I don’t know if you’ve noticed lately but there is a lot of weird stuff happening in the world and a great deal of it is coming from the propagators of religion and the religious right. But it’s not just the religious nuts that are getting crazier, now it’s the courts that are indemnifying this nuttiness with bizarre decisions. The current case in point is Hobby Lobby an arts and crafts supply store whose ownership has decided that it needs to bring its religious convictions and interpretations into the marketplace of healthcare and trump the rights of their employees who might not share ownership’s convictions.
All one has to do to get an idea of the religious fervor of this company’s founder and CEO, David Green, is take a brief glance at their web-site which trumpets his belief in God and the bible but doesn’t say much about Christian charity and acceptance, certainly nowhere near a much as has been ascribed to The Pope.
Mr. Green has decided, in his self-professed role as Christian arbiter of morals that he knows enough about contraception to choose which kinds of it are acceptable for all his employees, regardless of their religious affiliation.
Mr. Green may be the best person around, or he may be a dangerous religious nut who just wants to impose his will on those whose medical insurance he controls, but in either case he has chosen an illogical means to his end and bizarrely, he has been supported by the Tenth Circuit Court of appeals in Denver, Co. It’s Colorado, what do you expect?
The facts of the case are this: Hobby Lobby is a corporation, controlled by the Green family, who are Evangelical Christians. The ACA calls for coverage of all forms of contraception including some that work by preventing a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterus. This is seen in certain religious circles as a form of abortion because they see life existing at the instant of fertilization. There are also those who think the Holy Ghost only comes out on Halloween and can you believe, there are even those who think that everyone is entitled to an opinion no matter how idiotic it is.
Where all that entitlement stops is when it interferes with the rights of others as it does in this case. The ACA says that all companies over 50 employees (Hobby Lobby has about 15,000) must provide health care for their employees. That means that owners who think like the Green’s must either violate their conscience, or break the law and face heavy fines, or sell the business. Hobby Lobby has 578 stores, nation wide, that average 55,000 sq. ft each. This is no Mom & Pop operation. This is a huge corporation and for the owners to impose their religious beliefs on their employees is a violation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 which basically says that while the state may impose no restrictions on a person’s religious belief, neither can a person claim exemption of federal laws based on that same religious belief. In other words, we can’t tell you who or how to worship but you can’t tell anyone else who or how either. I know; all religions have been doing this ever since some prophet stepped out of the weeds and declared himself the voice of the latest god, but in this country they’re not supposed to. It’s pretty clear in the law, just as it is pretty clear in reality, that this is exactly what the Green family wants to do to its employees.
For all their Christian beliefs, the Greens don’t seem to aspire to the one basic belief that is accepted by all non-fanatic, logical believers in all religions; which is that each person should be free to worship God in their own fashion. The Greens seem to think that it’s their way or the highway.
Of course the basic premise of the change requested is that corporations, not just people, have religious rights. This is, obviously a tag along to the Citizens United decision, which has almost destroyed the Democratic system of selecting our leaders, so why shouldn’t the Supreme Court, which has agreed to hear this ludicrous concept, take a shot at destroying our freedom from religion? It’s already just about destroyed our ability to have a truly democratic election.
It’s fascinating how Evangelical Christians, like all religious proselytizers’ throughout history, don’t seem to be satisfied to just follow the precepts of their religion and leave the rest of us alone, but are driven to shove those precepts down everyone else’s throats. If Green and his family don’t think it’s okay to take the morning after pill, don’t take it, but don’t force others, who have the misfortune of having to work for your company, to follow your twisted religious beliefs, and more important don’t try to sell us on the idea that your whacko concepts are based on scientific reality when they are no more acceptable than the concept that the earth is flat.
Mr. Green and his family are very successful business people but that doesn’t make them acceptable religious leaders any more than Charles Manson’s or Jim Jones’s abilities to fascinate a few female members of their cults made them true leaders of men.
We don’t force you to worship a God in which you don’t believe, Mr. Green, so why the hell don’t you get your confused, religious ass out of our sex lives?