PUBLIC VIEWPOINT

Government Interference Limited

It is my opinion that Lowell Grisham (Opinion, Nov. 25) is in error with his critique of the Catholic Church when he states that it “does not have the right to impose its own moral belief upon non-Catholics who are employees, patients or students in its public institutions.” He says these restrictions are derived from “the government’s policy.”

His confusion was also present soon after the ratification of the Constitution and was corrected with the First Amendment, whichprohibits the federal government from “prohibiting the free exercise thereof” by a religion. Long before the formation of our government, this issue was addressed by Jesus.

The 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act limited the government’s ability to restrict the “free exercise” of religion.

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals now rejects that and has said that ObamaCare could tell religions to change their practices in areas outsidetheir temple or church building.

The Holy Bible tells us that “He made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the temple area, with the sheep and oxen, and spilled the coins of the moneychangers and overturned their tables.” Jesus said: “Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace.”

From this we know that the authority of religion extends beyond the walls of the temple or church building and that commerce that is legal can be curtailed by the temple and church in their areas.

The Catholic Church is following the teaching of Jesus by not allowing the commerce of the termination of life in the womb, an act worse than selling sheep.

The day after Grisham’s article, the Supreme Court ordered the Fourth Circuit Court to examine the constitutionality of the law’s employer requirements.

Pope Benedict XVI has said, “Any tendency to treat religion as a private matter must be resisted.”

R. STEWART TICE

Fayetteville

Opinion, Pages 5 on 12/07/2012

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