Ideas for what we could do if our fight against the mandate doesn't work

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To be completely honest, I think it would create a world devoid of war and geared towards the proper development of humanity.
History is replete with proof that this is not true. From the Crusades, through the Thirty Years War on to the Northern Ireland Troubles and most recently the entire tragedy that is the Middle East (both Jew versus Moslem AND Sunni versus Sharia).

Yeah. Attempting to impose one’s religion on other people is a surefire path to “a world devoid of war and geared towards the proper development of humanity.” 🤷
 
The alternative is to have non-Catholic employees subject to the religious sensibilities of their Catholic employers. Do you like that better?
That happens all the time. Employers routinely set working hours based on religion, pay education benefits based on the employer’s religion, make hiring decisions based on the employer’s religion, etc. It’s not usually an issue and I believe the only reason it’s an issue this time is because it involves sex.
How about when a Catholic sales person comes on this forum complaining that his Witness boss is denying his kid a blood tranfusion because it goes against the bosses religion.
False analogy. First of all, JW’s rarely hire non JW’s. Second, no one is suggesting that we deny contraception to anyone. Contraception is widely available to all, even to those employed by Catholic institutions.
How about when another Catholic comes here complaining that her Christian Scientist boss is refusing to cover the surgery and chemotherapy she needs to fight breast cancer but the boss refuses because his religion doesn’t believe in medicine.
I don’t believe CS employers offer health insurance. A Catholic employee would certainly have known that when she accepted the job. If someone really needs contraception and knows that her employer doesn’t offer it, she can take another job or get her contraception elsewhere.
Lets agree to do what the master said and “give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s”
No problem with that. But the mandate isn’t about what’s Ceasar’s, it’s about what is the employers’ own money spent on their own employees.
 
No, he can deny it intentionally purchasing health insurance for his (in this example Catholic) employees that specifically denies coverage for it.
I think that you are very confused of how things work. Refusing coverage it is NOT denial of service. Only a medical facility can deny a medical service. If a person wants to get the pill the individual can simply go to the pharmacy and buy it, no Catholic employer will stop them from doing so. Passing lack of support for denial is a major logical fallacy.
 
The portion of the rules that defines what a plan must contain is only one small part of the HHS rules and procedures for implementation of the Affordable Care Act.
Yet it is the only part that the USCCB has an issue with, right? What do you think you know that the bishops don’t?
I disagree. There are, of course, some employers that cannot afford to do this but it is part of the obligation to pay a just wage. If the prevailing compensation for a given type of work includes benefits, it would not be just to offer compensation that does not if the employer has the means to do so.
Ah! Now you are undone my friend!
If you concede that the money the employer would spend on health coverage for the employee is, in fact, part of his wages, (I agree with this) then you MUST concede that the employer has no right to dictate how the employee spends them.

Which removes the ethical responsibility for the employee’s actions from the employer.

Which defeats the argument that it violates an employer’s religious liberty to pay for health coverage that includes contraception.

Q.E.D
 
No, he can deny it intentionally purchasing health insurance for his (in this example Catholic) employees that specifically denies coverage for it.
Once again, Bill, you are missing the point, and missing the entire underlying issue as to why the Church is against supporting it.

By providing these services, and by paying for them, we are actively supporting something that TAKES LIFE.

You cannot claim the same argument with blood transfusions or chemotherapy because it is an intrinsically different subject all together. There are as opposite as black and white, night and day, good and evil.

As for your arguments against a Catholic world order, I would like to point out that every one of those instances you pointed out were the result of -ANOTHER- religion, non Catholic, and in opposition to what we believe. My statement was geared towards the world finally accepting Catholicism as the true religion. Unfortunately, free-will is unlikely to allow that to occur.

I would also like to point out that you are making yet another logical fallacy. Tu Quoque. You should spend some time on that site, and them attempt to engage in a civil and logical discussion with us.

Also, I have to ask, if you call yourself a Catholic, why is it that you are unwilling to fight for Our religious freedoms? It is a mistake to think that freedom means that people can impose their own morality. Freedom is living by God’s laws, not creating your own. The JW and Christian Scientists are not living by God’s laws, in fact, they are actively contradicting them. That is why, no, I don’t give a flying F*** if their “Religious Freedoms” are denied. This nonsensical belief that truth is relative and everyone is entitled to the same “freedoms” flies in the face of Objective Truth, and has no place in a just world.
 
