Two families fighting for their religious liberty at the Supreme Court

The Heritage Foundation reports on the cases that will determine how far the Democrats can go to undermine religious liberty.

Excerpt:

In less than two weeks, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in cases challenging an Obamacare mandate that is trampling on religious freedom. The Hahn family and the Green family will be at the Court on March 25 asking for respect of their religious liberty and the freedom to continue offering their employees generous health plans.

Let’s meet these families and what they’re fighting for.

A Christian Mennonite family, the Hahns have run Conestoga Wood Specialties near Lancaster, Pennsylvania, for nearly 50 years. A second-generation family business, Conestoga employs almost 1,000 individuals to produce quality wood products.

The Hahns have always run their family business in accordance with their faith, including offering an employee health plan that aligns with their values. Under the mandate, however, Conestoga Wood could face fines of up to $95,000 per day for sticking to their deeply held beliefs and not complying with the mandate.

Speaking of their fight for religious freedom at the Supreme Court, Conestoga president Anthony Hahn explains the magnitude of their case: “It’s not really only for Conestoga; we’re taking a stand for other businesses as well. This is a religious liberty issue that is concerning to us. We feel that the government has gone too far in too many instances.”

And number two:

“We believe that the principles that are taught scripturally are what we should operate our lives by, so that naturally flows over into the business,” explains Steve Green, president of Hobby Lobby, an arts-and-crafts retailer.

Headquartered in Oklahoma City, Hobby Lobby has grown from one 300-square-foot garage to over 500 stores in 41 states employing more than 16,000 individuals.

The Greens’ faith is integral to how they operate their family business. Hobby Lobby storesclose on Sundays and are open only 66 hours a week so that their employees can spend more time with their families. The family’s faith influences not only the way they care for employees but their investment in communities through partnerships with numerous Christian ministries.

Yet under the Obamacare mandate, the government is forcing families like the Greens to violate those beliefs by funding coverage of potentially life-ending drugs and devices or face crippling fines—up to $1.3 million per day in the case of Hobby Lobby. Even if the business is forced to drop employee health care coverage to avoid the mandate, it would still face a fine of $2,000 per employee per year.

There are other victims as well, but these are the two that I am watching.  The Obama administration just recently established in the courts that parents have no human right to homeschool their children. Now there will be a fight to see if government can force Christians to violate their consciences in their business operations. We should all be watching and praying about this, and thinking about what we can do to protect our values.

3 thoughts on “Two families fighting for their religious liberty at the Supreme Court”

  1. I’m engaging with a ton of people, including many apparently solid Christians, who do not understand the myriad reasons that ObamaCare is immoral from a Christian perspective: government-driven wealth redistribution (faux charity through theft), abortion, euthanasia, death panels, attack on religious freedom, etc, – as well as the necessary linkage between forced wealth redistribution and the culture of death. I actually hear so-called believers say “I’m for public healthcare, but against abortion and euthanasia,” as if you can have one without the other. I guess they have never studied the economics of death, Stalin, or Hitler.

    These folks are jumping at their subsidies, not realizing the incredible spiritual price they are paying, not realizing the cost, even in human lives, of these “freebies.”. It is stunning to me to see Christians abandon the core values and orthopraxy of the Church in order to get their “free” healthcare. It is particularly disgusting to see many Christians openly support ObamaCare, not realizing that if they had lived in Nazi Germany or pre-Civil War U.S., they would have been the ones supporting the holocaust and slavery on similar economic and “general welfare” grounds.

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  2. In your last paragraph you mention “The Obama administration just recently established in the courts that parents have no human right to homeschool their children.” Where can I find more info on this? I had not heard this before but assume this is one of the ultimate goals of Common Core etc. Disappointed the precedent has already been set.

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