“Endowed By Their Creator”…Catholic Bishops: Religious Rights Are God-Given and Don’t Depend On Any Government Decision To Grant It

Washington does not run the Catholic Church – the Vatican does. Obama and his pro-abort minions can try to obfuscate the issue all they want –  pretending this is a “woman’s health” issue, demagoguing the controversy as a “war against women” but at the end of the day, this is a religious freedom issue. It was worrying to hear leaders in the church speak defensively – as though the government had the power to force them to violate their consciences.

As Richard Viguerie and Mark Fitzgibbons  at The American Thinker pointed out, earlier in the week:

In response to the Obama administration mandate requiring Catholic institutions to pay for insurance covering contraception, U.S. Catholic bishops announced that they will not “obey” that “law”.

The bishops have gotten it wrong and backwards, and in doing so have yielded the moral high ground that is rightfully theirs.

It looked like Catholic  leaders were going to allow the left to bait and switch this issue into a debate about women’s health.

But now, they’re finally getting it right:  LifeNews: Catholic Bishops: Our Rights Don’t Depend on Obama:

USCCB President Timothy Cardinal Dolan has issued a new letter to his fellow Catholic bishops that is one of the strongest condemnations yet of the revised Obama mandate that pro-life advocates have blasted for trampling on religious freedoms.

In the new letter issued Wednesday and co-signed by Bishop William Lori, Dolan condemns the mandate and urges support for the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act, which would overturn the revision of the original mandate that forced religious employers to pay for birth control and drugs that cause abortions. The new mandate puts the onus for paying for them on insurance companies but religious employers may still have to pay and will be required to make referrals for their employees.

Dolan obliterates the mandate, saying religious rights and freedoms are a God-given right that and it “does not depend on any government’s decision to grant it.”

This whole controversy certainly sheds light on Obama’s serial omissions of “by their creator” in 2010.  Many suspected that it was because Obama believes all rights come from the State.

We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, endowed – – – with certain inalienable rights, life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness…

“If the government can, for example, tell Catholics that they cannot be in the insurance business today without violating their religious convictions, where does it end?” Dolan asks.

Well they can’t force Catholics to violate their consciences and remain faithful to our founding documents at the same time – and Obama knows it. That’s why he kept leaving that pesky little phrase out of his recitations of the Declaration of Independence. In Obamerica we aren’t endowed by any imaginary “creator”. All our rights come from the State.

Alarmed?

You should be.

Make sure you get everyone you know to vote. If you know any elderly people who have moved recently – help them get registered at their new address. 2012 may be this nation’s last chance at surviving as a Democratic Republic.

SEE ALSO:

An Ex-Con’s View: Totalitarianism and the State as God:

Totalitarianism relies on one main concept – the death of belief. Not simply the belief in God, but of all belief – in one’s nation, community, church, and even self. Totalitarianism can only exist when the majority of people have no belief in a nation’s moral standards, political reality and society; who, during that crisis in belief, reach out and embrace the resolution that the totalitarian regime offers as a life-line.

This life-line is the totalitarian state itself – a Marxist Utopia, the State as God and giver of all to all. By offering the panacea of the all-knowing and providing State, the totalitarian regime seeks to supplant all the beliefs of the people with the State as God and its agenda. Cultural Marxism is the tool they are using.

Now, I’m sure you’ll say that’s communism, or socialism, or fascism. Those are three roads that lead to the same end – totalitarianism – like in Nazi Germany, the former Soviet Union and Red China. All three ended up as totalitarian regimes under brutal leaders – Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin and Mao Tse Tung.

Keep reading.

UPDATE:

Catholic Vote sends word:

The Senate is expected to vote Tuesday or Wednesday of next week on this legislation, which would repeal the HHS mandate – and provide conscience protections for ALL Americans.

The legislation is sponsored by Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri and it would protect the rights of conscience for religious organizations and for businesses so they wouldn’t be forced by the federal government to pay for medical procedures which violate their moral beliefs.

My sources in Washington tell me that we are in need of several critical swing votes, especially the following Senators.

Here are ten Senators we need to contact IMMEDIATELY:

202-224-2043 – Sen. Kent Conrad of North Dakota
202-224-2523 – Sen. Susan Collins of Maine
202-224-5344 – Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine
202-224-5824 – Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana
202-224-4041 – Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut

202-224-3954 – Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia
202-224-6154 – Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri
202-224-5274 – Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida
202-224-2353 – Sen. Mark Pryor of Arkansas
202-224-2644 – Sen. Jon Tester of Montana
.