Liberal Catholics Who Supported ObamaCare Surprised They’ve Been Betrayed
I’m trying to find some sympathy for these people, but oddly enough, all I can muster is bottomless contempt. Amy Sullivan in The Atlantic:
Let me explain. Abortion rights organizations, pro-choice Democrats, and the media have all characterized the debate over this contraception coverage rule as a struggle between the White House and the Catholic bishops. In its editorial supporting the decision, the New York Times praised the Obama administration for “with[standing] pressure from Roman Catholic bishops and social conservatives.” But that’s not accurate.
The list of Catholics who have lobbied the administration to consider a broader definition of “religious employer” than now exists—one that would cover institutions like Catholic universities and hospitals—includes politically progressive Catholics who have been close allies of the White House, like Father John Jenkins, the president of the University of Notre Dame who stood up to conservatives who wanted Obama disinvited from giving the school’s commencement address in 2009. It includes pro-life Catholic Democrats like Senator Bob Casey, who now faces an even tougher reelection campaign in Pennsylvania because of his vote in favor of Obama’s health reform plan. And it includes precisely those Catholic hospital officials and progressive nuns whose support of health reform provided reassurance and cover for the holdout Catholic Democrats who voted to make it law. In doing so, they made possible the largest expansion of contraception access in U.S. history.
Without the work of women like Sister Carol Keehan, president of the Catholic Health Association, and Sister Simone Campbell of the Catholic social justice group NETWORK, there would be no health reform and therefore no contraception coverage mandate to argue over—not just for the employees of Catholic hospitals and universities, but for the estimated 24 million other women who will benefit from this aspect of the law.
So, yes, a little gratitude from women’s health advocates and other liberals would be appropriate. Instead, when these Catholic sisters and others asked for some flexibility with regard to the mandate, the advocates pooh-poohed as irrelevant their concerns about religious liberty and insisted that “the bishops” were the only ones who had a problem with contraception coverage.
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She sailed away on a pleasant summer day
On the back of a crocodile.
“You see”,said she, “he’s as tame as he can be,
I’ll float him down the Nile.”
The crock winked his eye as she waived them all goodbye,
Wearing a happy smile.
At the end of the ride
The lady was inside.
And the smile on the crocodile!
[1] Posted by Judith L on 2-9-2012 at 02:33 PM · [top]
Is there some great surprise here? Why didn’t Catholics speak up back when the deals were being cooked in 2009? Obama was playing “let’s make a deal” with everyone, in order to pass Obamacare. Surely the Catholics could have secured some protection then. Did somehow they “trust” Obama to protect them in the regulatory phase?
I am not a Catholic and I don’t operate a hospital—but anyone who does would have seen this down the road….
Just saying…
[2] Posted by Dick Mitchell on 2-9-2012 at 02:44 PM · [top]
If these fools actually believed they could trust the jackals they were dealing with (e.g., Jenkins dealing with Obama), they’re absolute - you should forgive the un-PC expression - morons. They’ve gotten what they asked for. Shouldn’t be a surprise at all! Love your crocodile quote, Judith!
[3] Posted by Nellie on 2-9-2012 at 02:53 PM · [top]
When will the religious left realize that they play the “useful idiot” role so well for secular liberals? Useful idiots are used, then discarded when no longer needed.
[4] Posted by jamesw on 2-9-2012 at 03:12 PM · [top]
On one level I have little sympathy for the Roman Catholic Church. They want desperately to be “players” on the national stage. They lobby for government healthcare, practically open borders, grant “annulments” to power politicos like the Kennedys and Newt Gingrich like a Pez dispenser.
Get in bed with big government and you wonder why they don’t respect you in the morning?
But there are larger principles at stake here that need to be defended for the sake of freedom.
[5] Posted by Bill2 on 2-9-2012 at 03:27 PM · [top]
Bill2, to stand up for the CC, it isn’t that they so much want to be “players”, it is that RC theology of having a preferential option for the poor would tend to support such government programs. It is also why the RC church has so many schools, hospitals, nursing homes, etc. They put their money and institutions where their mouth/theology is. One other thing - are you arguing that Kennedy(s) (since Newt is still with us I won’t comment on him), having had several and public serial affairs thoroughout that marriage, is getting an annulment solely based on clout? Really???
