The Reverend J. Herbert Nelson this week expressed dismay at the Supreme Court’s (SCOTUS) decision in the case of Burwell v. Hobby Lobby. The Presbyterian Church spoke to the question of access to contraception when the 205th General Assembly (1993) called on Congress to provide funding that ensures access to contraception, at no cost, to any person who needs it. In the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), we affirm that each person is created in God’s image, and that each woman is endowed with God-given moral capacity and authority to determine whether or not to become pregnant. Denying any woman the right to exercise that moral agency is wrong. It is because of our faith that we view access to contraception, and all forms of health care, as a human right.
Further,
in today’s workplace, "the
220th General Assembly (2012) encourages the church's support for
policies that strengthen families, support children's development, provide
comfort to the elderly, and help to
insulate decisions about family formation and child-bearing from undue economic
stress." (Minutes, p. 246,Recommendation
3.b., italics added).
Presbyterians
further profess that God Alone is Lord of
Conscience and that individuals must make decisions in personal and public
life that are consistent with their own values, without seeking to coerce
others. We believe that the establishment clause in the First Amendment of the
U.S. Constitution seeks to protect religious institutions from government
infringement, and we are grateful for this protection. But Hobby Lobby is not a religious
institution. It is a closely held
corporation whose overriding objective is profit, not religious expression or
evangelism.
In response
to the ruling, the Rev. J. Herbert Nelson, PC(USA) Director for Public Witness,
said --
“We are very concerned by the
corporatization of the federal government, and we question the Supreme Court’s
extension of personhood and freedom of religion to for-profit corporations.
This move to treat corporations as people is a troubling trend in U.S. public
life. We need to remember that it is people, not things, who have moral agency.
When discussing religious liberty in
this case, we must also remember that it is the religious liberty of the
workers that is infringed by the employer’s ability to express a religious view
through its corporate policies. Indeed, because we view access to health care
as a human right, both workers’ religious liberty and their human rights are in
jeopardy. At its most extreme manifestation, an employer imposing religious
views on unwilling employees begins down the path to slavery. The employees of
Hobby Lobby are not mere extensions of its owners, but are endowed with their
own moral agency and should not be imposed upon by the beliefs of their
employer.
“In light of yesterday’s SCOTUS
decision in the Hobby Lobby case, I urge Congress to take steps to make
contraception available to all women and men, whether through federal
appropriations, a re-classification of contraception as a prescription drug, or
through private insurance requirements, such as the special “accommodation” for
religious institutions with genuine objections based on conviction. Indeed,
however Congress accomplishes this remedy, it is essential that all women and
men have access to comprehensive reproductive health care.
“And while Congress must act to remedy
this grave injustice perpetrated by our Supreme Court, it is incumbent upon all
of us to challenge the shift in our society that endows corporations with
rights that ought to be reserved for people. We could do so much better, if
only we would create the political will.
The Reverend Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II, is the Director for Public Witness at the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Office of Public Witness in Washington, DC.
