It Doesn't Quite Make Up for the 95 Theses, but Thanks Just the Same

From STLToday comes a story about help from outside the Catholic Church on a matter that will affect everyone if not stopped:



Lutheran leader testifies in debate over contraception rule 

by Bill Lambrecht

The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod today joined the pitched debate over the reach of the new health care law, calling a new Obama administration mandate "a requirement that violates our stand on the biblical teaching of the sanctity of life."


The Rev. Matthew Harrison, president of the St. Louis-based Missouri Synod, was among religious leaders testifying that the requirement that employees of religious-affiliated institutions have access to birth control coverage violates basic rights to religious freedom.


The mandate, Harrison told the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, "will have the effect of forcing many religious organizations to choose between following the letter of the law or operating within the framework of their religious tenets."


Harrison earlier had criticized the compromise spelled out last week by President Barack Obama in which insurance companies, not religious institutions, would have the responsibility of providing contraception coverage and paying for it.


"It simply described a temporary enforcement delay and a possible future change, a change that, unfortunately, would not adequately protect religious freedom or unborn lives," he said in a release.

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