Archive for July, 2014

Why Are Liberal ‘Gay’ Activists Freaking Out over a Contraception Case – Hobby Lobby – and Should They Be Worried?

Thursday, July 3rd, 2014

Court’s defense of religious liberty for profit-making companies could help Christian small businessmen oppressed by “gay rights” laws

Supreme-Court-2014

Current U.S. Supreme Court: left to right in back: Sotomayor, Breyer, Alito, Kagan. Front, left to right: Thomas, Scalia, Roberts, Kennedy, Ginsburg. Alito wrote the Hobby Lobby decision, and Kennedy is lionized by “gay” activists for writing last year’s decision striking down DOMA. Click to enlarge.

By Peter LaBarbera

It’s easy to understand why hard-core feminists with their frenzied, overblown “War on Women” rhetoric would be outraged by the Supreme Court upholding Hobby Lobby’s right as a Christian-run corporation not to be forced to provide abortifacients to its employees through an Obama-care mandate. (See Hillary’s misinformation on the decision HERE.) But why are liberal “gay” activists freaking out over the Hobby Lobby ruling?

The case was never about denying women birth control, but you wouldn’t know that from the “reporting” by liberal media and hyperventilating “progressive” bloggers. Hobby Lobby still provides 16 forms of birth control as a health benefit to its employees, but its founders—along with another Christian-owned corporation, Conestoga Wood Specialists—sued HHS over being forced to provide four contraceptive methods that could terminate a fertilized egg.

Hobby Lobby’s founders, David and Barbara Green, are committed Christians who believe that life begins at conception and should be protected. To quote the Court decision, “Hobby Lobby’s statement of purpose commits the Greens to ‘[h]onoring the Lord in all [they] do by operating the company in a manner consistent with Biblical principles.’” So strong is the Greens’ commitment to Jesus Christ that they have lost countless millions of dollars in profits over the years by closing their 500 craft stores nationwide on Sunday.

Now, one would think that obtaining cheap, subsidized contraception would be low on the priority list for homosexuals, seeing that two men or two women by themselves cannot produce a child. Nevertheless, Big Gay Inc is in a tizzy over the Supreme Court decision—because Burwell vs. Hobby Lobby isn’t really about contraceptives but rather whether Americans like the Greens will be free to live out their religious convictions.

Immediately after the decision, feminists flew into a rage, circulating crude versions of Justice Ginsburg’s dissent and distortions about women being denied birth control by their “male bosses.” Too bad most Americans will never read the actual Hobby Lobby decision—which lays out two diametrically opposed, competing visions about freedom of conscience and the role of government in these United States.

Freedom of conscience vs. Big Government

Hobby Lobby's owners, David and Barbara Green, seek to use their business to glorify Jesus Christ. Their 500 stores are closed on Sundays, costing the Greens many millions of dollars in profits.

Hobby Lobby’s owners, David and Barbara Green, seek to use their business to glorify Jesus Christ. Their 500 stores across the country are closed on Sundays, costing the Greens many millions of dollars in profits.

On the side of preserving and even expanding Americans’ religious liberty were five judges: Alito, Kennedy, Roberts, Scalia and Thomas. In his concurring opinion Kennedy writes:

“In our constitutional tradition, freedom means that all persons have the right to believe or strive to believe in a divine creator and a divine law. For those who choose this course, free exercise is essential in preserving their own dignity and in striving for a self-definition shaped by their religious precepts. Free exercise in this sense implicates more than just freedom of belief….It means, too, the right to express those beliefs and to establish one’s religious (or non-religious) self-definition in the political, civic, and economic life of our larger community.”

On the other side—of Big Government overriding citizens’ religious beliefs, restricting conscience exemptions to federal mandates, and putting federal power behind expanded access to entitlements–were Ginsburg, Sotomayor, Breyer and Kagan. In fact, Ginsburg spends nearly two pages in her dissent [see pp. 24-25] defending the idea that Obama-care’s provision of subsidies for IUD’s (intrauterine devices) –one of the four contraceptives resisted by Hobby Lobby as a potential abortifacient—is a “compelling government interest.”

As much as Ginsburg believes the majority’s “immoderate” reading of Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) is too broad, hers is too narrow: she ends by arguing that exemptions under the RFRA should be limited to explicitly religious organizations—leaving for-profit Christian businessmen like the Greens unprotected.

