Welcome to Obamaland where our inalienable rights are being gradually degraded. Now that President Obama needs never to curry electoral favor again will governments grasping overreach soon strangle a successful arts-and-crafts company?
Were just going to have to cross that bridge when we come to it" says attorney Kyle Duncan of the Beckett Fund for Religious Liberty. Mr. Duncan represents Hobby Lobby a family-owned retail chain risking severe penalties for putting principles before profits. Limited self-government descends into tyranny.
Hobby Lobby faces looming fines of up to $1.3 million per day for refusing to abide a spurious provision of the Affordable Care Act aka Obamacare. Hobby Lobbys owners object to being forced to finance certain drugs Plan B and Ella (or the morning-after" and week-after" pills) which the FDA notes can terminate pregnancy after conception by preventing attachment (implantation) to the womb (uterus)."
Mr. Duncan clarified The company will continue to provide health insurance to all qualified employees. To remain true to their faith it is not their intention as a company to pay for abortion-inducing drugs." A request for an emergency injunction filtered to the Supreme Court while appeals pended. Justice Sonia Sotomayor blocked the motion. Hobby Lobbys owners must violate conscience or incur Washingtons wrath while the matter matriculates through the courts.
Over forty legal challenges have contested the contraception mandate. Churches have largely been exempted but faith-based hospitals and universities face similar predicaments. Simply requiring co-pays on birth control hazards bureaucratic vengeance. Most federal courts have granted more leniency than the 10th Circuit which rebuffed Hobby Lobby. Other plaintiffs including several similarly situated profit seeking corporations have prevailed. Ultimately the Supreme Court must decide.
Until then the companys plight proves a cause clbre for conservatives. Hobby Lobby epitomizes the American Dream a rags-to-riches tale where David Green borrowed $600 to begin business in his garage. En route Mr. Green amassed plentiful green ascending to rank 79th on Forbes list of wealthiest Americans. In an uplifting Forbes profile Green quickly conceded Look this is yours God." A standard hes embodied by donating an estimated half billion dollars to Christian charities.
The companys success stems from treating customers and employees well traits the Greens attribute to their biblical beliefs. Hobby Lobby operates a free medical clinic for eligible employees and pays generously. David Green founder and CEO observed in an open letter circling the internet Weve not only added jobs in a weak economy weve raised wages for the past four years in a row. Our full-time employees start at 80 above minimum wage."
Green continued The government is forcing us to choose between following our faith and following the law." He vows to live his Christian convictions come what may." Will Washington smother dissent by bankrupting a thriving business thus thrusting twenty-some thousand employees into the street? Its up to the Department of Health and Human Services where unelected bureaucrats wield far more clout than anyone contemplated at Obamacares inception.
The White House has not intervened. Despite thousands of Obamacare waivers flowing per political calculus principled resistance apparently warrants little respite. Hobby Lobby must bend to bureaucratic whim or the company may be compelled to pony over steep penalties.
Christians are often pilloried for imposing private morality on the public. Yet this fiasco reveals the absurdity of the so-called war on women." Mr. Green seeks neither to outlaw contraception nor to prevent his workers from using birth control. Hobby Lobbys health plans already cover contraceptives. Moreover the preventive medicine" in question remains widely and cheaply accessible elsewhere.
What pills employers furnish ought to be settled privately between management and labor. Instead the public or more precisely President Obamas henchmen foist mandated immorality on private businesses. Hobby Lobby is a for-profit secular employer" chastises the administration and a secular entity by definition does not exercise religion." Thus has the Christian walk been narrowed via royal decree.
Submit or pay.
This isnt about abortion; thats another argument. Mr. Green merely wishes Washington wouldnt corner him into defying his faith. But the Obama regime thinks recalcitrant businesses should be taxed into oblivion; an inverted tithe coercing the faithful into funding others infidelity. Perhaps this fulfills Obamas campaign pledge to punish our enemies."
The HHS edict highlights a telling pattern. In Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC Obamas Justice Department battled to restrict a Christian schools right to consider doctrinal purity in employment decisions. Team Obama relegates free exercise of religion into measly freedom of worship. Go to church as you please but in public keep quiet. The Bible mustnt illuminate your moral compass anywhere its teachings violate his Utopian vision.
President Obama regularly abuses his bully pulpit but Hobby Lobbys ordeal hardly resembles the dubious lawsuits Washington wins through intimidation. Many companies have made conscious business choices to kowtow in dread of the PR nightmare Democrats hang over them like the Sword of Damocles. Think Chrysler and its secured creditors. But Mr. Green seemingly relishes a chance to demonstrate resolve under persecution.
He wont cave over money.
Hobby Lobby Appreciation Day" failed to spark the vast support Chick-fil-A attracted last summer. Like frogs boiling in water many Americans have grown complacent. Others tire of an unremitting culture war and the Lefts relentless assault on liberty. But should Washington punish the Greens for their creed the populist backlash could be enormous.
Hobby Lobbys case cuts to the quick of governments proper scope. Mr. Green represents an increasingly marginalized evangelical community easy pickings for the secular stewards of popular culture but Americans of every stripe should stand in solidarity. Benjamin Franklin warned of an earlier trial We must all hang together or assuredly we shall all hang separately."
Beyond Mr. Greens legendary philanthropy his legacy might be burnished further for spurring an awakening. His resolve proves a powerful testimony edifying the faithful and an inflection point to rally freedom lovers.
Fight the good fight Mr. Green.
