As most of you now know, the Obama administration recently issued a ruling under Obamacare requiring churches to provide birth control coverage for employees of church run hospitals and schools under their health care policies. This would have violated the official teaching of the Roman Catholic Church and therefore would have constituted a violation of conscience and religious conviction for them, as well as an unconstitutional intrusion on freedom of religion. The president has backed down somewhat under tremendous pressure and has been forced to offer an accommodation to allow for issues of conscience. For reasons I will not delineate here, Catholics are still not happy because according to the Catholics the proposed solution still has Catholic agencies subsidizing both contraception and abortion, at least indirectly. The controversy will continue.
Clearly, no matter what the president may protest concerning his faith and his belief in American freedom of religion, the Obama administration has shown itself philosophically out of step with people of conservative faith and has demonstrated a willingness to disregard the Constitution of the United States in order to impose his ideology on the whole nation. Most especially this dissonance manifests toward those whose views tend to the conservative side or that in some way conflict with the president’s vision for remaking America. Here we have a clear willingness to interfere in the internal practice and conscience of the church. One could have wished that the president’s accommodation of Catholic sensitivities could have been adequately considered before handing down the ruling that he has now been forced to back off of. Failure to do so is revelatory of the true heart of our current government.
This incident should alarm every American regardless of where you stand on the political spectrum. The fact that this could even come up as an issue speaks to the changes going on in this nation that represent a threat to so many of the values and freedoms we hold dear. Freedoms are seldom lost in one sudden cataclysmic moment. They’re chipped away at, one seemingly insignificant grain at a time, usually under the pressure of some reasonable sounding sort of logic, until one day they’re gone because too few saw it coming or were willing to speak up.
A year or so ago I prophesied a crisis at the presidential level at or about the third year mark that would profoundly affect the country for years to come. Perhaps this is it, or part of it. In fact, it is one piece in a complex of events pointing to constitutionally questionable, immoral and possibly illegal activities at high levels that have heretofore not really “stuck” at a presidential level. Taken together, these issues and the president’s demonstrated philosophy in general represent a battle for the soul of the nation.
When this president took office I stated in a Prophetic Moments emailing that I believed he had the potential to become one of our greatest presidents and I called believers to pray toward that end. That was not easy for me to say because I have never voted Democratic and probably never will. I also stated that I believed he would have a dramatic encounter with God while in office if believers would pray and that it would change his life. Potential, however, is only potential. Greatness depends on how that potential is used. Regarding that dramatic encounter with God, Obama remains in office. There is yet time. We can still pray, and pray we must. In any case, we must wake up to the real issues and stand for what is right before we find that our liberties have been chipped away, one insignificant grain at a time.
