One More Catholic Opposes the Health Care Mandate

            I’m sure that I’ve got nothing new to say about the Health Care Mandate, but what has been said bears repeating. First of all, it is a direct violation of the religious freedom so valued by our country. John Locke, in his Letter on Toleration, says, “ The magistrate ought not to forbid the holding of any speculative opinions in any church, because they do not concern the civil rights of the subjects.” Although Locke makes several jabs at the “speculative doctrine” of Catholics, he makes a valid and relevant point: unless a church teaching is harming the public good, the government has no excuse to meddle with it. And by harming the public good, Locke gives the examples of human sacrifice or ritual infanticide. Ironic much?

 It has long been understood that the American government has absolutely no right what so ever to dictate the beliefs of the American people. The first amendment to our constitution states very clearly, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise therefore.”  The Constitution also has this little thing called the 5^th Amendment, “ The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or the people.” The government is already forbidden to meddle in the beliefs of American Citizens, so the right to choose what is a violation of conscience is to be decided by the American People.

I’m just going to leave it there. This mandate is clearly a gross violation of our right to religious freedom. As a Catholic, an American Citizen, and a voter, I am against this piece of legislation. In the upcoming election I will vote only for politicians who pledge to protect life from natural conception to natural death.