Why I Won't Be Voting for Barack Obama in 2012

He has violated the War Powers Act. [1]  He has done nothing to reduce the influence of money on politics. [2]  He has authorized the indefinite detention, without trial, of American citizens [3], believing that he already had that authority before it was enacted into legislation. [4]  Now President Obama has demonstrated that he has no respect for religious freedom, thus living up to the caricature of him painted by his opponents.

In the case of Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC, the Obama administration adopted the extraordinary position that churches do not have the unlimited and unfettered right to decide who their ministers will be under the First Amendment to the Constitution, and should, therefore, be subject to employment discrimination actions when ministers are dismissed. [5]  The U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the Obama Administration unanimously.

Now Mr. Obama has decided that Catholic and other religiously affiliated entities will have to cover their employees with health coverage that includes payment for artificial birth control, even if doing so is against the tenets of their respective religions. [6]  There is an exemption for religious employers, which appears to cover not much more than churches themselves.   A religious employer doesn’t qualify for the exemption if it employs or serves large numbers of people of a different religion, as do many Catholic hospitals, universities, and social service agencies.

In a palpable effort to get this issue past the 2012 election, the Administration has given church-affiliated organizations an additional year, to August 1, 2013, to comply with the new requirement.  Other employers will have to comply by August 1^st of this year.  The sardonic nature of this response has not gone unnoticed.  As Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of New York, the president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has remarked, “In effect, the President is saying we have a year to figure out how to violate our consciences.”

Congress may overrule the new regulation, or the courts may strike it down.  If neither of those things happen, Catholic employers will have no alternative but to engage in civil disobedience.  With that spectacular prospect in view, it is easy to see why the Obama Administration is willing to delay the new rule’s implementation until after the election.

Mr. Obama received 54% of the Catholic vote in 2008. [7]  Your humble servant was of that number.  This President has rewarded us with unjust war, by threatening the citizenry with gross injustice, by letting it be known that he stands squarely on the side of political corruption, and now this shot across the bow of our deeply held religious beliefs.  This Catholic will not be voting for Barack Obama in 2012.