Avoiding More Important Issues

Avoiding More Important Issues

Christian News, June 11, 2012
“Archdiocese of St. Louis joining other in suing federal government to stop HHS mandate,” the headline of a full page story in the May 24, St. Louis Review, official publication of the Roman Catholic archdiocese of St. Louis had this subhead: “Forty-three plaintiffs are represented among 12 lawsuits nationwide.”

The story begins: Noting that “time is running out,” Archbishop Robert J. Carlson announced May 21 that the Archdiocese of St. Louis and Catholic Charities of St. Louis has filed a lawsuit in federal court against the United States government, challenging the legality of its health care mandate to be enforced beginning this August.

Accompanied by Catholic Charities president Brian O’Malley, archdiocesan chancellor Nancy Werner, legal counsel Tom Buckley and others, the Archbishop made the announcement at an afternoon press conference held at the Cardinal Rigali Center in Shrewsbury. The archdiocese’s lawsuit is one of 12 separate suits that were filed across the country May 21. Forty-three plaintiffs in total are represented; includes dioceses and archdioceses, Catholic schools and universities, Catholic health systems and Catholic charitable organizations. All are being represented by Jones Day, an international law firm with more than 2,400 attorneys on five continents. During the press conference, Archbishop Carlson stressed that no money from the Annual Catholic Appeal or other ministries of the archdiocese is being used for the lawsuits.

The defendants in each case were Sebelius; Labor Secretary Hilda Solis; and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, along with their departments.

The mandate, which is part of the new federal Affordable Care Act instituted by the Department of Health and Human Services, would require all employers, including many religious institutions, to provide free coverage of contraception, abortion-inducing drugs and sterilizations. The mandate is set to take effect in August.

“The Catholic Church, led by the USCCB (U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops) has pursued every imaginable avenue to correct this problem without litigation,” Archbishop Carlson said in a prepared statement. “It is critical that I take legal action now about a serious threat to our first, most-cherished freedom — that is the right to religious liberty.” “HHS Rule Draws Lawsuit – ND, diocese, others oppose birth control coverage mandate.” A front page story in the May 22, sound Bend Tribune said:

SOUTH BEND – The University of Notre Dame, the Catholic Diocese of Fort Wayne – South Bend and several other area organizations filed suit Monday challenging the constitutionality of a federal regulation that requires religious organizations to provide insurance coverage for contraceptives and other services that go against Catholic Church teachings.

The lawsuits here are among dozens that Catholic dioceses, schools and other institutions filed Monday in federal courts around the country. The suits represent the largest push against the mandate since President Barack Obama announced the policy in January.

“First Amendment Freedom,” a story on p. 1 of the February 20, 2012 CN opposed the HHS mandate. “Missouri Synod President says church remains ‘deeply concerned’ about health plan mandate despite White House statement” in the February 20, 2012 Christian News, published the testimony of LCMS President Matthew Harrison in Washington, D.C.

“Totalitarianism” an editorial in the February 20, 2012 CN said in part: Bill Miller Sr., editor of the Washington Missourian wrote in an editorial titled “The Obamacare Mandate” in the February 8, 2012 Missourian: “Did President Obama do this because he believes that the majority of Catholic and members of other faiths don’t follow their religions teachings on social and moral issues today?” Who has more votes, the church leaders who oppose Obama’s position, or the majority of Americans who approve birth control and abortion? The Bishops may howl and scream but the fact remains birth control and abortion has been officially approved by most major Protestant denominations. No disciplinary action has been taken against any Roman Catholic or Protestant congressman for promoting abortion. Even the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS) refused to urge the congregation of pro-abortion Senator Paul Simon to excommunicate him for promoting abortion. While the LCMS and most Protestant denominations formerly supported what the Bible and Martin Luther teach about birth control, today very few in the LCMS and all of Protestantism publicly oppose birth control. Read A Handbook of Christian Matrimony – The Blight of Birth Control and a Fifty Year Battle for Church Growth – Back to Luther on the Family and Birth Control on the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation published by Christian News.

Today almost all major denominations, including the Roman Catholic Church have become an “anything goes church.” They allow their theologians and clergymen to deny such basic doctrines of the Christian faith as the Trinity, virgin birth, deity, vicarious satisfaction and resurrection of Christ, justification by faith alone, the inerrancy of the Bible, the historicity of the Bible, etc. They permit their clergymen and politicians to promote evolution, birth control, and abortion. As important as it is to oppose the HHS mandate, today it is more important for churches to:

1. Remove theologians and clergymen in their denominations who deny such doctrines as the virgin birth, deity, vicarious satisfaction, and resurrection of Christ. 2. Oppose such destructive notions of Biblical criticism as the J-E-D-P source hypothesis, Deutero-Isaiah, etc. 3. Insist on the inerrancy of the Bible, the historicity of the Genesis account of a 6/24 hour day creation and oppose evolution. Remove from their clergy roster all evolutionists. 4. Show that the Bible opposes Birth Control. 5. Defend the central Christian doctrine of justification by faith in Jesus Christ alone. 6. Insist that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven and that Christianity is the only saving faith. 7. Work for a Twenty-first Century Reformation and Formula of Concord. 8. Remove homosexual, sex abusive, or unscripturally divorced pastors from the clergy roster.