I Guess I Don't Understand 'Freedom of Religion'
Health Workers' 'Conscience' Rule Set to Be Voided
By Rob Stein Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, February 28, 2009; A01
The Obama administration's move to rescind broad new job protections for health workers who refuse to provide care they find objectionable triggered an immediate political storm yesterday, underscoring the difficulties the president faces in his effort to find common ground on anything related to the explosive issue of abortion.
The administration's plans, revealed quietly with a terse posting on a federal Web site, unleashed a flood of heated reaction, with supporters praising the proposal as a crucial victory for women's health and reproductive rights, and opponents condemning it as a devastating setback for freedom of religion.
--read entire article-- ______________________________________________________I must have got it wrong. Somehow, I had come to understand that 'freedom of religion' guaranteed each of our rights to practice the religion of our choice--or none at all.
Thomas Jefferson said his neighbor's choice of faith bothered him not at all, "it neither robs my purse nor breaks my leg." Those who would practice their religion in an intolerance of mine--across a pharmaceutical counter at Wal-Mart or other drugstore outlets--have just been set down from metaphorically robbing purses and breaking legs.
Make no mistake. The inability to purchase birth-control devices within reasonable proximity to one's home, at reasonable hours of need, is a preference for vendor-religion over purchaser-religion.
Freedom is now being returned to that venue, along with truly personal religious choice according to faith and conscience.