It’s not your "religious liberty" when you’d rather let me die than do your job

[kpete]

It’s not your "religious liberty" when you’d rather let me die than do your job


WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2012

Should Catholic hospitals be permitted to refuse to treat me because I’m gay?
By John Aravosis at 2/08/2012 12:39:00 PM


They're not just a church when they're the only hospital in town. They're not just a church when they're using taxpayer funds to discriminate against taxpayers.

But this is the future the Catholic Church, and their evangelical/Mormon buddies, are wishing on the rest of America. They're increasingly involved in more and more non-proselytizing ventures - hell, they're not permitted to proselytize with government money - yet when it's revealed that they're discriminating against their own employees or the public at large, suddenly the operating room becomes the divine liturgy. (Which is a neat trick: Maybe Catholics should drop their insurance cards in the offering plate next Sunday, since apparently it's all the same thing.)

So what's next? If Catholic hospitals are permitted to discriminate against their non-Catholic employees in health care, then I assume they should be able to discriminate in who they hire. And who they serve. After all, would you really want a Catholic hospital to have to serve homosexuals? Or adulterers? Or Baptists? Think that's an absurd analogy, think again. The religious extremists have been arguing for years that pharmacists should be permitted to refuse to serve any customer that violates their conscience. Generally, they mean giving out birth control. But what about AIDS drugs? Should Catholic and Evangelical pharmacists be permitted to fill AIDS cocktail prescriptions only for the "innocent victims" of AIDS? Forget about the gays and the druggies. Only children who were infected via their moms are permitted to get their drugs, and even then, it's unclear how we should treat those Mormon children since Catholics and Evangelicals might consider them members of a cult. And don't even get started on Muslims. They can move back to Mecca if they want antibiotics. And how about a Jehovah's Witness pharmacist. Can they refuse to sell any prescription drugs at all?

MORE:
http://www.americablog.com/2012/02/its-not-your-religious-liberty-when.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Americablog+%28AMERICAblog%29
http://gay.americablog.com/2012/02/should-catholic-hospitals-be-permitted.html



xlnt comment (from Anonymoose):
For whatever it's worth John, it's not Catholics so much as their leadership that are so backwards. I think you'll find that a majority of Catholics are in favor of this (around 55%, according to a poll I read), and I would bet that a huge majority of Catholics are in favor of birth control in general. I know my sweet Catholic wife feels this way.

[ZombieHorde]

1. The RCC is very disturbing to me.

I don't understand how liberals can be willing members of such vile organizations.

[jeff47]

2. I think I'll start a new religion

One of our weekly sacraments will be to sacrifice a Republican to our god.

You don't want me killing people? How dare you step all over my religious liberty!!

[Lint Head]

3. They're not a church when they allow sex acts on children yet they are against birth control.

So a fetus is more important than an innocent breathing child?

[Politicalboi]

4. They need to get out of

The medical business. NO religion should trump medical procedures.

[Justice wanted]

5. Religion in my humble opinion has killed more people than it has helped.

[Uncle Joe]

6. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, kpete.

[lapislzi]

7. Pro tip: if you're a vegetarian...

don't take a job in an abbatoir.

If your conscience prevents you from fulfilling your professional responsibilities, then you need to find another line of work.

It's a pharmacy counter, not a pulpit.

I "respect" religious people and their consciences inasmuch as I don't interfere with their religious business. As an atheist, I expect the same courtesy extended to me.

My "atheist agenda?" Leave me alone.

That's it.