Yet it is the only part that the USCCB has an issue with, right? What do you think you know that the bishops don’t?

Ah! Now you are undone my friend!
If you concede that the money the employer would spend on health coverage for the employee is, in fact, part of his wages, (I agree with this) then you MUST concede that the employer has no right to dictate how the employee spends them.

Which removes the ethical responsibility for the employee’s actions from the employer.

Which defeats the argument that it violates an employer’s religious liberty to pay for health coverage that includes contraception.

Q.E.D
You have it backwards. The employer is obligated to provide services the operate within his conscience, so long as they do not deprive the employee of what they need to live. The employee can, in turn, reject it if it doesn’t meet his standards and use the money that -would- have been deducted for the benefits (but is no longer being deducted because they refused the service) and seek out a plan that operates according to what they feel is right.

Basically, the employee can refuse the employer’s coverage and seek out coverage elsewhere on their own. They’ll only be losing money if they chose to take on a plan that costs more than waht the employer was capable of providing them with.
 
I would think that what we do now with taxes is what we would do if the mandate actually sticks. In other words, paying taxes is a government mandated responsibility for all, which if we try to avoid, leads to fines and/or imprisonment. Either way, the government will collect their taxes. You can either do it the easy way or the hard way, the choice is up to the individual to a big extent. Just as we pay for things we don’t agree with when we pay our taxes, it’s the same for obeying this new mandate should it stick. It applies to all, and their will be ramifications for trying to avoid the mandate. It’s like any other mandate that applies to all.
 
I think that you are very confused of how things work. Refusing coverage it is NOT denial of service. Only a medical facility can deny a medical service. If a person wants to get the pill the individual can simply go to the pharmacy and buy it, no Catholic employer will stop them from doing so. Passing lack of support for denial is a major logical fallacy.
You need to look up the definition of logical fallacies, I think.

In the real world, if a medical procedure isn’t covered by insurance, then it isn’t actually available to the vast majority of people in any true sense of the word. Much like the manufacturer’s of Ferrari’s aren’t “denying me” a Ferrari. As soon as I get $230,000 together they’ll drop one off at my house.

So you’ve got a Catholic making $20,000 a year in cash but another, say $10,000 a year in compensation that the employer is using to pay for health insurance for the employee’s family (that’s what my health insurance costs my employer/me). your position is that the Jehovah’s Witness should be entitled to deny coverage for blood transfusions and expect the employee to spend something like $1600 per unit for blood, even though he’s paid $10,000 for insurance, just because the JW employer thinks blood transfusions are sinful and immoral?

Here’s a guy who needed $18,000 worth of blood transfusions. If it were your kid, and you paid for the insurance, you’d be okay with letting the kid die, or coming up with $18,000?
daytondailynews.com/news/news/local/area-patients-charged-thousands-for-blood-transfus/nMzph/

Right.
 
Yet it is the only part that the USCCB has an issue with, right? What do you think you know that the bishops don’t?
It’s the part that affects the USCCB directly the most but it’s not the only part they object to. You should read the material on the USCCB website about the mandate. The biggest concern voiced is protecting conscience, the most** immediate **threat to that is the insurance mandate.
Ah! Now you are undone my friend!
If you concede that the money the employer would spend on health coverage for the employee is, in fact, part of his wages, (I agree with this) then you MUST concede that the employer has no right to dictate how the employee spends them.
That would be my “undoing” if the mandate only covered health care plans that employees paid for themselves. Most employer sponsored plans are paid for primarily by the company. In fact, to have the plan be a pre-tax expense, the plan must be at least 50% paid for by the employer. The employer has the right to structure the total compensation plan (pay, benefits, working conditions) in the way that best meets the employers needs.
Which removes the ethical responsibility for the employee’s actions from the employer.
And that is why we aren’t discussing any employer forbidding the employee from using her own money to buy contraception.
Which defeats the argument that it violates an employer’s religious liberty to pay for health coverage that includes contraception.
How? Why does the employer not have the right to use his/her religious beliefs when choosing what benefits to pay for? How does infringing on that right not infringe on the employer’s religious liberty?

Since the employer is not trying to restrict the employee from obtaining or using contraception, only choosing not to subsidize it, the best argument you have is that the religious liberty of the employer is in conflict with the religious liberty of the government. But the government doesn’t** have **religious liberty, so that argument fails too.
 
