{"id":92,"date":"2004-03-02T13:21:54","date_gmt":"2004-03-02T13:21:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2004\/03\/california_cont.shtml"},"modified":"2021-05-29T02:48:47","modified_gmt":"2021-05-29T02:48:47","slug":"california_cont","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2004\/03\/california_cont.shtml","title":{"rendered":"California Contraceptive Ruling"},"content":{"rendered":"

VirusDoc<\/a> has a post<\/a> today on the California supreme court decision that catholic charities must include birth control in the health insurance coverage for employees. There are a couple of things that bother me about this story.
\nThe first is the Catholic Charities stance of not allowing birth control prescriptions to be covered under their health plans. Are all of their employees Catholic, or are even all Catholics of the same mind in this? I would imagine not, so they are forcing their agenda on people of other faiths or opinions. The argument goes, and Eric made it in his blog, that they believe it to be offensive to God and it offends them to pay for someone else to use birth control. I find this kind of stance to be unjustifiable. No where in scripture can you point to where God says, unequivocally, that birth control is sin. Can you make an argument for it? Sure. Can you defend a position against birth control with scripture? Yep. But I can defend my position that there is no law against it with scriptures as well. So who’s right? I would say that if it’s important to you and you have deep convictions about it, by all means don’t do it. In fact, the Bible does teach that it would be sin for you to violate your conscience (Romans 14<\/a>). but in the same chapter it teaches that for you to bind your opinion on me, on disputable matters, would be sin as well. What bothers me here is not that Catholics (assuming they are all of one mind on this) believe that birth control is a sin, it’s that they teach it as factual and force that opinion on others. This goes against the scriptures, Romans 14<\/a> specifically, and the spirit of love and freedom that is the New Testament message.
\nThe second thing that bothers me is the idea that birth control is a right, and therefore must be guaranteed in legislation. VirusDoc writes: <\/p>\n

\nThe other aspect of this story that I find interesting is that the CA courts seem to be coming from the standpoint that contraceptives are a fundamental human right and a medical necessity. I guess this shouldn’t be surprising, but I’ve started examining the assumptions behind our country’s widespread use of contraceptives a little more carefully since I started exploring Catholicism.
\nIs birth control really a fundamental human right? Is it really medically necessary?<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Perhaps I should clarify my trouble with this. I think that birth control is a fundamental right. We have the right to choose when we have a baby. But we have the most reliable means in and among our selves – abstinence. We don’t need pills, surgery or condoms (BTW – What to Catholics think about condoms?) to control our procreation, they only make it easier. Frankly, the Catholic endorsed rhythm method is reasonably reliable, if you’re disciplined (potentially big if). So to me the right to birth control has nothing to do with health insurance, you can have one without the other.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VirusDoc has a post today on the California supreme court decision that catholic charities must include birth control in the health insurance coverage for employees. There are a couple ofRead More California Contraceptive Ruling<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nCalifornia Contraceptive Ruling - salguod.net<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2004\/03\/california_cont.shtml\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"California Contraceptive Ruling - salguod.net\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"VirusDoc has a post today on the California supreme court decision that catholic charities must include birth control in the health insurance coverage for employees. 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First, is a short news story from the local station about how Michelle Incanno from Springboro OH is boycotting Starbucks Coffee. Why? Well, I guess Starbucks has been printing little sayings from customers\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "God and Church"","block_context":{"text":"God and Church","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/god-and-church"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":102,"url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2004\/03\/catholics_and_m.shtml","url_meta":{"origin":92,"position":1},"title":"Catholics and Mary","author":"Doug Schaefer","date":"March 8, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Virusdoc had two posts on the Catholic position on Mary. One Friday from the 'Doc and another Monday with some reader comments. Because of his exploration of Catholicism, I've spent a fair amount of energy here commenting on Catholic doctrine. 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Go watch the video (But don't make the mistake I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "God and Church"","block_context":{"text":"God and Church","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/god-and-church"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":555,"url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2006\/09\/hebrews_8.shtml","url_meta":{"origin":92,"position":4},"title":"Hebrews 8","author":"Doug Schaefer","date":"September 7, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Hebrews 8:1-7 - I love how this is beginning to open up a whole parallel, spiritual reality. Jesus doesn't fit in the earthly temple and temple system. They are simply a copy of the heavenly ones, where he serves. 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