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This post might be a little controversial, which I'm hoping means I have lots of thought-provoking comments and not that I'll be getting phone calls from friends who have decided that they don't want to be friends with me anymore. I doubt that will happen, but one never knows.
Last week, there was a big hoopla when a group of clergy testified in front on congress about birth control. What they were actually discussing was the HHS laws which are defined as "U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) ruling requiring religious employers to cover contraceptives, including controversial drugs that can kill unborn babies. HHS requires that nearly all employers, including religious schools and charities will be required for the first time by law to provide and pay for insurance coverage that includes contraceptives, abortion-inducing drugs and sterilization procedures."
The congress hearing made big news because there were no women on the panel. I saw tons of pictures posted on my friend's pages that said "Where are the women?" or "They don't speak for us!" And then they procedeed to lash out at the men on the panel, made up of various clergy including one rabbi and the president of the LCMS (my synod) who was AWESOME and rocks a kicking 'stache. Nancy Pelosi walked out after pointing out that there were no women, which is very mature if you are a sixteen year old girl who is fighting with her parents. You are the Speaker of the House? YOU FREAKING STAY. You don't leave if you are upset. Take it up with the guy who planned the panel later. That's what adults do. We act, we don't pout in the hallway because we don't like something.
I have a few points to digress here. First, those clergy on the panel didn't exclude the women. They got invited to testify before congress. They went. They probably didn't know that there wouldn't be any women there, nor did they probably care! They wanted to go and speak their consciences as people of God and they went. So, it's not their fault that there were no women there, so don't blame them. Should there have been a woman clergy on the panel? Probably. Was it these guy's fault? NO. 
Secondly, this panel was not about birth control. It wasn't anti-contraception. It was anti-abortion. I'll just put it this way for you: my husband is a pastor. Our church doesn't work this way, but many do: let's say a pastor hires a secretary. Through the HHS laws, he is required to pay health insurance. The secretary gets knocked up and decides to have an abortion. If the pastor of the church pays the health insurance (or the congregation, more likely), then they are paying for this woman to have an abortion. As a congregation member, I AM PAYING FOR AN ABORTION. Let me state this clearly: I AM NOT COMFORTABLE INADVERTENTLY PAYING FOR AN ABORTION. I am NOT okay with that, as a pro-life person.
You might not agree with that, but that's fine. It's the beauty of being able to have different beliefs. I'm not forcing a pro-choice person to protest a clinic with me, so please don't make me, a pro-life person pay for someone's abortion. And that's what this is about. I don't care if my tithe pays for your birth control pills- but I don't want to pay for a Plan B pill or ELLA. And I shouldn't have to. I should be able to obey the dictates of my conscience and faith without the government forcing my hand. And that's what this is about. If a woman chooses to get an abortion (sad that she wouldn't consider adoption - you can both give life and have a life, true story) and her religious employer won't pay for it, she can go directly to the insurance company to get the money. Done and done. So why are we religious institutions still having to fight to save their conscience on this?
Harrison put it best: ""This action by HHS will have the effect of forcing many religious organizations to choose between following the letter of the law and operating within the framework of their religious tenets. We add our voice to the long list of those championing for the continued ability to act according to
