President Barack Obama
The White House1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington D.C. 20500
Dear President Barack Obama,
In the history of our great nation, there have been many missteps, many poor choices made by our leaders, and even many deplorable atrocities. To protect us from these, our founding fathers had the foresight to put in place the Bill of Rights, reminding us that there are lines that must not be crossed because the moment we cross them, we diminish not only those whose rights are thereby trampled upon but also ourselves and every American citizen. With the recent HHS mandate to force all religious institutions (except an imaginary and practically non-existent class of institutions1 which, as Bishop Zubik said, is so narrow that “Jesus Christ and his Apostles would not fit the exemption”2) to cover “All Food and Drug Administration approved contraceptive methods, sterilization procedures, and patient education and counseling for all women with reproductive capacity,”3 despite the fact that many, many such institutions object on various grounds, including scientific, medical, and especially religious, you have trampled on the First Amendment4. A great man once said, “With the first link the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably.”5 With this mandate, you have forged a chain that chafes the throats of millions of Americans of every creed, color, and ethnicity, but rest assured that you yourself are not free from its bonds. Freedom of religion is the first precept of the First Amendment because it is the very foundation stone of this Republic. By directly and unabashedly assaulting it, you threaten to topple the entire edifice which allows you the freedom to claim6 that your religion informs everything you do, but more than that you threaten the very foundation of this entire society.
And for what reason? Because you want to ensure unfettered access to contraceptives and abortion “services” so that the very lifeblood of our nation ceases to flow? This is the most short-sighted goal in the history of mankind! It is, in fact, the very opposite of health, and a very egregious human disservice. By forcing the current generation to pay for the sterilization and contraception of its own members and the abortion of the members of the next generation, you provide for only one eventuality: a future that is readily visible in the blatant, economically devastating demographic winter that already plagues Europe. You defy the very founding principles of these United States in order to pursue a course of action that will only lead to the literal death of our society. It is that simple.
Yet there is one more thing that I hope you will consider, not only for the sake of this great nation's future, but for the sake of your future. As a world leader, it behoves you to learn from the mistakes of every generation that has gone before us throughout history, and there is only one constant in that history. As I am sure you are well aware, Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan of the Archdiocese of New York, President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, has graciously warned you that your unrelenting attack on the pre-societal institution of marriage and the family "precipitate[s] a national conflict between Church and State of enormous proportions and to the detriment of both institutions."6 I assure you that this unconstitutional HHS Mandate constitutes yet another attack in the same conflict. It goes without saying that with this unprecedented attack on the religious liberty of every American you are declaring war on each and every religion represented by the citizens of this great nation, but it shall suffice to focus only on the Catholic Church, notwithstanding the myriad of allies that have already rallied around her.
Search the history books, Mr. President: the Catholic Church is the oldest and largest continually-existing institution of any kind on the entire planet for one very pertinent reason: she has never backed down from a fight, she has never wavered in defence of the freedom and common good of all human persons everywhere, and she has never, ever been defeated. Certainly, there have been moments in history when she lost various battles, when her numbers dwindled and those who remained among her ranks were being constantly burned, hanged, tortured, and otherwise slaughtered wholesale by her adversaries, even to the point that those same adversaries came under the delusion that it was only a matter of time before she was utterly obliterated. Many supposedly great leaders have made this mistake throughout history, but they were always wrong. Like her Bridegroom, the Church's suffering on the cross-beams of history, even to the point of shedding blood as He did, lead only and inevitably to the Resurrection, the eternal conquering of death.7
Do not make the same mistake that so many before you have made. Their power was infinitely more assured than is yours, yet it was defeated by the Rock upon which the Church is built.8 They stood as monarchs with no one to challenge their thrones, as warlords with vast armies assuring their continued reign, as rulers of vast empires whose subjects revered them as gods. And yet their opposition to the Catholic Church ended only in their own demise. The Roman Empire killed hundreds of thousands if not millions of Catholics, only to itself be subsumed into the Catholic Church with the rise of Constantine. The French Revolution thought to have wiped Catholicism clean off the face of the French countryside, yet the Revolution ended and the Catholic Church resurfaced to minister to the embattled people of France. Napoleon vowed to destroy the Church, yet he was himself exiled and the Pope sat placidly on the Chair of Peter. Hitler conquered the whole of Europe, killing priests and Catholics wherever he found them, yet the very Pope who spoke out against him died peacefully on the Chair of Peter while the Reich's ruler cowered in fearful suicide in a bunker-grave of his own making.
All these were men of exceedingly greater power than you now have; your power comes from the American people, and at most you have only 5 years left to wield it. Yet, in striking out against the Catholic Church─that great indefatigable vanquisher of the ages─you have simultaneously struck at the very heart of America. You stand in defiant opposition to the free exercise of religion that this nation's Constitution guarantees to every single one of the very same Americans upon whose votes you depend; indeed millions of them listen to the very same Catholic bishops who are at this very moment speaking out against your wildly unconstitutional mandate.
I pity you, Mr. President, because you have roused not only the sleeping dragon of the American people, but moreover you have roused a sleeping Lion: the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. For your own sake, I hope and pray that you relent and wave the white flag. If you do not, this will only end badly for you, just as it did for Nicanor9. You have already lost one case10 in which you attempted to trample upon the First Amendment; neither the American people, nor the Catholic Church will stand idly by as you try again. You will fail, and it will cost you your Presidency.
Respectfully,
Jackford R. Macarius B. Kolk
1. "Group health plans sponsored by certain religious employers, and group health insurance coverage in connection with such plans, are exempt from the requirement to cover contraceptive services. A religious employer is one that: (1) has the inculcation of religious values as its purpose; (2) primarily employs persons who share its religious tenets; (3) primarily serves persons who share its religious tenets; and (4) is a non-profit organization under Internal Revenue Code section 6033(a)(1) and section 6033(a)(3)(A)(i) or (iii)." Women's Preventive Services: Required Health Plan Coverage guidelines. http://www.hrsa.gov/womensguidelines/. Accessed 3 February 2012.
2. Bishop David A. Zubik, Diocese of Pittsburgh. To Hell with You. http://diopitt.org/bridging-gap/hell-you . Accessed 3 February 2012.
3. Women's Preventive Services: Required Health Plan Coverage guidelines. http://www.hrsa.gov/womensguidelines/. Accessed 3 February 2012.
4. "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redressof grievances." United States Constitution. Amendments to the Constitution, Article I. http://constitutionus.com/ Accessed 3 February, 2012.
5. Stat Trek: The Next Generation, "The Drum Head," Sir Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard, quoting Judge Aaron Sati.
6. Letter to the President on the Sacredness of Marriage from Archbishop Timothy Dolan. http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/marriage-and-family/marriage/promotion-and-defense-of-marriage/upload/dolan-to-obama-doma-letter-sept-20-2011.pdf. Accessed 3 February 2012.
7. cf. G.K. Chesterton. The Everlasting Man, Book II, Chapter VI.
8. "And Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona! … And I tell you, you are [Rock], and on this Rock I will build My Church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it." Matthew 16:17-18, RSV:CE
9. cf. II Maccabees 14:26-15:39
10. Supreme Court of the United States Syllabus "Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Et Al." Argued October 5, 2011. Decided January 11, 2012.
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