Religious conservatives to protest federal health care law

[cbayer]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/under-god/post/religious-conservatives-to-protest-federal-healthcare-law/2012/03/23/gIQAgkGWVS_blog.html

By Michelle Boorstein
Posted at 07:25 AM ET, 03/23/2012

The Obama-backed health care law has been a rallying cry for religious conservatives since even before it passed. With a challenge to the bill heading to the Supreme Court in coming days, Washington will see a lot of public praying against the measure.

The District is one of more than 100 spots around the country Friday where protesters will speak out against a particular part of the law, the mandate that employers provide coverage of contraception and sterilization. The mandate has galvanized conservative Christians, who see it as strong evidence of the slipping status in this country of their religious beliefs. In a culture that increasingly accepts same-sex marriage and abortion, religious conservatives see the contraceptive mandate as an even more direct threat, since it requires employers to provide services that many religious conservatives consider sinful.

The rallies will take place at noon in cities across the country. In the District, protesters will gather in front of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services building on Independence Avenue in Southwest. Organizers say they don’t expect more than 1,000 people at any rally, even in the major cities (other relatively local spots include Front Royal and Baltimore). Among those who gather will be more than a dozen bishops from the Catholic Church, which has led the opposition to the mandate.

The campaign is taking some toll on the president’s standing with Catholics, a massive swing vote Obama won in 2008 . The percentage of white Catholics who said the Obama administration is unfriendly toward religion has nearly doubled since 2009, from 17 percent to 31 percent, according to a new survey from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. Among Catholics overall, that number jumped from 15 percent to 25 percent.

more at link

[Goblinmonger]

1. Good for them. I'm glad they are free to exercise their beliefs.

I was reminded yesterday of the postmodernist mindset where it is virtually impossible for me to know that my position is correct and theirs is incorrect. I'm just happy they can follow their beliefs and I think we owe it to them to respect those beliefs. That's the mindset of the Religion forum in DU3, right?

[Dawson Leery]

2. Meet Robert George, theocratic advisor to the GOP

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frank-schaeffer/the-intellectual-gurus-of_b_1309762.html

It is time to levy punitive taxes on these organizations.