Obamacare: Religious Freedom Tax Repeal Act Would Prevent Taxing Catholic Church

By Deacon Keith Fournier
7/15/2012
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

Our religious liberties are not bartering chips. Let's not treat them that way.

On Tuesday, January 10, 2012, the Religious Freedom Tax Repeal Act was unveiled at a press conference held by Representative James Sensenbrennner (R-Wis.) and Representative Diane Black (R-Tenn.).

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WASHINGTON, DC (Catholic Online) - On Thursday, June 28, 2012 the United States Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the individual mandate of the Affordable care Act (aka Obama Care). The dense opinion was authored for a 5- 4majority by Chief Justice John Roberts. Justices Kennedy, Alito, Scalia and Thomas strongly dissented. However, a Court speaks through its majority. The Majority opinion upheld the mandate of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, not under the Commerce Clause, but as an exercise of Congress' power to tax.

The Obama Administration initially argued that the penalty for non-compliance with the Affordable Care Act's mandate to purchase insurance was not a tax. In fact, candidate and then President Obama, as well as the Congressional proponents of the legislation, argued that it was not a tax. They changed their position in the Chambers of the US Supreme Court. Now that the Supreme Court has held that the penalties for non-compliance are a tax, the political opposition has shifted. For all of us concerned about Religious Liberty, this is about much more than semantics. The Administration is saying violate your faith or pay a punitive tax to the Federal Government!

The major First Amendment Free Exercise of Religion concerns triggered by the HHS Mandate in the implementation of the Affordable Care Act have given rise to numerous lawsuits on their way to the US Supreme Court. They properly argue that the implementation of the Act through the HHS Mandate is unconstitutional because it violates the Free Exercise of Religion under the First Amendment. Those cases might have become moot had the Court struck down the Act. They are now more important - and much more urgent - than before.

The HHS mandate requires all employers, including Catholic and other religious employers, to cover sterilization, abortifacients, and contraception in their health care plans. The "exemption" provided for religious employers does not cover hospitals, universities, soup kitchens, outreaches to the poor and many other vital expressions of our Catholic faith and mission. It is no exemption at all.

Catholics know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ demands a response which goes beyond the walls of our Church buildings. We are our brother and sister's keeper. We do not reach out to people in need because they are Catholic. We reach out to people in need because we are Catholic. Our work in the provision of care and assistance to millions of Americans is now placed in jeopardy by the Obama Administration. Our freedom as a Church to follow our mission is threatened.

The HHS Edict is a violation of the Free Exercise of Religion protected under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Our proper place in serving the Common Good in this nation we love is under assault by a federal administration which refuses to recognize the protections of the US Constitution. The Affordable Care Act in its implementation is an unjust law. The Federal Government of the United States wants to compel the Catholic Church to act against its deeply held religious convictions and violate conscience. Failure to do so will bring punitive measures upon the Church and her institutions.

The Supreme Court has ruled that those fines or penalties for non-compliance with the Affordable Care Act are a tax. Thus, the Federal Government will soon tax the Catholic Church for abiding by its deeply held religious convictions in its ministry to people in need. These taxes could have the practical result of closing many of the Church's outreaches, ministries and institutions of care and compassion. This not only injures the Church and violates the Constitution, it injures American society and is an offense against the common good.

According to a February, 2012 Congressional Research Report, insurers and employers that do not comply with the HHS mandate could face a federal tax of $100 per day per employee, or a yearly tax of $36,500 per employee. Religious employers with hundreds of employees could be fined millions of dollars annually. Facing this huge tax threatens religious institutions like parochial schools, hospitals, soup kitchens, and universities to choose between violating their faith to keep their doors open or paying a potentially devastating tax. The Church has made it clear, we will not comply.

On Tuesday, July 10, 2012, the Religious Freedom Tax Repeal Act was unveiled at a press conference held by Representative James Sensenbrennner (R-Wis.) and Representative Diane Black (R-Tenn.). On Wednesday the legislation (H.R. 6097), was introduced with 57 cosponsors and referred to committee. This legislation would prevent the Obama Administration from taxing religious institutions and employers for choosing to follow the core tenets of their faith rather than bow to the HHS mandate that violates their Right to the Free Exercise of Religion and conscience rights.

