All or Nothing in Washington and Rome

The Federal Government’s new rules requiring health insurers to offer contraception is sparking a lot of chatter. A lot of people seem to think that the popularity of contraception among Catholics is a fair justification for the mandate. Our fetishization of democracy has led folks to think that G-d’s law is subject to a vote.

Official and ancient Catholic doctrine opposes contraception. It has been argued and reasoned for centuries among the faithful. The doctrine is not subject to whim. The reported majority of Catholics who disagree with the Church would be well-advised to reconsider whether they are actually Catholic. The catechism is not a la carte.

The Obama Administration has opened new debate not only only the separation of church and state, but on the Church itself. And the Church has some conflicts:

This is, in fact, the trap the Catholic Church fell into originally, but it wasn't an accident. It was in fact their intentional throwing off of obligations that the Church has maintained for hundreds of years onto the State that led to this problem.

The Church loved this when it all worked their way. Rather than being the source of beneficience and charity, it has shoved off that onto state programs, thereby taking what was a voluntary act of donation and turning into a compulsion enforced by government with literal guns-up-the-nose through the power of taxation.

Turning tithing into taxation was the literal Holy Grail for the Church -- it was able to codify as a matter of law what was religious dogma. This, when it worked their way, was praised from the pulpit on Sunday and not one word was breathed about Establishment and its problems.

Just as individual Catholics cannot choose only the doctrines they like, the Church cannot delegate only part of its duties to the government. There is only one master, and that master makes all the rules.

Denninger also calls out an example of the economic unseen in this issue:

Nothing is ever free and when everyone is forced to buy a thing then everyone is forced to pay for it, which means that all this "mandate" has done is "spread the cost" to those who don't use such services. As a consequence not even the intended users gets their contraceptives, breast exams and HIV screenings "for free" -- they simply get to force others to pay for them.

Democracy tends toward tyranny.