Bishops and the "Catholic Exemption"

The Catholic bishops of the U.S are waging a political campaign under the guise of a perceived threat to religious liberty. In addition to the question of the appropriateness of a religion running and funding a campaign with an obvious anti-Obama overtone, there are other serious issues with such a campaign.


The most obvious issue is that the bishops are raising the specter of a big bad government taking away their religious liberty when in fact they are insisting that they are entitled to a "Catholic exemption." Since they insist on maintaining that contraception is immoral, they do not want to provide reproductive health care benefits to their employees, Catholic or non-Catholic. But rather than deal with the issue of contraception, they are trying to frame it as one of religious liberty.


Why do they avoid the issue of contraception? Probably because they have yet to provide a rational defense of their position. They wish to be "exempt" from the rules because they "BELIEVE" contraception is immoral. These are the same people who, before Vatican II, "believed" it was a sin to eat meat on Fridays. At one point the Catholic hierarchy tried to defend their anti-contraception position by appealing to something called, "Natural Law." Unfortunately for them, one has to take it "on  faith" that a natural moral law such as they describe exists. Therefore, they are arguing that they are opposed to contraception based on a belief which is based on another belief. Granted the bishops are entitled to believe whatever they want, but if they want to dictate their beliefs on the rest of us, they will need a rational explanation. Lacking that, it is no wonder they are trying to restate this as a religious liberty question. As they also seem to have forgotten, Vatican II exhorted Catholics to follow our own consciences.


And then there is the issue of a "Catholic Exemption." They want Catholic institutions, even though they receive public funds, to be exempt from providing reproductive health care as required by the law. The exemption would be based on their definition of Catholic belief. Why just a "Catholic Exemption?" What about a "Muslim Exemption," a "Mormon Exemption,"  a  "Scientology Exemption," or a "Jewish Exemption?" All of these exemptions would be based on what these groups claim to believe. They would not have to offer rational defenses of their beliefs, they would simply have to say they believed this, that and the other. Perhaps the survivalists could form a religion which believes taxes are immoral. A"Survivalist Exemption?"  


Unfortunately we know that all kinds of human behavior has been justified in the name of religion. Wife abuse, polygamy, female circumcision, honor killings and self-mutilation. Society cannot be making "exemptions from the rule of law" because some religious group simply says that this is what they believe.


Perhaps the Catholic bishops will sometime in the future decide that eating meat on Fridays is once again sinful (and considering the current hierarchy's desire to ignore Vatican II, that's not totally beyond what is likely) and therefore public school lunch programs should not be allowed to serve meat on Fridays.


The bishops should return to the Gospels and refrain from playing power politics. Of course, if they did that, they may have to confront the idea of separation of Church and State; for as Jesus said to the Pharisees and Hypocrites: "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." (Matthew 22)