I would also like to point out that you are making yet another logical fallacy. Tu Quoque. You should spend some time on that site, and them attempt to engage in a civil and logical discussion with us.
No, a tu quoque fallacy is the attempt to defeat an argument by saying “you’re doing the same thing”. Whereas, I’m trying to point out that you would have a different perception of the argument if you didn’t start from the idea that Catholic morality is the only valid morality on the planet. (which may actually be true, but is most definitely not the basis of the US Constitution).

It is especially ironic coming from a religious tradition that purports to espouse the “golden rule”… doncha think?
Also, I have to ask, if you call yourself a Catholic, why is it that you are unwilling to fight for Our religious freedoms? It
Because our freedoms aren’t being denied or abridged as a result of this law. No one is forcing me or my wife to purchase or use contraception. or have an abortion.
is a mistake to think that freedom means that people can impose their own morality. Freedom is living by God’s laws, not creating your own. The JW and Christian Scientists are not living by God’s laws, in fact, they are actively contradicting them. That is why, no, I don’t give a flying F*** if their “Religious Freedoms” are denied. This nonsensical belief that truth is relative and everyone is entitled to the same “freedoms” flies in the face of Objective Truth, and has no place in a just world.
Yet this is the exact right the JW and the CS (and RCs) are guaranteed by the US Constituiton!!

So we find ourselves at an impasse.

You seem to be saying that I can’t be both a good Catholic and a good American. I disagree.

When are you leaving for the Vatican?
 
You need to look up the definition of logical fallacies, I think.

In the real world, if a medical procedure isn’t covered by insurance, then it isn’t actually available to the vast majority of people in any true sense of the word. Much like the manufacturer’s of Ferrari’s aren’t “denying me” a Ferrari. As soon as I get $230,000 together they’ll drop one off at my house.

So you’ve got a Catholic making $20,000 a year in cash but another, say $10,000 a year in compensation that the employer is using to pay for health insurance for the employee’s family (that’s what my health insurance costs my employer/me). your position is that the Jehovah’s Witness should be entitled to deny coverage for blood transfusions and expect the employee to spend something like $1600 per unit for blood, even though he’s paid $10,000 for insurance, just because the JW employer thinks blood transfusions are sinful and immoral?

Here’s a guy who needed $18,000 worth of blood transfusions. If it were your kid, and you paid for the insurance, you’d be okay with letting the kid die, or coming up with $18,000?
daytondailynews.com/news/news/local/area-patients-charged-thousands-for-blood-transfus/nMzph/

Right.
… you’re really just not listening at all are you.?

look at the False Analogy segment of this : Logical Fallacies

One again, you are comparing things that cannot be compared.

1: Blood transfusion is life saving and therefor not intrinsically evil.

2: Contraceptives are intrinsically evil, and therefore cannot, in good conscience, be provided.

By giving legitimacy to these moronic dictates of the JW, you are, in turn, attempting to lend credibility to a cult sect that acts against God, and against Catholic teaching. I don’t see why you think they are the same ting, please explain.
 
That would be my “undoing” if the mandate only covered health care plans that employees paid for themselves.

And that is why we aren’t discussing any employer forbidding the employee from using her own money to buy contraception.
Its ALL the employee’s “own money” as soon as he earns it as a wage!!
Why does the employer not have the right to use his/her religious beliefs when choosing what benefits to pay for? How does infringing on that right not infringe on the employer’s religious liberty?
Because he’s not the one paying for them (even though he might be writing the check) the employee is earning them!

Should a Muslim employer specify that I eat only Halal food?

What if he requires me to purchase all of my food from his store, which only stocks Halal foods?

What if instead of giving me cash he specifies that I will receive Halal groceries directly from him in lieu of the wages I would have spent on food?

Do his religious liberties extend to not “paying” for my pork chops and shrimp?
 
You need to look up the definition of logical fallacies, I think.

In the real world, if a medical procedure isn’t covered by insurance, then it isn’t actually available to the vast majority of people in any true sense of the word. Much like the manufacturer’s of Ferrari’s aren’t “denying me” a Ferrari. As soon as I get $230,000 together they’ll drop one off at my house.

So you’ve got a Catholic making $20,000 a year in cash but another, say $10,000 a year in compensation that the employer is using to pay for health insurance for the employee’s family (that’s what my health insurance costs my employer/me). your position is that the Jehovah’s Witness should be entitled to deny coverage for blood transfusions and expect the employee to spend something like $1600 per unit for blood, even though he’s paid $10,000 for insurance, just because the JW employer thinks blood transfusions are sinful and immoral?

