Posted by Eric Scheidler (March 15, 2012 at 8:00 am)
Prayer is the foundation of all our efforts to fight President Obama’s HHS Mandate, which forces all employer health plans to provide free contraception, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs, without regard to objections of conscience.
We fight for justice in government with many weapons. We use Rallies like we’ll hold on March 23, we use our power to vote, we use our voices and pens so our representatives in government know our concerns. But we must never forget that the strongest weapon we have is prayer.
Temporal rulers will come and go, but God is the great king over all, so recourse to Him is where our confidence must ultimately last. It is well within His power to stop the Obama Administration’s pernicious HHS Mandate, and with that in mind, we are asking all people of faith to join in a united prayer effort to Stop the HHS Mandate.
And so we offer here an ecumenical Novena for the defeat of the HHS Mandate, which begins today.
The week after the March 23 Rally for Religious Freedom, the US Supreme Court is hearing three days of arguments regarding the Affordable Care Act—the healthcare bill that has brought the HHS Mandate upon us among other deeply troubling concerns.
So on Sunday, March 25 from 2 to 4 p.m., people of faith will hold a vigil to Encircle the Court in Prayer, surrounding the Supreme Court building in prayer that justice may be done in these proceedings. You are invited to be a part of this historic event.
Specifically, prayers will be offered that whatever conclusions the Supreme Court reaches on the Affordable Care Act, that the religious freedom and freedom of conscience will be respected, that there will be no taxpayer subsidizing of abortion, and that the US Constitution will be honored. [Continue reading …]
It’s been a great encouragement to see religious leaders of many faith traditions, not just Catholics, speaking out against Obama’s HHS Mandate since it is decidedly not just a Catholic issue.
This weekend, Anglican pastor Fr. Kevin Miller preached a home run of a homily, lighting a fire under his congregation at Church of the Resurrection in Glen Ellyn, Illinois.
Fr. Kevin made it perfectly clear that this issue will effect them as Anglicans. Drawing on the long tradition of Christians engaging in social activism, Fr. Kevin gave a clear call to action and encouraged them to get involved in fighting it in every way they can—including joining in the March 23 Rally in Chicago!
Listen to Fr. Kevin’s inspiring homily here. If your priest or pastor hasn’t spoken out about the Mandate, send them the link and encourage them to do so. Thanks to Fr. Kevin and all the courageous clergy who are inspiring the faithful to get active and stand up for religious liberty!
Last week the Stand Up for Religious Freedom Coalition highlighted a recent letter sent by Timothy Cardinal Dolan, the president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), to his brother bishops.
Therein, Cardinal Dolan repeatedly underscored the fact that the HHS Mandate is first and foremost an assault on religious freedom, and that is how we need to frame this issue.
One of the the most striking passages in the letter reads as follows:
At a recent meeting between staff of the bishops’ conference and the White House staff, our staff members asked directly whether the broader concerns of religious freedom—that is, revisiting the straight-jacketing mandates, or broadening the maligned exemption—are all off the table. They were informed that they are. So much for “working out the wrinkles.” Instead, they advised the bishops’ conference that we should listen to the “enlightened” voices of accommodation, such as the recent, hardly surprising yet terribly unfortunate editorial in America. The White House seems to think we bishops simply do not know or understand Catholic teaching and so, taking a cue from its own definition of religious freedom, now has nominated its own handpicked official Catholic teachers.
The very first freedom guaranteed by the First Amendment is that of freedom of religion — which is most emphatically not limited merely to freedom of worship — and explicitly states that “prohibiting the free exercise thereof” is a no-no. [Continue reading …]
The March 23 Rally for Religious Freedom is now two weeks away and just today our list of cities taking part just reached 102!
It’s been years since I’ve seen people as fired up as they are about standing up for their First Amendment rights against this egregious Mandate. We expected a great response to these rallies, but rallies in the triple digits shows a level of enthusiasm we never could have predicted.
From Portland, Maine to Portland Oregon and all the way out to Hawaii the American people are sending a message to the Obama Administration: We will not stand idly by while you destroy the freedoms that make this country great.
Check out the Locations Page to see all the cities taking part and find a Rally near you. Don’t see one in your area? Time is getting short, but there’s still time to get one going if you act fast. Contact the Rally Team today to find out how.
President Obama’s HHS Mandate effects everyone, but it affects young people in a most grave way.
