Propaganda in America: "Cutting Down the Laws"

The Short Term Danger

As we get closer to the elections, it is alarming to see just how many people are being taken in by propaganda set forth by the Obama administration.  There are actually a large amount of people who believe that the dispute over the HHS mandate is actually an attempt by religious groups to prevent people from using contraception.  People have used dishonest labels, such as the "War on Women."  They accuse us of trying to force our beliefs on them.

The facts are different.  Prior to the HHS mandate, self insured employers were not required to offer coverage for contraceptives and abortifacients.  Employers (religious organizations or individual business owners) trying to be faithful to their beliefs had this option to do what they felt obligated to do.

What the HHS mandate does is to mandate all insurance (including the self-insured) to provide contraception and abortifacient coverage or else be fined $100 per employee per day.  If you're a small business owner hiring 10 people, that's $1000 a day in fines.  In larger Catholic institutions, it adds up to millions of dollars a year.

It is funny, isn't it?  Christians who run businesses or hospitals or colleges must now offer coverage for activities they call evil or be forced out of business.  They're the ones accused of forcing their beliefs on others.  Meanwhile those people who demand that employers cover their contraceptives and abortifacients are called the victims.

The Long Term Danger

The evil done in this particular incident is dangerous enough in that it flagrantly violates the constitution while people who are oppressors portray themselves as victims, but there is a long term danger as well.

The Long term danger is that, if the government propaganda is allowed to go unchallenged, we we are seeing a large portion of the nation who can be deceived into thinking a violation of the Bill of Rights is in fact a new freedom.  Precedents are being set which can be used by any future government, conservative or liberal, to overrule the conscience of any group which is inconvenient.

Now many of the deceived may think that this is alarmism.  They may think that since we are not seeing the tactics of Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia or modern China, that there is no danger here of the loss of civil rights in America.

However, America doesn't need concentration camps or gulags to restrict our freedoms. Right now our government can inflict fines for non-compliance if this is allowed to stand… fines that can force any person or group out of business who refuses to comply with the desired policy.

I won't say we are becoming Totalitarian mind you.  That would require deceiving the population a bit more to thinking that it is better to entrust all power to a regime with an ideology which a large enough percentage tends to sympathize with. 

No, right now, we are in danger of moving from a Republic based on the safeguards of protecting freedoms to an authoritarian government which takes away some of our freedoms in the name of "bettering" people in some way or "protecting" freedoms from an alleged threat.  Right now this so-called threat is organized religion, where attempts to defend religious beliefs is portrayed as "forcing beliefs on others."  To "defend" the country from that "threat" the government claims that religious individuals must comply with  state demands.

But once they get you to accept that belief that government impositions over the Constitution are necessary, it becomes easier to eliminate other constitutional hindrances to their power.

Conclusion

I think a good way to conclude this article is to quote from the 1966 movie, A Man for All Seasons:

William Roper: So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!
Sir Thomas More: Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
William Roper: Yes, I'd cut down every law in England to do that!
Sir Thomas More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down, and you're just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!

Many people out there may have hostility to Christianity in general or Catholicism in particular.  I have even seen some go so far as to say that it should be destroyed to "protect" people.  One hopes these types are merely a minority of uninformed radicals.  But even if the reader should be opposed to us, you should be careful as to what conveniences you support to oppose us.

Otherwise, once you cut down all the laws, will you be able to "stand upright in the winds that would blow then?"