The bigger government gets–in both its “social justice” mission and the amount of goodies it gives out as “entitlements”—the greater the threat to Americans’ right to freely exercise their faith. This is precisely why homosexual activists are nervous about Hobby Lobby’s victory. If the nation’s highest court grants that even very large “closely held” family businesses like Hobby Lobby (which has more than 13,000 employees) possess a religious liberty claim under RFRA, then surely small family businesses like Elane Photography in New Mexico—owned by Jonathan and Elaine Huguenin—should have the right not to use their creative talents to serve homosexual “weddings,” which violate their Christian faith.

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Gary Bauer Blasts Chris Christie’s ‘Pitiful’ Non-Response on Hobby Lobby Decision

Tuesday, July 1st, 2014
Chris_Christie

Suddenly Shy? Why didn’t Gov. Chris Christie praise the Supreme Court decision on Hobby Lobby protecting religious freedom?

The following is taken from Gary Bauer’s daily “End of Day” e-mail sent out today (July 1) through his organization, Campaign for Working Families. Gary has long been one of the best thinkers and most informative writers in the pro-life and pro-family movement. Few conservatives leaders can write like Gary (or hire someone to ghost-write like him!), so if you are conservative or pro-family, I guarantee you will not regret signing up for his daily e-newsletter HERE.

Regarding Chris Christie and the Hobby Lobby SCOTUS decision, isn’t it odd that the outspoken (Republican) New Jersey governor has the audacity to play God by proclaiming that homosexuality not a sin as he signed a freedom-crushing ex-“gay” change therapy ban last year–yet he couldn’t muster up the courage to praise a critical victory for religious freedom at the Supreme Court? I’m no fan of the liberal Huffington Post, and their women-as-victims spin on Hobby Lobby is obnoxious, but they got it at least half right in this piece on Christie’s sudden shyness and craven bully pulpit politics. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH

__________________

The Day After

By Gary Bauer

The left is in full spin mode after the Supreme Court struck down Obamacare’s abortion mandate. Please tell the women in your life that nothing happened yesterday that will deny them access to contraception.

The issue in this case was not contraception. Let me remind folks once again that Hobby Lobby’s insurance policy covered 16 out of 20 forms of contraception. But the owners of Hobby Lobby drew the line at the last four methods, which they believed could cause abortions. And during oral arguments, the Obama Administration actually claimed that it could force companies to pay for abortions.

The issue in this case was individual religious liberty. Consider this statement from Justice Samuel Alito’s majority opinion:

“A corporation is simply a form of organization used by human beings to achieve desired ends. Protecting the free-exercise rights of corporations like Hobby Lobby … protects the religious liberty of the humans who own and control those companies.”

Yesterday’s ruling was a major victory won by a disturbingly slim margin of one vote. Now comes the hard part of winning the debate, which will be difficult in no small measure because of the cowardice of establishment Republicans.

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Supreme Court Passes on Challenge to California Ex-‘Gay’ Change Therapy Ban – Mat Staver Reacts

Tuesday, July 1st, 2014

Law banning pro-heterosexual Reparative Therapy for minors now likely to go into effect

Mat-Staver-SCOTUS

Mat Staver

June 30, 2014

The following is reprinted from LC.org (web links added by AFTAH); to donate to Liberty Counsel, go HERE:

Washington, DC—The Supreme Court passed on Liberty Counsel’s petition regarding California’s ban on change therapy in the case of Pickup v. Brown. Two lower court judges and two separate appellate panels have issued conflicting opinions upholding and blocking the ban on change therapy. A three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an injunction pending appeal, followed by a three-judge panel that upheld the law. That panel then agreed to continue the injunction blocking the law until he Supreme Court had a chance to weigh in on the case. Today’s decision by the Supreme Court to pass on the case means the proceeding will go back to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which could lift the injunction and allow the law to go into effect.

David Pickup left the homosexual lifestyle behind.

Former homosexual David Pickup says, “Reparative Therapy helped save my life.” Read his testimony HERE;  read other ex-“gay” and ex-lesbian testimonies on the PFOX website.

The California law was the first to restrict licensed counselors from offering, and minor clients and their parents from receiving, any counsel to change unwanted same-sex attractions, behaviors, or identity.

“I am deeply saddened for the families we represent and for the thousands of children that our professional clients counsel, many of whom developed these unwanted attractions because of abuse of a pedophile. The minors we represent do not want to act on same-sex attractions, nor do they want to engage in such behavior. They are greatly benefiting from this counseling. Their grades have gone up, their self-esteem has improved, and their relationships at home are much improved,” said Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel. “These children have been victimized twice – first by the likes of Jerry Sandusky, and second by legislators and judges who have essentially barged into their private therapy rooms and told them that they must pursue their unwanted and dangerous same-sex sexual attractions and behavior,” said Staver.

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