Okwaraocha, Emmanuel, Ph.D., Southern University and Agricultural and
Mechanical College, 2011 , 146 pages; AAT 3445348
.
Religion And CAMPAIGN: Religious Right Forces Are Seeking To Control
Presidential Politics And Play A Dominant Role In This Year's Elections
Rob Boston. Church & State. Silver Springs: Jan 2012. Vol. 65, Iss. 1; p.
12 (3 pages)
.
TRAP Abortion Laws and Partisan Political Party Control of State
Government by MEDOFF, MARSHALL H and DENNIS, CHRISTOPHER
American Journal of Economics and Sociology, ISSN 0002-9246, 10/2011,
Volume 70, Issue 4, pp. 951 - 973
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WEBBIB1112
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Sincerely,
David Dillard
Temple University
(215) 204 - 4584
jwne@xxxxxxxxxx
http://workface.com/e/daviddillard
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