You can’t hum while holding your nose closed.
Weird huh?
You knew you thought you could. It’s so odd, illogical and stupid, that you can’t believe it’s true. Just as implausible? Half of Colorado backs the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision allowing Hobby Lobby owners to prevent its health insurance company from offering some forms of birth control — because of the company owners’ religious preferences.
Weird huh?
When I read the results of that recent Quinnipiac poll this morning, I flashed back to the day Sen. John McCain introduced Sarah Palin as his presidential running mate. It was just too odd, too illogical to fathom.
Why? Why would anyone think it’s a good idea to let employers dictate what health care services are and aren’t offered to employees based on the religious beliefs of the employer?
But sure as chickens dream, half of adults in Colorado think it’s a good idea to let bosses decide which form of birth control their insurance plan can and cannot offer. This became an issue because Hobby Lobby owner David Green is serious about his extreme Oklahoma religion. Leaders of his church have told him some forms of modern birth control are sinful. Green objects that under federal healthcare laws, birth control prescribed by doctors is considered a medical issue and must be treated that way by insurance companies.
Here’s what you may not know. Green is a Pentecost. You know, the people who gather on Sundays for some serious praising and sometimes end up speaking in “tongues” and writhing with the spirit. This is a religion that believes in faith healing, where you put your hands on cancer victims and draw the “holy spirit” into a body to do what doctors can’t or even haven’t had the opportunity to try.
That’s Green’s religion. That’s what’s driving the health-care decisions for Hobby Lobby employees.
As U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg pointed out, this extraordinary decision could allow companies to dictate to insurance companies what health services are not covered, based on the religious preference of company owners. Since this same court has ruled that corporations are people, just about any corporation can assume a religious doctrine dictating what the company health plan will or won’t pay for. While Justice Samuel Alito said this ruling affects only birth control, it opens the doors for states sympathetic to such nonsense to write laws allowing greater leeway into shaping employee health benefits. Under a likely Texas law, if your boss’s religion doesn’t allow for blood transfusions or blood-based treatments, such as those often used for leukemia, you’re on your own. If that means you hemorrhage and die on the operating table because you can’t afford to pay for such services, and the courts haven’t sorted all this out, well, then it’s because the Lord decided it was time to call you home.
I guess a lot of Colorado residents think, “it’s just birth control — no big deal.” But don’t think for a second that people who believe God will keep you well if you’re bitten by a poisonous snake or drink poison, or that your holy underwear can keep you safe from fire and Satan, would be unable to wreak untold havoc in your personal life. I think this is a good place to point out that almost every deadly skirmish on the planet these days stems from disagreements about religion.
We’re not talking about casserole-carrying Lutherans from the Midwest here. The special undies and snake dancing faithful are the kinds of religious disciples motivated to decide what your health insurance should and shouldn’t cover, or what you should or shouldn’t wear to work. Since corporations are people, and you really have no idea who or what runs the corporations these days, Saudi Muslim money unhappy with the way American women dress at work could easily dictate head coverings and modest, full-length dresses. The Supreme Court said that when serious religious convictions are at stake, they must be appreciated.
This has all shocked me. What conservative thinks it’s a good idea for anyone to impose their religion on another American? If any one offense seems to be agreed upon here, it’s that one. The Baptists don’t want the Jews or the Catholics telling them what to do, ever. Forcing anyone’s religion on another person is about as un-American as you can get without snatching their guns.
All I can think of is that too many Colorado residents are misled about the decision, or they’re just not paying attention. It was a bad call that opens a door to all kinds of bizarre problems, and if you don’t think someone will try and run with this, think again, long and hard. In what way have the majority of employers not consistently looked for ways to get more from their employees and pay less for it? What religion, other than your own, do you think should be advising health insurance companies and doctors about meting out care? Honestly, do you even trust your own religion’s leaders to make health-care decisions for you?
I didn’t think so. While we may be cavalier about the dilemma’s of others, when it comes to our own lives, we want science to call the shots for science, not politicians, lawyers or religious leaders.
It’s unclear how Americans are going to be able to protect themselves from their employer’s religious convictions. But there’s little doubt that some brave lawmakers in Colorado or Congress with give it a shot. And when they do, they’re going to need your support. If we permit the country’s employers to make even some health-care decisions for some employees on some religious principles, none of us will have a prayer.