Christianity Today

The effort of christian organizations to become exempt from providing standard benefits for their employees is similar to the effort of some companies to avoid complying with safety regulations for workers on the job or efforts to restrict other rights of employees. Christian organizations should be the last to desire to provide lesser benefits for their employees than other non-christian organizations. If their preaching is effective, then employees would voluntarily make choices to avoid doing things that hurt their bodies, and there would be no claims for such services that many leaders are afraid their employees might use if they had the opportunity. It means that the leaders of these organizations have no confidence in the effectiveness of their teaching and preaching or they would not need to get involved in expensive litigation to enforce restrictions on their employees.

Elizabeth Ponder, it appears that you have missed the point of what I wrote. I said talking about the religious liberty of an organization is artificial talk, what we are talking about is theeffort of those who have positions of power in these organizations to make rules for employees of these organizations that violate the personal rights of those employees. An organization is an artificial entity created by a state and does not have religious beliefs of a conscience. People who speak as if they do are really playing with words and assuming that organizations are entitled to restrict and control their employees in their private and personal choices. If you understand how insurance works, benefits that are not used do not cost anything. The organization is not paying for any individual's benefit, a benefit is the result of contractual agreements between organizations and employees. Let christian organizations preach the gospel, they have no right to control health choices.

It is true that anyone can get a prescription for birth control, plan B, or other drugs and be able to pay for them. They are relatively inexpensive. But again, what happens when you are an employee of a company owned by Jehovah's Witness? They have a right to refuse to pay their part for blood transfusions. Both my twins had to have multiple blood transfusions in their first few days of life to stay alive. Should their beliefs be pushed on to us? This is when it gets more complicated. Blood transfusions are far from cheap. Should we as a couple have to shell out the $38,000 per baby to keep them alive? Even though we have been paying thousands of dollars a month of health insurance for years? It's always important to remember that Christianity is one religion. Religious liberty should apply to all religions of this country. It's time we got companies out of this and had a single payer system. Ask Canada.

These lawsuits are about religious liberty - no one is saying that as an individual person you are not able to go out and purchase abortifacient drugs, birth control, or any other medication. People seem to forget that individuals do have a choice in where they work. I am curious as to why someone who does not agree with the principles that these organizations clearly are founded upon would want to seek employment with them in the first place. Certainly we do need to overhaul the healthcare system in this country, but surely we can do that without forcing employees and administrators who run these organizations to violate their consciences.

Jim Ricker, the purchaser of group insurance is always an organization, an issue set by law for the convenience of insurance companies to have a single point of contact and source of insurance premiums. Wheaton College, the artificial entity created by the state, does not have medical issues, and does not receive any benefits for its illnesses since it never has any. A company and corporation are created for the benefit of its employees, and the corporation withholds benefits from employees to enable insurance premiums or taxes to be paid to the responsible agency. It is deplorable for christian organization to act in unchristian ways in how they perceive their employees. Organizations cannot exist without people, and the attitude of some christian organizations to its own employees is deplorable and makes one wonder whether the thinking behind this is more akin to the way things were a long time ago. Consider how fascinated Mr. Romney was of the healthcare system in Israel.