OBAMA'S UNCONSTITUTIONAL ATTACK ON RELIGION - THE SUNDAY COMMENTARY

In recent days the center of discussion on the political scene has been the Obama mandate that all religious entities whether a specific church or a religious organization are required by the government through Obamacare to provide free contraceptive services up to and including the morning after pill and abortion procedures in any health insurance provided by that organization or church if they receive any form of government funding.

Many churches and/or religious organizations receive government funding for a variety of reasons but especially for more welfare related services and as such provide a public service through the religious organization or church to those who may be struggling from a financial problem or other related troubles that make it hard for individuals or families to provide for themselves and their loved ones.

The mandate through Obamacare for the inclusion of all reproductive services in the entities health care provided or employees as seen by Obama, his administration and those on the left as a necessary element to their premise that government has the authority by law to force its will upon anyone who does not accept the lefts premise that any lack of adherence to this type of mandate is a violation of what they term reproductive services including abortion as a Constitutional right and as such must be mandated by the government to protect a woman's right to chose whatever means they deem necessary for their, "reproductive freedom." This is Obama's and the lefts basic argument.

Of course this does not take into account in any way the doctrinal or religious belief of any church or religious organization who receives government funding nor the true meaning of the First Amendment Establishment Clause which states,"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." It also reveals the fundamental flaw and if you will lie that has been the center piece of the lefts attack on religion for decades that there is a Constitutionally mandated, "separation of church and state."

This argument over the mandate for reproductive services to all religious organization has nothing to do with a woman's right to determine what happens with her body or her right for reproductive freedom. Whether this mandate is forced upon religious organizations or not, reproductive services of the type in the mandate are available to all women regardless of their religious affiliation or lack there of through state and county health services and health departments all at greatly reduced prices based upon income even without any type of company provided insurance. So Obama and the lefts premise that without the mandate these services are not available to women who work for a religious entity is an absolute lie.

Now to the fact that this is an attack on religion and unconstituional based on the truth intent of what the Establishment Clause means. If a church or religious organization has a belief that any type of reproductive service from contraception to abortion is contrary to their religious belief they have the fundamental protection from the Constitution to freely exercise that belief without fear that the government will interfere with that freedom. Let me also state here for the record that while I have referred to abortion as a reproductive service I do so only for arguments sake since the left believes abortion as a reproductive right. Personally I believe that all abortion is the murder of an innocent baby and in direct violation of our right in this country of ," life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

The left believes the Establishment Clause to be only a means of separating any form of religious practice or recognition of God from anything related to the state or government. They have completely ignored the true intent of our Founders for placing this most sacred of our rights in the Constitution which was intended to ONLY protect religion from government and not protect government from religion. In other words the Founders wanted government out of any practice of dictating to any religion or individuals religious beliefs what they can or cannot do or how they may practice their religion or not practice religion at all.

As such Obama and the left see it within their authority regardless of religious beliefs to mandate upon religious entities their definition of reproductive services and so called freedom since the Establishment Clause as they see it only separates church from state and not protect religion from the tyrannical dictates of government.

This attack on religious freedom is as unconstitutional as the premise by the left that all things religious and of God should be separated from anything government or state. The reason our Founders insisted on the Establishment Clause was to prevent the very thing that Obama and the left are trying to pull, using government to force their political agenda of reproductive freedom on religion disregarding religious beliefs and the freedom we have in this country to practice those beliefs as we see fit without fear of government interfering. Again the First Amendment protects religion from government not government from religion through a separation of church ans state.

This move by Obama and the left is just another in a long line of attacks where the use of government is tyrannically manipulated in order to force a political agenda on religion and the church to steal the first of our established freedoms as given by God and protected by law through our Constitution the right to freely practice our religious beliefs based upon our individual conscience and not by the dictates of government.

Ken Taylor