[6] Posted by advocate on 2-9-2012 at 03:58 PM · [top]
#2 - I think Dick that we had a 2000+ page piece of legislation that no one understood (and probably very few do now), what with mandate powers for HHS (Sebelius ugh!). Should Congress have studied this better before passing it? Absolutely. We are finding out about ObamaCare now. This turkey needs to be dismantled forthwith.
[7] Posted by via orthodoxy on 2-9-2012 at 04:25 PM · [top]
Right on, Nellie! Obama said exactly what he intended to do: ...fundamentally change the United States of America… Since the foundation of America is the Constitution, he is succeeding very well. Another term and he’ll be finished with it.
[8] Posted by simplicius on 2-9-2012 at 05:19 PM · [top]
RE: “it is that RC theology of having a preferential option for the poor would tend to support such government programs. . . . “
See—this is something I fundamentally don’t understand.
Why would a Biblical and traditional concern for the poor and for charity necessarily involve the State taking money by force and in contradiction to its set of founding documents from one set of people, placing it in a huge, vast, labyrinthine leviathan of a bureaucracy, percolating it for a bit, larding up the money with masses of regulations and hiring many administrators and staff at the highest national levels, then feeding it back slowly, with tight control and yet more mandates and central planning to more localized bureaucracies, which then dole out the money according to the central planners in Washington at cents on the dollar?
My feeble mind simply cannot grasp that.
And I mean . . . the above summary is actually the kindest way of looking at State-mandated “charity.” I could put it much more harshly and draconianly than that - -as the news reports will increasingly reveal over the coming years of implementation of Obamacare, which will entail disasters beyond our imaginings even now, from vast physician shortages, to lack of care, to strict rationing, to loss of innovation—it’s just mind boggling what his “charitable” government program will bring to us.
[9] Posted by Sarah on 2-9-2012 at 05:45 PM · [top]
Sarah,
I agree - it can’t be “tzedakah” if it’s compelled through the force of the state. How can you be obedient to God through an act of charity when it’s not your own substance given freely? I think the Bishops mistook ends for means - both matter.
(And the gummint isn’t really exercising charity either - they are simply buying votes with people’s money. It’s a raw exercise of power and control.)
[10] Posted by Doug Stein on 2-9-2012 at 07:55 PM · [top]
Sarah, you’ve just clearly and concisely explained what my dad has been trying to tell me for years. I’ve been one of those none-so-blind folks that’s just come around. Dad and I both thank you.
[11] Posted by polycarp on 2-9-2012 at 08:29 PM · [top]
The Roman Catholics were wrong in supporting Obamacare, in part becasuse they thought they could avoid what they were forcing on others. They deserve much shame for this and the fact that they now see the light when it’s their own ox being gored.
But have been wrong and short sighted does not prevent them from being right in this instant. And we are all in the same boat. All evangelical and other none Catholic Christian ministries: Church day schools, Christian schools etc. are in the same boat. See Colson’s Prison Fellowship Ministries.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2012/februaryweb-only/catholics-contraceptive-mandate.html
As Christians we either fight this unjust and immoral federal power grab or we forget about religious liberty in this country. In this fight we are all Roman Catholics. We can resume our regular squabbles later after we win. If we lose it won’t make any difference.
[12] Posted by Br. Michael on 2-10-2012 at 05:46 AM · [top]
Thank you, Br Michael. Better late than never. We should extend a hand of welcome to any and all who stand against this travesty.
[13] Posted by Jill Woodliff on 2-10-2012 at 08:11 AM · [top]
Sarah, your comments in the first paragraph of #9 are as good a concise description of what we are fighting as I have ever read.
I hope it gets emailed and blogged around to alot of different people/sites.
[14] Posted by Looking for Leaders on 2-10-2012 at 08:48 AM · [top]
9, of course, as you know, the reason is obvious. It’s political largess. By doling out money to the groups it favors it allows the party in power to buy votes and it solidifies government power of the bureaucracy which doles out that largess.
FDR was a past master in using New Deal programs to reward friends and punish enemies.
[15] Posted by Br. Michael on 2-10-2012 at 09:20 AM · [top]
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