RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

I am stunned that men (and some women) are saying that people of faith are being forced to go against their religious teaching because women are being given contraceptives by their insurance companies.  Our constitution does not give people the right to limit other people's access to health care.  What on earth are these people thinking?  They seem to believe that if contraception is against their religious beliefs, they have the right to forbid others to use it.  We all have religious freedom here.  I am deeply religious and I firmly believe in contraception as well as a woman's right to abortion.  And of course they are firmly convinced that if they do not believe in abortion, then it should be forbidden to all others. 

Our constitution gives us religious freedom.  That means that one church's views cannot be imposed on everyone in the country.  The Catholic Church and the right wing religious fundamentalists believe that they have the right to impose their views on the whole society...this is their religious freedom.  That is a very twisted view of religious freedom.  Religious freedom is just the opposite of their idea.  What is it that they don't understand about religious freedom?  Our ancestors came from Europe where the kings of Spain and France were imposing the views of the Catholic Church on the populace.  They went to the extreme of massacring people who had converted to Protestantism.  Everyone had to do exactly what the Church expected or die.  That is why our ancestors wrote religious freedom into our constitution.  Now these Catholic and right wing churches want to go back to those medieval times and impose their will on the rest of the population.  They have no comprehension of the constitution.  And when they do come to understand it, they will want to change it to give themselves the right to impose their religion on everyone else. 

There are many religious people who believe in contraception and abortion.  The fundamentalists would have everyone believe that every "religious" person in the world agrees with them.  Ironically, Rome, the country where the Pope resides has a very low birth rate, the lowest in Europe.  The people there have learned to ignore the Pope.  Those of us whose ancestors escaped to America in search of religious freedom kept their religion, but demanded freedom of choice in worship and living.  The people who remained in Europe turned against religion altogether and became very secular in reaction to the attacks and pressure of the Catholic Church.  Now, the fundamentalists in America are turning Americans into atheists by their demands and dogma.