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Religious Freedom Continues to Fall

Yesterday, the California Supreme Court handed down a ruling signaling a path of previously unknown levels of religious discrimination in this state. While some fault can be found with the religious group involved, the path we are on is unmistakable. The message: keep your religion in your house or church building, if you keep it at all.

Catholic Charities of Sacramento, Inc., is a charitable group providing wide-ranging charitable services in California, including "immigrant resettlement programs, elder care, counseling, food, clothing and affordable housing for the poor and needy, housing and vocational training of the developmentally disabled and the like." As might be expected, they do not limit their services to members of the faith. As might not be expected, they have no commitment to employing primarily Catholic employees, instead practicing an policy of open employment.

Catholic Charities provides health care services to their employees, including prescription drugs. They do not, however, cover contraceptive pharmaceuticals, in accordance with the dogmas of the faith. They were sued by a group of disgruntled employees claiming that they were entitled to contraceptive devices and medicines.

In 1999, the California Legislature enacted the Women's Contraception Equity Act (WCEA). Under the WCEA, employers that cover prescription drugs must also cover prescription contraceptives, but the law excepts religious employers where contraceptive methods are contrary to the religious employer's religious tenets. A religious employer is defined as "an entity for which each of the following is true: (A) The inculcation of religious values is the purpose of the entity. (B) The entity primarily employs persons who share the religious tenets of the entity. (C) The entity serves primarily persons who share the religious tenets of the entity. (D) The entity is a nonprofit organization as described in Section 6033(a)(2)(A)i or iii, of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended."

Catholic Charities clearly did not satisfy all four of these requirements. Nonetheless, it argued that the statute was unconstitutional because of how intrusive it was to religious charities. Notice that all four criteria must be satisfied. So, for example, employing primarily Catholics with a stated goal of pursuing the Catholic faith would not be enough. Any charity would also be required to serve primarily its own members (i.e. no serving the homeless as your main goal) and would also be required to be a primarily evangelical organization (this eliminates almost every religious charity, including the work of Mother Teresa!) Through a variety of legal machinations with which I will not bore our readers, the court upheld the law, and mandated Catholic Charities to start providing contraceptive coverage.

Of particular note is that the Catholic Church did not launch any kind of preemptive attacks on the insidious WCEA at the time it was enacted (to my knowledge anyway). Instead, most of the hierarchy stood on the sidelines and permitted this travesty to be enacted without raising a ruckus.

Also of note was the fact that the following groups, among many others, filed briefs as amici curiae (friends of the court) in favor of the court's decision: Catholics for a Free Choice, California Catholics for a Free Choice, Catholics Speak Out, Vermont Catholics for a Free Conscience, Ethics and Ritual and Women's Ordination Conference. In other words, "catholics" were as much behind this decision as other people.

In summary, the facts laid out in this article spell grave times for Catholicism and indeed all Christianity in America. A "Catholic" charity with no discretion whatsoever in whom it hires as its representatives. A Church leadership sitting by as the slow advance of secularism continues to claim victims. A laity growing obese on their own sin gorging on the flesh of those foolish enough to call them out. And a government only too willing to set itself up as the new morality, day by day relegating religion to quiet whispers in empty rooms behind closed doors.

Some of the most influential legal scholars at Yale, Harvard, and Stanford have not only recognized that religion is quickly becoming illegal, but have actually written publications openly applauding the move towards a religion free society. To our readers, take note that religious liberty, yours and mine, is under attack by the powers that be, and has been for several decades. If you sit by on the sidelines, your children will be the victims. Voting is a must. But it is not enough. Find ways to become more involved. Protest. Sign petitions. Make phone calls. Write letters. Speak up when you hear people trying to shut religion in the closet with that most abused and least understood phrase "separation of church and state." Our faith is not private! It is our mission to the world, and the source and summit of our entire existence.

In Christ,
Dave