“Compelling Catholics”

There was this letter to the editor in today’s paper under the banner “Obama’s contempt for religion evident”. The writer complained that Obama and his supporters “have a contempt for religion, morality and the U.S. Constitution”. But the kicker  comment was this… “the government is compelling Catholics to violate their consciences or to suffer the consequences”.

Compelling Catholics? This whole issue is so stupid! As it has been in the past, health insurance companies help pay for contraception IF the insured wants it. The folks that want to COMPEL Catholics are those guys in funny hats in Rome. And how well has that worked? Not well at all. As been mentioned before, 98% of Catholic women ignore the church’s edict on contraception. No one in government is forcing anyone to get or use contraception.

Why aren’t the bishops up in arms with the pharmacies or grocery store that have condoms on their shelves? Is the pharmacy compelling men to use the condom? If a married Catholic man uses a condom when he has sex with his wife, who is to blame?

I’m upset that when these issues come to light, it seems that men are the ones who seem to want to dictate things. Sean Hannity had a “panel” to discuss this issue. The “panel” was made up of priests, bishops, rabbis and others and all were men. No women! A recent congressional panel was called on this issue and all the witnesses were men! No women! WTF?

The republicans don’t seem to get that most people don’t really care about this issue. What they care about is the economy and jobs. If you are out of work and don’t have health insurance, who cares about the pill or the condom? They are using this issue to try and beat up on Obama. They figure eventually they’ll find something that will stick. It ain’t this! Think about it.