BALTIMORE -- Church officials and other religious-based groups are gearing up to fight an order by the Obama administration that they include birth control in employee health plans, a requirement some say could threaten the protection of other moral beliefs and practices.
"Most civilized nations have allowed deeply held convictions by religious groups in these areas to be respected. I don't know why our president is not doing so after speaking (Tuesday) night so wonderfully about compromise and all of us working together and joining together," Cardinal-designate Edwin F. O'Brien, leader of the Baltimore archdiocese since 2007, said Wednesday. "I don't see him doing that. It is a pity."
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services last week rejected a request by Catholic groups to be exempt from a requirement under health care reform to cover contraception and sterilization, practices their religious teachings oppose. The administration has given religious groups a year to abide by the law, which women's rights groups support.
"We were hoping our religious convictions so deeply held would be reflected," O'Brien said during his first public appearance since his appointment to the College of Cardinals. He described President Barack Obama, who talked about working together in his State of the Union speech the night before, as unwilling to compromise.
David Cloutier, associate professor of theology at Mount Saint Mary's University, said the Catholic church in particular has a lot to lose over the birth-control issue, which has long split liberal and conservative members of the church.
The church in 1968 upheld teachings against the use of birth control and that has been a crucial part of its moral message ever since, Cloutier said. Allowing government action to influence religious beliefs could be seen as a deeper threat, blurring the lines between church and state, he said.
"The state telling the church that it must provide services that the church believes are immoral is the dividing line that doesn't really have a clear precedent," said Cloutier, editor of catholicmoraltheology.com. "Once you cross this line, then (churches and religious groups) are obviously concerned that the government could force them to cover abortions for their employees. That the government could make them acknowledge same-sex marriage for their employees."
It is unclear what religious groups and churches will do.
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