Rick Warren: If Contraception Mandate Stands, Relgious Liberty Falls
Pastor Rick Warren has an op-ed in the Washington Post arguing that a core tenet of our ideology is ruined if business owners have to provide women with complete medical coverage.
There is massive evidence that everything Hobby Lobby does is predicated on the Greens’ deep belief that they must honor God and obey his commands in their business. Every Christmas and Easter, Hobby Lobby takes out full-page ads to share the Greens’ faith in the communities where they have stores. Hobby Lobby is not a secular, publicly traded company. Rather, it is the personal, purpose-driven mission of one of the most devout families I’ve ever met…
The administration argues that because Hobby Lobby is a for-profit corporation, the company has no religious rights under the First Amendment. In fact, the government says that exempting Hobby Lobby from paying for drugs and devices to which the Greens object would amount to an imposition of the Greens’ faith on their employees.
No, Pastor Warren, Hobby Lobby serves the public and hires employees from the public who may not share your religious views. The administration is not arguing that they have no religious rights. They are saying they don’t have the right to withhold proper medical care from others because of their personal views.
In this case, the administration is insisting that those who form and operate a family business based on religious beliefs must disobey what they believe is God’s standard in order to obey the government’s program.
No, Pastor Warren, the administration is arguing that the Greens don’t have the right to impose their religious views on others.
