The decision by the California Supreme Court to require Catholic Charities to provide its employees medical coverage for birth control connects the dots on several current hot topic issues.
1. Could there be any greater evidence that religious ministries and institutions, sponsored by a denomination or oversight organization, have strayed from their core Christian message? Catholic Charities was found not to qualify as a religious employer because: it offered secular services (like counseling and low-income housing) to people of all faiths without proselytizing; it was not primarily engaged in spreading religious values; and it employs workers of different religions.
“It shows no respect to our religious organizations,” said California Catholic Conference spokeswoman Carol Hogan.
Why should anybody else respect your religion when you don’t respect it yourself?
2. The recent uproar over gay marriage and claims that it will degrade the culture are valid, but much of the blame must be laid at the feet of the churches. Instead of proclaiming, living, and defending their messages of morality, churches and their ministries have focused on, frankly, side issues without dealing with the spiritual disease of the heart. Most churches have become silent and liberalized, more concerned with preserving their nonprofit status than with doing or saying the right thing.
3. Religious organizations have no business receiving government subsidies to provide social services (“compassionate conservatism”). If they are like Catholic Charities and have no grounding in, or proselytizing from, their faith, then what makes them so special? The idea is that faith-based charities are supposed to be more successful because they proclaim their message, which would make them ineligible for public funds. And if they don’t deliver a message with their services, then they are likely no better than a government agency.
“The court is forcing us to choose between our religious beliefs,” said Ned Dolejsi, executive director of the California Catholic Conference in the New York Times.
The truth is, most Catholics and most of the Christian mainline denominations chose to abandon their religious beliefs long ago.
