{"id":6433,"date":"2012-02-16T14:00:07","date_gmt":"2012-02-16T22:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=6433"},"modified":"2012-02-16T14:00:07","modified_gmt":"2012-02-16T22:00:07","slug":"the-new-and-improved-war-on-religion-catholic-hypocrisy-in-the-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=6433","title":{"rendered":"The New And Improved War On Religion: Catholic Hypocrisy In The Media"},"content":{"rendered":"

The manufactured controversy over President Obama’s initiative to make employer-provided contraceptive coverage available to all women, regardless of where they work, has been morphed into a phony debate on religious freedom. OK, if it’s a religious debate they want, then bring it on.<\/p>\n

Juan Cole has published a brilliant analysis on Alternet enumerating the 10 Catholic Teachings Conservatives Reject While Obsessing About Birth Control<\/a>.<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> Pope John Paul II was against anyone going to war against Iraq<\/a><\/p>\n

2.<\/strong>The Conference of Catholic Bishops requires that health care be provided to all Americans<\/a>.<\/p>\n

3.<\/strong> The Catholic Church opposes the death penalty for criminals<\/a> in almost all situations.<\/p>\n

4.<\/strong> The US Conference of Bishops has urged that the federal minimum wage be increased<\/a>, for the working poor.<\/p>\n

5.<\/strong> The bishops want welfare for all needy families<\/a>, saying “We reiterate our call for a minimum national welfare benefit that will permit children and their parents to live in dignity. A decent society will not balance its budget on the backs of poor children.”<\/p>\n

6.<\/strong> The US bishops say that “the basic rights of workers must be respected\u2013the right to productive work, to decent and fair wages, to the organization and joining of unions…”<\/a>.<\/p>\n

7.<\/strong> Catholic bishops demand the withdrawal of Israel from Palestinian territories occupied in 1967<\/a>.<\/p>\n

8.<\/strong> The US Conference of Catholic Bishops ripped into Arizona’s law on treatment of immigrants<\/a>, Cardinal Roger Mahony characterized Arizona’s S.B. 1070 as “the country’s most retrogressive, mean-spirited, and useless anti-immigrant law.”<\/p>\n

9.<\/strong> The Bishops have urged that illegal immigrants not be treated as criminals<\/a> and that their contribution to this country be recognized.<\/p>\n

10.<\/strong> The US Conference of Bishops has denounced, as has the Pope, the Bush idea of ‘preventive war’<\/a>, and has come out against an attack on Iran in the absence of a real and present threat of an Iranian assault on the US.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Cole goes into more detail on each item and provides examples of legal cases where the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against select religious activities. For instance, both polygamy and peyote (used in religious rituals) are prohibited despite the Constitution’s enunciation of freedom of religion. So if the Catholic puritans who insist that an insurance company can’t offer legal medicine to patients on the basis that it is against their faith, then they had better switch their positions on all of the issues above as well.<\/p>\n

The media needs to be honest about the framework of this debate. It is not about freedom of religion. Catholics are not encumbered in way from engaging in their chosen form of worship. But if they leave their churches to participate in the broader society, whether by opening hospitals or McDonalds franchises, they have to play by the same rules as everyone else. A church that preaches racial segregation can say whatever they want to their parishioners, but they can’t open a hotel and refuse to hire African-Americans or decline to admit them as guests. And any church-owned business that employs and serves the general public in a non-religious capacity cannot discriminate on the basis of their personal beliefs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The manufactured controversy over President Obama’s initiative to make employer-provided contraceptive coverage available to all women, regardless of where they work, has been morphed into a phony debate on religious freedom. OK, if it’s a religious debate they want, then bring it on. Juan Cole has published a brilliant analysis on Alternet enumerating the 10 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1,698],"tags":[141,1147],"class_list":["post-6433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-religion","tag-juan-cole","tag-religion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-1FL","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6460,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=6460","url_meta":{"origin":6433,"position":0},"title":"Glenn Beck: We Are All Catholics Now – Except For Muslims","author":"Mark NC","date":"2\/20\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Evanga-Pundit Glenn Beck is once again sermonizing on religious freedom as he interprets it. By his account any church that engages in any activity, even those that have nothing to do with the practice of their faith, deserve the protection of the First Amendment of the Constitution. That, of course,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11002,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=11002","url_meta":{"origin":6433,"position":1},"title":"The Anti-Pope: Rush Limbaugh Pimps For The Money Lenders Lobby","author":"Mark NC","date":"11\/29\/2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Poor Jesus. After going to all the trouble of throwing the Money Lenders out of the temple, now he has to deal with cretins like Rush Limbaugh who think that the church founded in his name is beholden to secular profiteers and godless corporations. Be Sure To \u201cLIKE\u201d News Corpse\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Rush Limbaugh","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/limbaugh-catholic-capitalism.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4281,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=4281","url_meta":{"origin":6433,"position":2},"title":"Piss Beck","author":"Mark NC","date":"4\/20\/2011","format":false,"excerpt":"BREAKING NEWS from the delusional world of Glenn Beck's Acute Paranoia Revue: Beck: Have you heard this reported yet? Palm Sunday. Four people from an anti-Christian group attacked two pieces of religious artwork in France. There may be a very good reason why you haven't heard that reported yet. If\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art\/Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Art\/Culture","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=9"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27845,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=27845","url_meta":{"origin":6433,"position":3},"title":"Not News On Fox News: Pope Francis Calls Male\/Female Pay Disparity A ‘Pure Scandal’","author":"Mark NC","date":"4\/29\/2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The bias in journalism is as much evident in what news editors chose to report as it is in what they chose not to report or in how they slant stories that make it to the air. Therefore, by recognizing the omissions of news enterprises you can identify their biases.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Pope Francis","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/pope-francis-obama.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/pope-francis-obama.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/pope-francis-obama.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10601,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=10601","url_meta":{"origin":6433,"position":4},"title":"Where Are The Fox News Catholics Now That The Pope Has Endorsed Income Equality?","author":"Mark NC","date":"9\/22\/2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Pope Francis has been breaking some stereotypes recently with commentaries that convey his infallible opinion that it isn't the Vatican's role to cast judgement on gays (\"If a homosexual person is of good will and is in search of God, I am no one to judge\"), or become fixated on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1270,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1270","url_meta":{"origin":6433,"position":5},"title":"The Hypocrisy At Notre Dame","author":"Mark NC","date":"5\/16\/2009","format":false,"excerpt":"All week long the media has been trumpeting a controversy that barely deserves mentioning. 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