The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is picky when it comes to religious exemptions from its rules implementing the nation's new affordable health care bill. Right now HHS has such a narrow standard as to who operates a religious ministry, Jesus himself couldn't pass muster.
HHS has a very limited definition of which church organizations can be exempted from having to pay for contraceptives, sterilization and other services that violate church teaching. Amazingly, to establish what HHS deems as true religion, the agency turned to a definition concocted by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) for a law in California. (For the record, a list of church-state lawsuits suggests ACLU does not look kindly on religious organizations' active involvement in the public sphere.)
Following the ACLU lead, HHS argues that a religious exemption should be available just to some religious institutions, and only if they primarily serve and hire persons who share their religious tenets and restrict their charitable efforts to the inculcation of religious values.
Here Jesus loses out. His chief teaching about serving one's neighbor highlights the Good Samaritan who took care of a woebegone stranger by providing medical care, food and lodging. Jesus did not say anything about checking the man's religious affiliation beforehand. There was no catechism test afterwards. The point of the story is to help anyone who needs help.
Jesus met needs that were not necessarily catechetical. For the disconsolate father Jairus, Jesus raised his daughter from the dead. For the worried military leader whose servant had a paralyzing illness, he offered a cure. For the wedding couple at Cana, he turned water into wine. He met basic human needs. The church practice to give help when and where it is needed marks the work of religious institutions from clinics, hospitals and nursing homes to soup kitchens, food pantries and Catholic schools and universities. The goal is to help people in need because they are fellow children of God, whether or not they pray beside you on Sunday.
As the law reads now, to follow HHS rules and qualify for an exemption, many Catholic institutions would have to violate their very mission and refuse service to non-Catholics. They'd have to fire hard-working employees. To maintain their religious integrity, they could be forced to stop providing employee insurance benefits. Or they'd have to close down, a step that would not benefit a nation where one out of six persons seeks hospital care in a Catholic institution. It would also hurt the millions who receive social services and counseling through Catholic Charities; bread, milk and cereal from parish food pantries; and other types of assistance from additional church-run agencies.
You'd have to be pretty removed from American reality not to know that Catholic Charities, Catholic hospitals, Catholic schools and many other Catholic charitable organizations serve more than Catholics. Such service is part of the church's mission, following the example of the Good Samaritan and Christians from the first disciples onward.
Catholics are called to help people in need, whatever their religion. To imply that when Catholics reach out to help others they are not being Catholic shows a poor understanding of the role of religion in our society. Most citizens know enough about Jesus and his works to recognize that his followers' caring ministries deserve respect, even (or especially) when they benefit not just Catholics but the health and human services of the entire nation.
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Sister--if I want to understand the role of religion, and particularily the Catholic church, play in our society--all I need to do is turn on the tv or open the internet.
Last night, for example, good Christians boo'd a gay soldier putting his life on the line for his country.
Catholics don't pay for any charity directly but rather through their begging. This is why the Vatican is fighting so hard to put aside the child sexual abuse issue. The Vatican has NEVER paid anyone anything in compensation for actions, lack of accountability or responsibility, accidents directky attributable to the church etc etc...
Catholicism is a criminal organization far beyond corrupt.
cash.
So the hospitals refuse to offer a few services that are contradictory and in extreme conflict to their beliefs. If those people seeking that care desire one of the two services not provided they can go to a non Catholic hospital in their area and pay the prices set by that hospital or clinic, It is the choice of the person whether they go to a Catholic Hospital or service. But given the rate of uninsured the other 99 percent of reasonable cost care provided by Catholic charity hospitals serves a vital safety net to those in medical need.
If they cannot do the job that they're being paid to do by the federal government, then they are free to decline the funding, which could then be channeled to other hospitals or clinics that are more mindful of their patient's health, medical ethics and federal law.
Jesus had a slightly unfair advantage in paying taxes. He could just tell someone to catch a fish and take the coin out of its mouth. Few fish are that generous or wealthy in twenty-first century America.