The HHS Mandate: People of Faith be Damned

5 FEBRUARY 2012. Spurred by Archbishop Wenski's letter read at mass today, I looked back to reflect on whether the Obama administration has somehow changed course on social and moral issues, or whether the new HHS mandate, unconscionable and unconstitutional as it is, dangerously, is consistent with the long-developing approach to these issues from the Administration. A complete review of President Obama's Note Dame remarks can be found here.

Sadly, there is no change that is positive; if anything, the President's position has only gotten less respectful to people of faith. Consider these words from President Obama at Notre Dame.

In this world of competing claims about what is right and what is true, have confidence in the values with which you've been raised and educated. Be unafraid to speak your mind when those values are at stake. Hold firm to your faith and allow it to guide you on your journey. Stand as a lighthouse.

But remember too that the ultimate irony of faith is that it necessarily admits doubt. It is the belief in things not seen. It is beyond our capacity as human beings to know with certainty what God has planned for us or what He asks of us, and those of us who believe must trust that His wisdom is greater than our own.

This doubt should not push us away from our faith. But it should humble us. It should temper our passions, and cause us to be wary of self-righteousness. It should compel us to remain open, and curious, and eager to continue the moral and spiritual debate that began for so many of you within the walls of Notre Dame. And within our vast democracy, this doubt should remind us to persuade through reason, through an appeal whenever we can to universal rather than parochial principles, and most of all through an abiding example of good works, charity, kindness, and service that moves hearts and minds.

It appears that in implementing the new healthcare overhaaul legislation, HHS (certainly with the approval if not at the direction of the White House) has steered far clear from the Truth as being far to "parochial." Instead, the government would have us follow "universal principles"--we disagree, so everyone's views must be given equal weight, after all, there is no real truth--that give nothing to humanity, but license. License to do whatever--licentiousness. Licentiousness is acting with reckless disregard for good and evil: I want it, therefore I will do whatever I want. However, freedom--found in the free will given to us by the Creator--comes with the obligation to act with responsibility, indeed to act with justice. Justice can only be found in truth, which here has been ignored.

Besides the greatest injustice of U.S. government law and policy that maintains the legality of abortion and access to abortion as being within a concocted right to privacy, the Administration is now telling people of faith that their religious and moral beliefs do not count because they are opposed to the "universal principles" recognized by the White House. There is nothing that could hardly be more parochial, more disrespectful, more evil than this.

Any hope rooted in the President's words at Notre Dame "to continue the moral and spiritual debate" has been slammed by the closing door.

Please take note, Catholics that supported President Obama in the last election, that door has just been slammed on you as well.