Forcing the Catholic church to “provide insurance coverage for contraception to workers in its hospitals and other public institutions” stands as one of the big issues of the day. As it has always, the Catholic church opposes the use of birth control and abortion.
Although I’m a Catholic of sorts, I find it quite difficult to sympathize with the Church. My reasons for lack of sympathy relate to the Church’s activities in secular politics. The Church ranged from lukewarm to condemning of people protesting what they considered unfair government practices.
Pope Benedict XVI offers a compelling response to those who decry “excessive” government that “distorts the free market,” as the Tea Party Patriots declare on their Web site — echoing a familiar philosophy shared by conservative leaders for decades. Indeed, the pope’s most recent encyclical stands in stark contrast to those who tout an ideology that would lead to slashing an already fraying social safety net at a time when the number of people living in poverty has reached its highest level in a half century and millions of Americans are unemployed. Catholic social teaching can offer a particularly useful critique of Tea Party philosophy given that a new poll just released by Public Religion Research Institute found that nearly half of Americans who consider themselves part of the movement also identify as Christian conservatives.
The Church endorsed the Occupy Wall Street movement. The movement demanding they be given freebies and regularly committing acts of violence, most recently in Oakland, CA. The Church that says it is racist to oppose discrimination of people based on race and gender to the benefit of others.
Finally, racism is sometimes apparent in the growing sentiment that too much is being given to racial minorities by way of affirmative action…
Some how bias and bigotry are how you eliminate bias and bigotry. You don’t help people succeed by hindering the success of others and denying them rightful opportunities.
The same Church that supported racial discrimination at it’s own institution, Georgetown University, by past head basketball Coach John Thompson. No whites.
Other than on the issues of birth control, abortion and gay rights, the Catholic church holds a long record of supporting left wing ideology and its warped values. Often in government, Catholics supported abortion, birth control and racial and gender bias and the Church said little. After the Occupy Wall Street support, I decided none of the little money I have to give to charitable organizations will go to the Catholic church.
The Church teaches that the Pope is infallible in matters pertaining to religion. Maybe so. But, in matters not pertaining to religion, the Pope, and the Church, show tremendous fallibility. I got tired of one of the richest organizations in the world telling me I was too greedy and uncaring.
As for the Church and its latest quandary, if you dance with the Devil, you will get burnt.
The same Church that supported racial discrimination at it’s own institution, Georgetown University, by past head basketball Coach John Thompson. No whites.
Meh, I say that if you are a White man in America and you can’t manage to create a life for yourself that you consider to be happy and successful, then that says more about you than it does about affirmative action.
I’ve been a White male all my life – affirmative action has never kept me from doing anything I wanted to do.
I think some people are just looking for excuses.
I think some people are just looking for excuses.
Excuses to rationalize bigotry.
Using an example of Black people running a basketball team isn’t really all that supportive of your argument.
It has nothing to do with bigotry. Black people are simply better at basketball than White people – just look at the NBA.
Coach Thompson openly admitted he purposefully did not recruit whites.
You continue to make lame excuses for bigotry and border on sounding like a racist doing it. Ever notice how many white Europeans are going into the NBA, or that big Chinese guy? Are blacks better or is it that an incredibly high percentage of blacks play basketball thinking they can play in the NBA while the more realistic white boys are getting MBAs and owing the NBA?
Blacks have a specialized striated muscle tissue that makes them more efficient in athletics. Since Blacks have an inherent biological advantage, it only makes sense to recruit them over Whites.
The point is not the outcome, the point is the action. Aside from the individual impact, we’ll never know the negative impact on society caused by holding back people from their highest potential rather than helping them reach it. We’ll never know the cost of keeping many from contributing as much as possible.
If we’ll never know the cost, how do we know the cost isn’t zero?
We won’t but any intelligent person knows it’s greater than that. It’s really a rather stupid question meant to avoid the obvious truth.
I think the Catholic Church is not entirely wrong here, but they do have special privileges also. I think the reasonable way to do this would be to have them pay the same amount for health insurance for everyone, and a cash bonus also. That bonus could be used towards BCPs, dental care or whatever.
Steve
I support the Church’s position. I just think they’ve helped bring this problem upon themselves by other positions they’ve supported.