Ralliers: Defy Obama policy
Contraception rule attacks religion, speakers say at Capitol
Several hundred people rallied Friday on the steps of the state Capitol and called for defiance of recent federal mandates requiring that religious institutions provide contraceptives and other services in their health-care plans.
The “Stand Up for Religious Freedom” rally was one of more than 150 such gatherings around the country Friday.
“Tyrants, dictators and those who want to oppress free people always go after religious freedom first,” said Jerry Cox, president of the Family Council, a conservative group that led a successful effort for a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. “There is a war on religious freedom. It’s an assault on people of faith.”
Little Rock Catholic Bishop Anthony Taylor said it was wrong for government to force people to do what their consciences forbid. He said requiring faith-based institutions to include coverage for contraception, sterilization and other procedures in their health plans “cannot stand.”
“The issue is whether the government should force us to pay for these immoral practices,” Taylor said.
President Barack Obama’s administration originally exempted houses of worship from the policy, but it didn’t allow church-affiliated hospitals and other charitable agencies to opt out. The administration has said in recent weeks that it would shift costs of contraception to insurers of religious-affiliated schools, charities and other institutions. It also indicated that it was open to assuming the contraception costs for self-insuring religious institutions.
At least 12 Catholic organizations have filed suit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services mandate, which was announced in August 2011. The issue could end up at the U.S. Supreme Court.
American Atheists, a Cranford, N.J.-based advocacy group, said Friday’s rallies violate the intent of the First Amendment. Instead, the rallies support “theocracy and religious oppression.”
“A collection of religious persons do not have religious freedom: the individuals in that collection do. You cannot amass your individual freedoms to trump the freedoms of others,” said the organization’s spokesman, Blair Scott, in a news release.
Beth Anne Rankin, who recently lost the Republican primary to Tom Cotton in Arkansas’ 4th Congressional District, urged the crowd to resist the federal mandate when it takes effect, perhaps as early as August.
“We will push back,” Rankin — owner of a teaching, speaking and music company — said to a crowd estimated by Capitol police to number about 300. “We will not do it.”
Taylor said the fight against the contraceptive mandate is only part of a much larger struggle.
“Religious liberty is under assault from the right as well as from the left,” Taylor said.
Charitable assistance to or harboring “undocumented immigrants,” has been made a felony in several states, including his native Oklahoma, Taylor said.
Although many of his comments drew loud applause from the flag- and sign-waving crowd, Taylor’s comment about Catholic assistance to those in the country illegally was met with near total silence.
Pastor Mark Evans of The Church at Rock Creek in Little Rock used a Peanuts cartoon to drive home his message that people of different faiths should unite to oppose what he called attacks on religious freedom.
Lucy, he said, got her wish to control the TV set by wiggling five fingers at Linus before balling her fist. The fist, Linus realized, was stronger than any of his fingers.
At the end of the half-hour rally under an increasingly hot sun, state Sen. Missy Irvin, R-Mountain View, who had spoken earlier, wiggled her five fingers, then made a fist above her head.
Many in the crowd followed suit.