Welcome to Obamaland where our inalienable rights are being gradually degraded. Now that President Obama needs never to curry electoral favor again will governments grasping overreach soon strangle a successful arts-and-crafts company?
Were just going to have to cross that bridge when we come to it" says attorney Kyle Duncan of the Beckett Fund for Religious Liberty. Mr. Duncan represents Hobby Lobby a family-owned retail chain risking severe penalties for putting principles before profits. Limited self-government descends into tyranny.
Hobby Lobby faces looming fines of up to $1.3 million per day for refusing to abide a spurious provision of the Affordable Care Act aka Obamacare. Hobby Lobbys owners object to being forced to finance certain drugs Plan B and Ella (or the morning-after" and week-after" pills) which the FDA notes can terminate pregnancy after conception by preventing attachment (implantation) to the womb (uterus)."
Mr. Duncan clarified The company will continue to provide health insurance to all qualified employees. To remain true to their faith it is not their intention as a company to pay for abortion-inducing drugs." A request for an emergency injunction filtered to the Supreme Court while appeals pended. Justice Sonia Sotomayor blocked the motion. Hobby Lobbys owners must violate conscience or incur Washingtons wrath while the matter matriculates through the courts.
Over forty legal challenges have contested the contraception mandate. Churches have largely been exempted but faith-based hospitals and universities face similar predicaments. Simply requiring co-pays on birth control hazards bureaucratic vengeance. Most federal courts have granted more leniency than the 10th Circuit which rebuffed Hobby Lobby. Other plaintiffs including several similarly situated profit seeking corporations have prevailed. Ultimately the Supreme Court must decide.
Until then the companys plight proves a cause clbre for conservatives. Hobby Lobby epitomizes the American Dream a rags-to-riches tale where David Green borrowed $600 to begin business in his garage. En route Mr. Green amassed plentiful green ascending to rank 79th on Forbes list of wealthiest Americans. In an uplifting Forbes profile Green quickly conceded Look this is yours God." A standard hes embodied by donating an estimated half billion dollars to Christian charities.
The companys success stems from treating customers and employees well traits the Greens attribute to their biblical beliefs. Hobby Lobby operates a free medical clinic for eligible employees and pays generously. David Green founder and CEO observed in an open letter circling the internet Weve not only added jobs in a weak economy weve raised wages for the past four years in a row. Our full-time employees start at 80 above minimum wage."
Green continued The government is forcing us to choose between following our faith and following the law." He vows to live his Christian convictions come what may." Will Washington smother dissent by bankrupting a thriving business thus thrusting twenty-some thousand employees into the street? Its up to the Department of Health and Human Services where unelected bureaucrats wield far more clout than anyone contemplated at Obamacares inception.
The White House has not intervened. Despite thousands of Obamacare waivers flowing per political calculus principled resistance apparently warrants little respite. Hobby Lobby must bend to bureaucratic whim or the company may be compelled to pony over steep penalties.
Christians are often pilloried for imposing private morality on the public. Yet this fiasco reveals the absurdity of the so-called war on women." Mr. Green seeks neither to outlaw contraception nor to prevent his workers from using birth control. Hobby Lobbys health plans already cover contraceptives. Moreover the preventive medicine" in question remains widely and cheaply accessible elsewhere.
What pills employers furnish ought to be settled privately between management and labor. Instead the public or more precisely President Obamas henchmen foist mandated immorality on private businesses. Hobby Lobby is a for-profit secular employer" chastises the administration and a secular entity by definition does not exercise religion." Thus has the Christian walk been narrowed via royal decree.
Submit or pay.
This isnt about abortion; thats another argument. Mr. Green merely wishes Washington wouldnt corner him into defying his faith. But the Obama regime thinks recalcitrant businesses should be taxed into oblivion; an inverted tithe coercing the faithful into funding others infidelity. Perhaps this fulfills Obamas campaign pledge to punish our enemies."
The HHS edict highlights a telling pattern. In Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC Obamas Justice Department battled to restrict a Christian schools right to consider doctrinal purity in employment decisions. Team Obama relegates free exercise of religion into measly freedom of worship. Go to church as you please but in public keep quiet. The Bible mustnt illuminate your moral compass anywhere its teachings violate his Utopian vision.
President Obama regularly abuses his bully pulpit but Hobby Lobbys ordeal hardly resembles the dubious lawsuits Washington wins through intimidation. Many companies have made conscious business choices to kowtow in dread of the PR nightmare Democrats hang over them like the Sword of Damocles. Think Chrysler and its secured creditors. But Mr. Green seemingly relishes a chance to demonstrate resolve under persecution.
He wont cave over money.
Hobby Lobby Appreciation Day" failed to spark the vast support Chick-fil-A attracted last summer. Like frogs boiling in water many Americans have grown complacent. Others tire of an unremitting culture war and the Lefts relentless assault on liberty. But should Washington punish the Greens for their creed the populist backlash could be enormous.
Hobby Lobbys case cuts to the quick of governments proper scope. Mr. Green represents an increasingly marginalized evangelical community easy pickings for the secular stewards of popular culture but Americans of every stripe should stand in solidarity. Benjamin Franklin warned of an earlier trial We must all hang together or assuredly we shall all hang separately."
Beyond Mr. Greens legendary philanthropy his legacy might be burnished further for spurring an awakening. His resolve proves a powerful testimony edifying the faithful and an inflection point to rally freedom lovers.
Fight the good fight Mr. Green.