In introducing the Bill Representative James Sensenbrennner noted: "Obamacare gives the federal government the tools to tax religiously-affiliated schools, hospitals, universities and soup kitchens right out of existence. This is the question facing religious institutions and concerned employers today: will you violate your conscience and religious beliefs or pay a hefty tax to follow your faith?"

"The taxes are severe for deciding not to comply with the HHS mandate: $100 per employee per day. So, a religious institution that, say, has a church and an elementary school beside it that employs fifty employees total, which include the administrative and maintenance personnel, ends up being taxed $36,500 per employee per year. Or the fifty-employee institution would have to pay a tax of $1,825,000 per year, every year."

"I am introducing this bill to protect employers from Obamacare's catch-22. Our religious liberties are not bartering chips. Let's not treat them that way. This bill protects religious freedom from this massive infringement and attack."

- - -

Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
Missionary Intention: Middle Eastern Christians. That the Christian communities of the Middle East, often discriminated against, may receive from the Holy Spirit the strength of fidelity and perseverance.

Keywords: Affordable care Act, Religious Freedom Tax Repeal Act, abortion, contraception, sterilization, First Amendment, Anti-Catholic, Anti-Christian, HHS Mandate, Deacon Keith Fournier

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1 - 10 of 23 Comments

Rob
10 months ago
Well said Dave. I too have done the same thing. And I will be voting 3rd party this cycle. I have a duty to vote and will do so, but I'm not voting for the representatives of these parties anymore. I'm done.
Dave Eddis
10 months ago
Why do we have to have "either---- or " when we elect our public officials. We are Democrats if we stand up for the rights of the poor or we are Republicans if we stand up for our religious beliefs. Neither party nor any candidate seems to represent all of the principals by which this great nation was founded . No piece of legislation stands on it's own merits without compromises which negate the principals on which the legislation may have been initiated, the HHS mandates being a prime example of that.
As a nation, we have to stop voting for parties and get back to voting for principals , whatever the results may be. I personally have changed my voter registration party affiliation to "unaffiliated" and intend to vote accordingly. No candidate will care about that one vote but if enough voters acted in like manner it might wake up the candidates to remember who put them in office. We do not have to relinquish any God-given rights in the guise of justifying another.The candidate I vote for may not win but I won't spend the next four years trying to justify to myself or to my God why I thought I could be the judge of which God-given right should be compromised.
Judy Claar
10 months ago
Vance & Rob. Yes, I believe the government wants to shut the Catholic Church up...why wouldn't it? It is the major spokesperson speaking for life and the morality of the world. It would be nice if Others would lend support, but after and if the Catholic Church is shut up I think Secularism is really free to peddle their propaganda. Since they already do it now, wait and see what happens when they are given full rein! Vance, I am sure you will agree. This Obama Horror must be stopped Now. Yet, like one said on this board, a lot of voters are falling for this, because they are too young to remember the evils and tyrannies that were born from Socialism.... or have not read or studied about fascism or Marxism=Communism. Before either of them may become dominant in the government, that government, (we, us.) must embrace a Socialistic government first. NOW, Some will respond: Untrue, w/o reading or informing themselves on what I have said. If you do, you are like the ostrich w/its head in the sand. And I cannot be responsible for you when a meteor falls and hits your body And your head that is in the sand. Follow Christ and nothing can go wrong. He is the Light. the Truth, and the Way. Our Catholic Church leads us in morality through Christ. She helps us in following Truth. We are her disciples. Blessings to all,,,
Rob
10 months ago
vance, I personally think the church should deep six the tax exempt status. I really feel this has been used as a muzzle to silence the church. Besides, most parishes aren't these machines of profit. I'm wondering just how much taxes would actually be paid that we are willing to be silenced for a buck.