Here’s a guy who needed $18,000 worth of blood transfusions. If it were your kid, and you paid for the insurance, you’d be okay with letting the kid die, or coming up with $18,000?
daytondailynews.com/news/news/local/area-patients-charged-thousands-for-blood-transfus/nMzph/

Right.
When it comes to employment relationships I personally believe that health insurance is not a wage but a benefit as vacation time etc. When I accept to work for someone I accept their wages and benefits. If the employer says that some benefits are not available, then I can either decide to work for them or not. I have my employer changing my benefits over the years and I have the choice to move on if I do not like it. Just look at vacations as a benefit, you are usually not allowed to take the time off as you please but you must get the approval of your employer. It is your time off but you are not free to use it as you wish, it has constraints.

When it comes to moral decisions in the employment relationships I hope that you understand the big difference between supporting a moral act, supporting a morally neutral act and support an immoral act. In you logic you mix moral and immoral possibilities and then you try to make a moral argument out of them, it does not work that way. The Church, in relation of the fight against of a portion the mandate that forces immoral behaviors simply, simply rejects to follow any logic based on immoral behaviors.
Now the main point is that you seem to say that the government regulates morality and that morality is not a God given law.
 
The alternative is to have non-Catholic employees subject to the religious sensibilities of their Catholic employers. Do you like that better?

How about when a Catholic sales person comes on this forum complaining that his Witness boss is denying his kid a blood tranfusion because it goes against the bosses religion.

Don’t work there:rolleyes:

How about when another Catholic comes here complaining that her Christian Scientist boss is refusing to cover the surgery and chemotherapy she needs to fight breast cancer but the boss refuses because his religion doesn’t believe in medicine.

Don’t work there:rolleyes:

Lets agree to do what the master said and “give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s”
Bolding MIne:

Lets see… in regard to the bold print, how can I put it in the simplest of terms…
Ok I make a try. …Yes!!

The employee has a choice- right? You like that word,choice, right? Who are we to deprive them of that? The employee does not have to work there! Well I guess Catholics do not get a cholice eh? Do not get a choice to practice their religion as they see fit-eh? Hmmmmmmm Your ‘Tolerance’ is rather intolerant :cool:methinks.

Oh…and…er …the is the little matter of the --hello? Firist Amendment. Gee whiz!

So Our Master says "
Lets agree to do what the master said and “give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s” and by thata he means monies for abortion eh? :cool: I just do not think so.
 
No, a tu quoque fallacy is the attempt to defeat an argument by saying “you’re doing the same thing”. Whereas, I’m trying to point out that you would have a different perception of the argument if you didn’t start from the idea that Catholic morality is the only valid morality on the planet. (which may actually be true, but is most definitely not the basis of the US Constitution).

It is especially ironic coming from a religious tradition that purports to espouse the “golden rule”… doncha think?

Because our freedoms aren’t being denied or abridged as a result of this law. No one is forcing me or my wife to purchase or use contraception. or have an abortion.

Yet this is the exact right the JW and the CS (and RCs) are guaranteed by the US Constituiton!!

So we find ourselves at an impasse.

You seem to be saying that I can’t be both a good Catholic and a good American. I disagree.

When are you leaving for the Vatican?
You are correct, I realized that after I posted. There is a fallacy for it, but I do not recall what it is called. Tu QuoQue does not apply in this instance.

Our religious freedoms ARE being denied though, that’s the thing. We are being forced to provide coverage for something we find to be morally objectionable. Either that, or we are taxed into submission, making it impossible for us to do our duty as Christians to the world around us. Companies pick up a percentage of the costs associated with healthcare, the employee does not pay for all of it. Therefore, it follows that if the provider is paying fora portion of the insurance for all of their employees, they are paying for contraceptives and abortions whenever an employee chooses to make use of those “services”

If, as in the past, there was no guarantee that those services were being provided, then it fell into a morally permissibly ambiguity. You didn’t know that is where the money was being spent, so the sin falls to the employee for using it that way. This case is different. We now know, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that the money we contribute to an insurance company WILL be going to those “services.” Insurance companies no longer have the option of opting out and not providing coverage for them. As such, we now know that any money we provide to the company will, at least in part, pay for those “services” At that point, we are morally obligated to deny coverage because we are morally obligated to not take part in any action which will result in sin.