That’s because the encroachment on religious freedom that’s starting right now with contraception is a first step toward eroding the longstanding tradition of robust religious freedom in our nation to an anemic “freedom of worship”.
If this progression is allowed to continue, our young people will be the ones paying the price with the loss of their freedoms.
That’s why we’re expecting a strong youth presence at the Nationwide Rally for Religious Freedom. We’ve already had reports of high school and college youth groups attending, youth choirs singing, young people speaking at the Rallies and more. [Continue reading …]
Fr. Claude Burns (a.k.a. Fr. Pontifex) has put the dire threat to religious freedom to a stirring spoken word with the help of our friends at Spirit Juice Studios.
Check it out and share it with your friends and spread it through your social media using the “Share This” button below!
One of the more fascinating commentaries on the HHS Mandate that has appeared recently is that written by University of St. Thomas law professor Michael Stokes Paulsen, entitled “Obama’s Contraception Cram-down: The Pork Precedent.”
Paulsen’s use of the words “cram-down” was quite deliberate, calling it “a perfect term” to describe the HHS’s policy:
The whole point, it seems, is to override religious objections to such a policy to the maximum extent politically possible, out of an intense ideological commitment to contraception and abortion as ‘preventive health care.’ It is vital, the ideologues say, to prevail over religious objections precisely in order to advance, and permanently entrench, this particular ideology and, further, to vindicate the power of government to impose such policies on everyone. Religious objections must be overcome, in part for the sake of overcoming religious objections.
He goes on to say that the HHS Mandate calls to mind a story from the book of Fourth Maccabees, one of the books of the “Apocrypha.”
In the second century B.C., the Seleucid Emperor Antiochus IV Epiphanes decreed that all Jews would be forced to violate their consciences by eating pork and food sacrificed to idols. [Continue reading …]
Posted by Eric Scheidler (March 7, 2012 at 2:10 am)
My good friend and fellow pro-life warrior Fr. Frank Pavone, head of Priests for Life, has just issued a strong statement of encouragement and support for the Nationwide Rally for Religious Freedom. Father Frank was one of the first pro-life leaders I reached out to when I first conceived the Rally plan with my co-chair, Monica Miller.
Father Frank declares:
The growth of the Stand Up For Religious Freedom Coalition is one of the most encouraging developments in the response of the American people to the HHS Mandate. The Coalition makes clear that this fight is not just a matter of the Catholic Church and the bishops. This is a fight for America and for religious freedom, a Constitutional right that belongs to every American, and a basic human right that belongs to every human being.
Priests for Life, and I personally, am proud to be among the first to join forces with my colleagues Eric Scheidler and Monica Miller to launch this effort, which will go far beyond the March 23 rallies. This is a fight we will conduct for as long as it takes, and through a wide variety of activities that will be needed to win the victory.
Thanks for the kind words, Father Frank! I’m honored that we’re working together on this urgent battle to defend out cherished religious liberty.
Prayer is the foundation of all our efforts to fight President Obama’s HHS Mandate, which forces all employer health plans to provide free contraception, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs, without regard to objections of conscience.
We fight for justice in government with many weapons. We use Rallies like we’ll hold on March 23, we use our power to vote, we use our voices and pens so our representatives in government know our concerns. But we must never forget that the strongest weapon we have is prayer.
The week after the March 23 Rally for Religious Freedom, the US Supreme Court is hearing three days of arguments regarding the Affordable Care Act—the healthcare bill that has brought the HHS Mandate upon us among other deeply troubling concerns. 
It’s been a great encouragement to see religious leaders of many faith traditions, not just Catholics, speaking out against Obama’s HHS Mandate since it is decidedly not just a Catholic issue.
Last week the Stand Up for Religious Freedom Coalition 
The March 23 Rally for Religious Freedom is now two weeks away and just today our list of cities taking part just reached 102!
President Obama’s HHS Mandate effects everyone, but it affects young people in a most grave way.
One of the more fascinating commentaries on the HHS Mandate that has appeared recently is that written by University of St. Thomas law professor Michael Stokes Paulsen, entitled “Obama’s Contraception Cram-down: The Pork Precedent.”
My good friend and fellow pro-life warrior Fr. Frank Pavone, head of Priests for Life, has just issued a strong statement of encouragement and support for the Nationwide Rally for Religious Freedom. Father Frank was one of the first pro-life leaders I reached out to when I first conceived the Rally plan with my co-chair, Monica Miller.