Caesar or Christ?

I am gravely concerned. Very, sincerely, gravely concerned. Why? Perhaps it's the fact that I'm closing in on my 30th birthday (nope), or maybe because I'm 3 weeks away from head-to-toe assessment evaluations (nope) or maybe it's the fact that with four kids under my care I'm seeing the world in a different light (nope). OR...maybe it's the fact that our country is literally pushing itself towards a cliff as we race to the end of the American dream of life, LIBERTY, and the pursuit of property. YES!! (you know that property, not happiness, is the actual text?)

I remember that my Grandma used to say how the world was changing for the worse and people were getting so relativistic in their morality, seeking only what made them happy. My mom continued that trend, lamenting the little chinks in the armor of our country's moral fiber that made us so great in such a relatively short span of history. At the time I would chalk part of their sentiment to the unease that any change naturally brings to many people; now, I can say with much certainty that not only were their concerns founded, they were tied right in with our country's slow march toward big-government socialism where our elected officials decide what's best for us and expect us to sit down and take it, because we're too self-absorbed to care about anything that doesn't take away our ability to watch our 60" LED TV before having sterile sex in our 3500 square foot house that's home to me, my girlfriend, and our two dogs. Oh yeah and my custom Mustang.

OK, so you probably can guess that I want to talk about the recent decision by Barack "I think I'm the sun-god Caesar" Obama to force all institutions, including those that are Catholic, to offer abortion-inducing drugs, sterilizations, and contraceptives through their insurance plans...free of charge. For an excellent primer on why the Catholic Church is right on this issue, follow the link here. Now, for those of you who are not familiar with the current events, I turn to Stephen White at CatholicVote.org:

Here’s how the HHS mandate and the new “accommodation” work.

Then: All employers that don’t meet the narrow “religious exemption,” including Catholic hospitals and universities, are required by law to provide insurance coverage that includes contraception and sterilization procedures with no out of pocket costs to the insured.

Now: All employers that don’t meet the narrow “religious exemption,” including Catholic hospitals and universities, are required by law to provide insurance coverage. All such coverage must include contraception and sterilization procedures with no out of pocket costs to the insured.

You see the difference? No? Don’t worry, the smart people in government (the ones sworn to protect your rights) say it’s all good…

Remember, by "then" and "now", we're talking about a roughly 2-week span from making this policy official, violating the religious liberty of every American citizen by defining what we must believe (yes, even individuals who are not Catholic should be alarmed because, don't worry, you're next!), then re-crafting the accounting in the plan to try and make us feel better for not having to tell our employees that the insurance we provide covers procedures we find morally objectionable.

Obama wrote back to those of us that signed a petition requesting that he rescind this mandate and said that "99% of all women have relied on contraception at some point in their lives...99%". HOLD THE PHONE! Really, Barocky? Didn't your mama, teacher, law professor etc teach you that it's generally a bad idea to assert that 99% of people do ANYTHING other than the biological functions necessary to stay alive? Who do you think will believe this, and where do you get your statistics? I consider myself a very reasonable person that can see through political schmuckery like this, so I'm gonna give you a pass on this one. You freaked out a little bit, are trying to respond to nearly 30,000 people that signed the one petition asking that you rescind this mandate, so you're making this out to be a bigger deal than it is. So you're a bad leader under stress. We knew that. Let's try this one: "free preventative care with no co-pays, including contraceptive services, no matter where they work." OK, here's where I need audience participation...when you hear the words medically necessary what comes to mind? Cancer treatments, emergency appendectomies, setting a broken bone, a C-section when labor goes badly, etc etc etc. How many people out there think that contraceptives, sterilizations, and abortion-inducing drugs are medically necessary? Raise your hands there folks? Anybody? OK then. Are they necessary for use if you want to stick your private parts wherever, in whoever, whenever without the "consequence" of children? Sure. It's also medically necessary that when I jump out of a plane I secure my parachute or I will die. But are you going to pay for that? No. See, the issue here is that people don't want to use self-control. This whole idea of "preventative services" is the whitewashed version of "free sex for all!" This is really an unsurprising move down that steep slope my mom and grandma talked about where morality and personal responsibility are left in the dust. Like a good friend tells me all the time, "People are OK with saying that it's wrong for me to steal, it's wrong for me to kill, it's wrong for me to judge, this is wrong and that's wrong...once we get below the belt don't you dare tell me what I'm doing is wrong!" So the government protects this sexual liberty by saying that "preventative services" must be free. Free to prevent us from the consequences that true respect for sexuality would bring us: attachment, real love, children, fidelity, stable homes, stable cities, states, countries. Free to objectify women to nothing more than a thing for pleasure. Free to prevent couples from having kids so when they want to divorce there's no "baggage". OK so you see where I'm going with this?

Essentially, I'm really irritated by the attitude of so many people today that believe sex should mostly be divorced from anything but physical pleasure. "Wherever, however, whoever, without consequence". I know that people are going to do what they decide to do and I can't stop them. But, I shouldn't have to pay for their sexual exploits. The government doesn't have a stake in making sure that people get off however they want...as a matter of fact if I was a president I would try to support people that want to have kids. More citizens right? I didn't think we were communist China. Hmmm. That's another post.

So, I'm running out of steam here and my soapbox is starting to lean a little. I love Christ and His teachings more than the government, so believe me when I say that I will not follow this mandate to provide contraceptives to anyone and everyone. Won't do it. Christ, not Caesar.