Don't mess with our religious freedom

Last week I woke up with the weight of the world on my shoulders. I soon realized that it was the weight of Big Brother government, and I never realized it would get so heavy.

The Obama administration recently announced that it would require all employer-sponsored health plans to cover contraceptives. Although churches were exempt, other religious institutions, like Catholic hospitals, colleges and universities, for example, were not.

As if it weren’t enough to force Americans to buy health care, now we’re forcing people to pay for something they’re morally opposed to. Where do we draw the line?

New York’s own archbishop, Timothy Dolan, was outraged, and has become the voice for Catholics across the country. He, too, was caught off guard. Dolan claimed that in a meeting last fall with President Obama, the president promised that he was dedicated to allowing the church to protect its principles.

In response to this attack by liberal big government, Dolan said, “The federal government should do what it has traditionally done since 1776 and keep its hands out of the internal workings of the church.”

These new regulations mandated by the Obama administration violate church teachings, and as a Catholic and a conservative, I am outraged. The president is walking a political tightrope by pitting religious rights against women’s rights. But this is not a women’s rights issue.

Plain and simple, it is an issue of religious freedom. And so, for this reason, regardless of what religion you practice, you should be horrified that our government has mandated that religious hospitals and schools offer birth control and abortion-inducing drugs in their employees’ health care plans. This is a violation of the religious freedom guaranteed by the Constitution. It will also be just another cost health insurance companies will be forced to pass on to you, the consumer.