It's Not About Religion. It's Politics!

Sometime within the next 30 days the Supreme Court will hand down verdicts on two landmark cases.

The first will decide whether the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will remain the law of the land as written or whether 8 million Americans will be forced from the insurance rolls. The second will determine whether same sex marriages will become legal under federal law granting those couples the same rights and privileges as traditional married couples.

Evangelical Christians believe that there is currently a war being waged in this country against their religious freedoms. They see these two court cases as important battles to be waged in this war. They see a verdict in favor of the ACA and the legalization of same sex marriage as an infringement on their first amendment rights.

The ACA requires that business owners provide health care coverage for all full time employees that includes coverage for contraceptives. Evangelical Christians say that the requirement to provide coverage for contraceptives is in conflict with their religious beliefs and therefore an infringement on their constitutional rights to practice their religion.

As respects same sex marriage… evangelicals believe that marriage is between one man and one woman. They say that forcing them to abide by a law that recognizes same sex marriage constitutes a suppression of their right to freely practice their religious beliefs.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I am a practicing member of the Catholic faith. As such I can say without reservation that no matter what the Court rules on these two issues it will have zero effect on my ability to exercise my religious beliefs. That is because this evangelical argument is about politics not religion. Their argument simply does not hold Holy Water.

If the Supreme Court rules in favor of the ACA, Christian business owners will not suddenly be required to use contraceptives. They won’t be permitted to impose their faith based boycott of contraceptives onto their employees either.

If the Supreme Court rules in favor of legalizing same sex marriage, Christians will not suddenly be required to enter into same sex unions. They will simply have to come to grips with the fact that members of the LGBT community who are legal US citizens are entitled to the same marital rights and privileges as their traditionally married brethren.

Evangelicals are using their religion to gain a political advantage.

There’s nothing “Christian” about that.