Thread: Catholic Church gives D.C. ultimatum

Originally Posted by lug-nut

The question was specific and made no comparison to benefits for others.

...

Employers are not legally bound to provide health insurance benefits.

However, if an employer chooses to provide health insurance benefits, then by law, it must provide it equally to all employees who meet legal eligibility requirements (eg., full-time vs part-time). To exclude an employee, who otherwise meets eligibility requirements, based on biblical law is illegal and considered religious discrimination. If they decide they want to stop providing such benefits, they would have to stop providing them to everyone, not just the people they don't like.

Originally Posted by timj219

Now you're catching on. The diocese has chosen to pursue a political point at the expense of their charitable work. That's clearly immoral by the church's own standard and by the moral standards of many here catholic or othewise. But just as clearly the diocese has as much right to pursue that action as we have the right to criticize the decision.

From your perspective, it is a political point. From theirs it is a moral one. From the p.o.v. of the church, the city is choosing to pursue the moral issue at the expense of the charitable work. Homosexuality did not become a political issue until recently...just like health care, globalwarming, etc.

I'm going to make a guess and assume you've never read JP's epistles. Or studied the Catholic Church at all.

Of course the Catholic Church is political. It has been since Constantine. Only in recent centuries has there been any separation between its political face and its purely religious/morality-bound face.

Originally Posted by lug-nut

Shouldn't the CC be allowed to exit the game?

Sure they can. However, if they want to play that game then DC and the government has every right to pull their tax exempt status and treat them must like any other organization. I would. But then again I am morally opposed to allowing churches and other religious organizations to be tax-free. I have seen way too many groups take advantage of that fact. For example, I distinctly remember a church coming into Walmart while I worked there and using tax exempt papers to buy 10 Wii's for their church.

Originally Posted by CDavidNeely

Sure they can. However, if they want to play that game then DC and the government has every right to pull their tax exempt and treat them must like any other organization. I would. But then again I am morally opposed to allowing churches and other religious organizations to be tax-free. I have seen way too many groups take advantage of that fact. For example, I distinctly remember a church coming into Walmart while I worked there and using tax exempt papers to buy 10 Wii's for their church.

And then theres Scientology and the MegaChurches.... totally with you on this one.