Contraception and Conscience

The subject of contraception has stayed in the center of the news this week. As well it deserved to.

It all started years ago with a mentality that went and still goes something like this: “You don’t like our morals? Hey —you don’t have to live by them. Go build your own hospitals and make your own rules.”

People spent millions on their religiously motivated hospitals, offering care as a practical application of a worldview that calls us to “do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with [our] God.” In Dallas denominational titles such as “Presbyterian” refer as much to major hospitals in the area as they do to churches.

But now some Christian-run hospitals hear, “Too bad. We’re going to impose our ethics on you and you have to abide by them, anyway. We’re going to force our morality on you, while insisting that no one can legislate morality (we use that line whenever your morals feel limiting to us)."

And the politicos are surprised at the pushback? Seriously?

If you know anything about the contraception book Icoauthored, you know I take a moderate position on the subject. And I’m disinclined to think the pill causes abortion—certainly not frequently.  I actually think a believer can in good conscience use contraception.

But I also believe in the legal right of those with more conservative views on the subject to operate within their own free consciences as they administer care. That should be a basic American value. I believe we call it religious liberty.

So the administration made concessions—necessary concessions that our liberties demand. They did right in making them.

But.

The whole issue raises a huge question that can’t go away with the concessions: You seriously considered it wise to trample on freedom of conscience for people seeking to “do good”?  As Peggy Noonan wrote in the Wall Street Journal, “If the church is forced to go against its conscience, religious liberty in America is not safe.

If religious liberty is not safe, you are not safe” That’s true across party lines. “Religious liberty should not be a partisan issue."

Amen, sister. A-a-amen!