A Godly Victory for Religious Conscience

You no doubt heard about Hobby Lobby and their battle waged against the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a., Obamacare).  On July 22, this Christian-owned company won an enormous victory over its abortion mandate.  A federal court issued an injunction so that Hobby Lobby will not be required to purchase insurance plans that provide abortion-inducing drugs to their employees.  The Obamacare mandate would require them to purchase the coverage or face crippling fines.  The federal court says otherwise.

 

Specifically, the court’s ruling says that the owners’ “rights” are “substantially burdened by the contraceptive-coverage requirement” and that the mandate causes “an irreparable harm” to the company.

 

“The tide has turned against the HHS mandate,” says Kyle Duncan, General Counsel with The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, and lead attorney for Hobby Lobby.  [You can read more about the news at the website for The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.]

 

This is an encouraging development; but this case is likely going to end up before the U.S. Supreme Court.  Only then will we know whether the unconstitutional Obamacare mandate will stand once and for all.  The Obama Administration has already delayed its implementation until 2015. The mandate seems to be on its heels as it is.  Because it’s unlikely that Congress would repeal the law, we’ll only know for sure after the Supreme Court rules.

 

Here, again, we have another case of Christians exercising their 1st amendment rights of religious conscience as they seek to distinguish rendering to Caesar [the government] verse rendering to God. 

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

Chaplain (Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel