President Obama, gathering today with church leaders to celebrate Easter, made an admission that strengthens the argument against his administration’s contraception mandate.
“I’ve seen firsthand some of the outstanding work that you are doing in your respective communities,” he told the assembled church leaders, “and it’s an incredible expression of your faith.”
Obama focused on the religious significance of Easter — “the wonder of Easter morning . . . ‘Christ Jesus . . . and Him Crucified,'” he said — rather than any policy points. But his statement vindicates one argument by the staunchest opponents of the contraception mandate. It demonstrates that the category of true “faith-based” organizations extends far beyond institutional churches themselves.
The president exempted churches from providing contraception to their employees, and on that basis argues that he has not violated religious protections. But opponents counter that his policy fails because it a) does not protect religiously-affiliated organizations that minister to people outside of their church, and b) defines religious activity very narrowly, essentially limiting it to what takes places within a church or synagogue on holy days.
“In refusing to extend religious liberty beyond the parameters of what the administration chooses to deem religious conduct, the administration denies people of faith the ability to define their religious activity,” Rabbi Meir Soloveichik said in a recent House Oversight and Government Reform hearing on the mandate and religious liberty. “Therefore, not only does the new regulation threaten religious liberty in the narrow sense . . . but also the administration impedes religious liberty by unilaterally redefining what it means to be religious.”
Obama’s acknowledgment that charitable work conducted by churches in their communities is a religious act, would seem to concede a crucial point to the rabbi.