Does anyone know of any studies in this regard? I would be the property tax might be problematic, but what's it worth to really be able to speak the truth?
Vance
10 months ago
As a result of the supreme court's decision, all religious institutions are not tax exempt. The supreme court has said that taxing the the Catholic Church is constitutional. It will be interesting to see what happens when the Church's law suit gets to the supreme court. I doubt that the vote will change.
Judy Claar
10 months ago
Juneau Alaska: Mike, This country has been patriotic and secular ever since the Big Wave of intelligent independent thinkers thought up the division of Church and State. I have public school books, of different studies, different ages, and they All have a Bible story in them. Are you shocked? My books are mostly Victorian and Early Century. And they are full of prejudices... according to "our little era". With these books one can know where a lot of information came from, and still comes from and why people think the way that they do-to a point. Oh, and my mother thought public schools only told the truth...she knows better now. Anyway, you know I went to ps., Church and State were Separate then as now. Big Brother just more lax. (Of course, there was just WWII, an awful lot of Patriotic Catholic boys who gave their life for this country, not to mention, grieving moms and dads etc. Big Brother will give this nation a rest for a while before any type of change is introduced.Just a thought.) I say all of this to you in response to your question, giving you a bit of added info besides. The Catholic Church nor any legitimate Christian Church, need not fear or hand over anything to this country. For since our country's birth, it has been Patriotic and true, to all religious freedoms, which are signed and guaranteed by our Founding Father's. Should their be a "disconnect in agreement, our Founding Fathers would turn over in their graves".
Is a mans signature not worth the paper it is signed on any more Mike? Perhaps in the Secular world it is not; but in Their Time, you can be sure that it was! People of Faith have always spilled blood for your Secular world, which indeed was a world that they lived in most of the time as well. But, while in this world, we try to live "Love". And that "Love" is not just an emotional love which one rides like a roller coaster.
I apologize for my tangents. I like to say a lot and be concise. My brain is so full! Blessings...
Rob
10 months ago
Theresa, what did everyone think was going to happen? We can't have 40 years of abortion, contraception that has become so mainstream (even amongst Catholics) that half our population could care less about this issue. They look at condoms on store shelves and ask themselves what the heck are we crying about. And when stats come out about how many "catholics" are using them, they really scratch their heads.

At some point we need to take some responsibility for this and get to work in our own house so we have some sort of credibility with an unbelieving public. The politics of all this is interesting and the court cases might make for an episode of law an order, but none of this matters if we don't change people's hearts.
Judy Claar
10 months ago
Paul Emile Leray: "The majority is not always right", reminded me of A Blunder that the SCJ made, about blacks, not too long ago...and then thankfully, 60 years later, they changed their minds. I sincerely Hope that mistakes of this magnitude are not made again! Blessings...
Theresa H.
10 months ago
The "Repeal Act" won't pass the Senate....This is of concern, also, for many business owners who must provide insurance for their employees--if they are conscientious people of religion/faith. They are being required to pay the penalty, too.... What's more, all of us are complicit by the very fact that we pay taxes! This is absolutely unjust on the part of President Obama and his Administration, the Democratic Party. and the Supreme Court. This DELIBERATE INTENT TO FORCE millions of employers, healthcare workers, and "we, the taxpayers" to be complicit in the sin that "cries to heaven" for justice is a gross injustice. I can hardly believe this is happening in the "United States of America!" May God deliver us from this heinous evil! We must not stop praying... Get with your Governors--to refuse Obamacare--like FL and a few other States are doing! If most all of the States would refuse, THAT just may STOP this insanity!
Paul-Emile Leray
10 months ago
"A court speaks through its majority". This is one major problem. It is the nature of truth that it often separates itself from the crowd. The majority is often wrong. Democracies inherently risk, intrinsic to their natures, falling into mobocracies. The prophet is often alone crying out in the wilderness, while the herd of lemmings are following one another (majority) off cliffs. Who is leading? Usually, a politician. (who managed to run faster than the other lemmings he is leading to then claim the lead position and stick a "follow me" sign on top of his head..."follow me right off the cliff!"). Politicians usually govern by popular opinion (which is usually wrong), which explains why they are forever taking polls and surveys and trying to gauge the political landscape...all on YOUR taxes. Anyone who deeply trusts politicians is an ignorant naive fool, completely BLIND to reality. Do NOT fear them and they will not enslave you. The last thing they wish for you is to be free. They are in the business of power, control, money; with YOUR money. Regard them as YOUR elected slaves and servants, not your idols. I truly hope the HERD wakes up soon.
Paul-Emile Leray

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