Saturday, March 24, 2012

Cries of 'religious freedom'

Front page headlines in today's Scranton Times read, "Crowd rallies for religious freedom." The article describes an event held in Scranton and 100 cities around the country yesterday, in which protesters voiced their objections to the federal requirement that all employers provide health insurance coverage, including birth control.

These folks object to the requirement, saying that religiously affiliated employers should be exempt based on their religious beliefs. They went on to say that use of tax dollars or insurance premiums to fund birth control forces people to pay for something that contradicts their beliefs.

Welcome to America, people. Where have you been?

As Americans, we believe it is fundamentally wrong for one group of people to dictate to another group. It's called supporting diversity, and yes, people who object to birth control must learn to tolerate and even support everyone else and their right to what's legally theirs. That's what we do.

The tax and insurance dollars paid by Jehovah's Witnesses fund blood transfusions, a procedure they object to on religious grounds. Tax dollars of people who object to the death penalty on religious grounds are used to fund the electric chair or lethal injections. Because those things are legal.

Here's my thought - If you object to something being legal, then work to change that. Don't whine that your rights are being violated because you're asked to pay your fair share of what citizens are legally entitled to receive.

Birth control is legal and your dollars fund it. Deal with it.

6 comments:

  1. Let's not forget these religious businesses/organizations/etc are, for the majority, granted tax-free status. I pay my fair share while people like Pat Robertson and the West Boro Baptist Church get off free of charge.

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  2. Religions need to adapt and accommodate.
    Jehovah's Witnesses blood transfusion confusion

    Jehovahs Witnesses take blood products now in 2012.
    They take all fractions of blood.This includes hemoglobin, albumin, clotting factors, cryosupernatant and cryopoor too, and many, many, others.
    If one adds up all the blood fractions the JWs takes, it equals a whole unit of blood. Any, many of these fractions are made from thousands upon thousands of units of donated blood.
    Jehovah’s Witnesses can take Bovine *cows blood* as long as it is euphemistically called synthetic Hemopure.
    Jehovah's Witnesses now accept every fraction of blood except the membrane of the red blood cell. JWs now accept blood transfusions.
    The fact that the JW blood issue is so unclear is downright dangerous in the emergency room.
    --
    Danny Haszard

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  3. On an organizational level that's true Dale, churches are typically exempt from property taxes. The hate rhetoric spouted by some folks claiming to be Christian is a topic for another series of posts.

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  4. Interesting post, Danny. Thank you for the updated information. I assume your knowledge on this is accurate and is being communicated to physicians, ambulance teams, and emergency rooms everywhere.

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  5. I agree, Jeanne, we ALWAYS pay for things we don't support. I didn't EVER support the Iraqi war, but I helped pay for it! That's only one example. People need to THINK more. Thanks for being brave....

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  6. That's a great example, Peggy. Our government makes decisions and we're along for the financial ride, and objections on religious grounds are irrelevant.

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