“I assure you very explicitly, that in my opinion the
conscientious scruples of all men should be treated with great delicacy and
tenderness: and it is my wish and desire, that the laws may always be as
extensively accommodated to them, as a due regard for the protection and
essential interests of the nation may justify and permit.”
George Washington in a letter to concerned Quakers
“We hold it for a fundamental and undeniable truth, “that Religion
or the duty which we owe to our Creator and the Manner of discharging it, can
be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence.” The Religion
then of every man must be left to the conviction and conscience of every man;
and it is the right of every man to exercise it as these may dictate. This
right is in its nature an unalienable right. It is unalienable; because the
opinions of men, depending only on the evidence contemplated by their own
minds, cannot follow the dictates of other men: It is unalienable also; because
what is here a right towards men, is a duty towards the Creator. It is the duty
of every man to render to the Creator such homage, and such only, as he
believes to be acceptable to him. This duty is precedent both in order of time
and degree of obligation, to the claims of Civil Society.”
James
Madison in Memorial
and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments
(1785)
Thus the Amish are not required to carry health insurance
programs, Christian Scientists are allowed conscience exemptions from
government mandated health care assessments, and conscientious objection
protects individual U.S. citizens from forced conscription into our armed
forces. Why, then, is the Department of Health and Human Services now forcing
Catholic schools, hospitals, and charities to pay for abortion producing drugs
for their employees? Are Catholics now no longer permitted to have conscience
exemptions?
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