Lastly, no, you cannot be a good Catholic and hold the Constitution about the Law of God. This sort of thinking is called Americanism, and has been condemned by the Popes since WWII (or prior, I only know of it in WWII because of the Church’s reaction to the dropping of the atomic bomb)

Also, believe me, if I could live in Vatican city, and only have to answer to the Pope and God, I would do so in a heartbeat… but sadly, they have very little use for architects anymore.
 
… you’re really just not listening at all are you.?

look at the False Analogy segment of this : Logical Fallacies

One again, you are comparing things that cannot be compared.

1: Blood transfusion is life saving and therefor not intrinsically evil.

2: Contraceptives are intrinsically evil, and therefore cannot, in good conscience, be provided.
You’re begging the question of whether or not Contraceptives are in fact intrinsically evil. You’re assuming that they are because the Church tells you that they are. (I agree for what its worth). But we don’t live in a society that uses that standard.

We live in a society that provides freedom of religion to everyone including non-Catholics, even when they’re wrong! the constitution specifically permits them to be wrong!

In short your religious freedom doesn’t permit you to impose your religion on other people (such as your employees who might want health cover that includes ABC).
By giving legitimacy to these moronic dictates of the JW, you are, in turn, attempting to lend credibility to a cult sect that acts against God, and against Catholic teaching. I don’t see why you think they are the same ting, please explain.
I’m pointing out that the US Constitution gives the JW exactly the same rights as it gives Catholicism. That document treats all religions the same. As an American I’m proud of that, even though I think the JWs are a cult, but here, they’re guaranteed the right to be a cult!

YMMV, but I don’t even know if you’re American
 
When it comes to employment relationships I personally believe that health insurance is not a wage but a benefit as vacation time etc.
Economically, from a business standpoint, you’re wrong here. All costs of an employee are accounted for and the economic benefit of the employee is compared to the aggregate of those costs. The benefits of the employee must be greater than the aggregate cost to hire/retain the employee. Thus the aggregate costs of the employee are a portion of the employer’s economic benefit from having access to the employee’s labor that the employer assigns to induce the employee to expend his labor to create the economic benefit.

In short, anything the employer pays to or for the employee is the employee’s “share” of the economic benefit of his labor.
 
Its ALL the employee’s “own money” as soon as he earns it as a wage!!
This is wrong, it is not the employees’ “own money” if it were those benefits would not be regulated by a two-parties contract, it would be cash.

Because he’s not the one paying for them (even though he might be writing the check) the employee is earning them!
*The employee is simply earning what is regulated by the two-parties contract. Anything more is not earning but a gift from the employer. If the employee does not like it he can re-negotiate the contract.
*
Should a Muslim employer specify that I eat only Halal food?

What if he requires me to purchase all of my food from his store, which only stocks Halal foods?

What if instead of giving me cash he specifies that I will receive Halal groceries directly from him in lieu of the wages I would have spent on food?

Do his religious liberties extend to not “paying” for my pork chops and shrimp?

Here you are mixing things and what the constitution says. You are mixing private relationships with government-citizens relationships. A non-governmental institution is not constrained by the constitutional amendments like the government is.
 
The employee is simply earning what is regulated by the two-parties contract. Anything more is not earning but a gift from the employer. If the employee does not like it he can re-negotiate the contract.
I think you don’t understand economics my friend. Employers don’t make “gifts”. They assign a portion of the economic benefit that results from the employee’s labor to the use of the employ in order to induce the employee to work.
 
Economically, from a business standpoint, you’re wrong here. All costs of an employee are accounted for and the economic benefit of the employee is compared to the aggregate of those costs. The benefits of the employee must be greater than the aggregate cost to hire/retain the employee. Thus the aggregate costs of the employee are a portion are the portion of the employer’s economic benefit from having access to the employee’s labor that the employer assigns to induce the employee to expend his labor to create the economic benefit.

In short, anything the employer pays to or for the employee is the employee’s “share” of the economic benefit of his labor.
You are wrong here. From a business point of view those are benefits and not wages. From a governmental point of view, in relation to taxation, those are considered wages. The government does not care how the two-parties agreement is done, the government simply tries to maximize the amount of taxes that it can collect, until recently the government has not dictated anything in regard to benefits.
 
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