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Corporate rights?
When my grandfather was a boy, he was given a pair of ice skates by the man who employed him. This man told him, “Don’t skate on Sunday!” Sunday was the only day my grandfather had free, so the skates were useless to him.
I’m telling this story to offer a new way of looking at the health care debate, especially for those of us who are religious, and who are concerned about the separation of Church and state.
Make no mistake about it; that separation is vital to the free exercise of religion. I am horrified, as a practicing Catholic, to see politicians trying to blur the line between church and state. Perhaps, while these politicians are in office, they will be able to enforce their beliefs. But what happens when they leave office? And why, in a plurality, should they be able to tell people who don’t share their faith how to behave and how to think? There is nothing even slightly democratic about that!
If they argue that Catholic institutions should not have to violate Catholic beliefs, I would answer simply this: Institutions are not people. As I understand it, the law does not force any individual to violate his or her beliefs by offering care that they are morally opposed to. It does require INSTITUTIONS to offer alternatives to employees.
And that’s what I want to point out. What we have here, really, is another assault on workers and workers’ rights. If, for example, Catholic hospitals can deny their employees birth control, the institution, which is NOT a person, is given rights which the workers, who are people, are denied. The hospital gets to practice its religion, but the employees do not. And, surely, only individuals can practice a religion.
So why should corporations have rights that are denied to individuals? Why should employers get to practice their religion while employees are denied the right to practice theirs? To me, that is the real question here, and it’s one no one seems to be asking.
I’d like to know why not. My Church has a mixed history, to be sure. But, in this country, it has a proud tradition of standing with the poor, the immigrants, and the workers. It has a centuries-old tradition of speaking for the individual against the rulers. What ever happened to that tradition? Can we reclaim it, please?
If we do, we will see that we must support the free exercise of individual conscience. Not all workers in a Catholic institution will be Catholic. Their consciences are private, and their decisions are their own. Their employer cannot dictate how or why they use health care. Employers simply cannot be given the power to rule workers’ lives to this extent. Or do we want to be back in the days of company stores and company towns, no unions, and no sick leave, health care, time off, or rights of any kind?
I don’t think so. But that seems to be where we are headed. We need to stop this now. Individual rights, including the right to the free exercise of religion, have been hard won, and we should not give them up to corporations.
My two cents.
I’m telling this story to offer a new way of looking at the health care debate, especially for those of us who are religious, and who are concerned about the separation of Church and state.
Make no mistake about it; that separation is vital to the free exercise of religion. I am horrified, as a practicing Catholic, to see politicians trying to blur the line between church and state. Perhaps, while these politicians are in office, they will be able to enforce their beliefs. But what happens when they leave office? And why, in a plurality, should they be able to tell people who don’t share their faith how to behave and how to think? There is nothing even slightly democratic about that!
If they argue that Catholic institutions should not have to violate Catholic beliefs, I would answer simply this: Institutions are not people. As I understand it, the law does not force any individual to violate his or her beliefs by offering care that they are morally opposed to. It does require INSTITUTIONS to offer alternatives to employees.
And that’s what I want to point out. What we have here, really, is another assault on workers and workers’ rights. If, for example, Catholic hospitals can deny their employees birth control, the institution, which is NOT a person, is given rights which the workers, who are people, are denied. The hospital gets to practice its religion, but the employees do not. And, surely, only individuals can practice a religion.
So why should corporations have rights that are denied to individuals? Why should employers get to practice their religion while employees are denied the right to practice theirs? To me, that is the real question here, and it’s one no one seems to be asking.
I’d like to know why not. My Church has a mixed history, to be sure. But, in this country, it has a proud tradition of standing with the poor, the immigrants, and the workers. It has a centuries-old tradition of speaking for the individual against the rulers. What ever happened to that tradition? Can we reclaim it, please?
If we do, we will see that we must support the free exercise of individual conscience. Not all workers in a Catholic institution will be Catholic. Their consciences are private, and their decisions are their own. Their employer cannot dictate how or why they use health care. Employers simply cannot be given the power to rule workers’ lives to this extent. Or do we want to be back in the days of company stores and company towns, no unions, and no sick leave, health care, time off, or rights of any kind?
I don’t think so. But that seems to be where we are headed. We need to stop this now. Individual rights, including the right to the free exercise of religion, have been hard won, and we should not give them up to corporations.
My two cents.
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So - you and I agree on the separation of Church and state, and how important it is. It is, I think, the thing that makes the free practice of religion possible in a plurality like ours - and, just as important, it prevents believers from oppressing those who don't share their beliefs. It prevents conflict between religions, and between religious and nonreligious people. But-
My main point is that I see my faith as radically liberating. I believe, and my Church teaches, that we are Christ's body on earth. That body - the body of believers - is composed of individuals, and the health of the body depends on the health of its members. That's why individuals matter so much. Each of us is, to quote the story by Flannery O'Connor, a temple of the Holy Ghost.
In other words, the Church teaches that individual human beings matter! It is the rights of individuals that must be protected. Corporations are not people, don't have rights of this sort, and shouldn't be able to limit or deny the rights of individual human beings. I'm not talking about just the Church here. I'm talking about the workplace. What this brouhaha really is, is another assault on the rights of working people on the part of their bosses, the corporations. ALL corporations, secular and otherwise. I really think, if the Church could see that, it would back off. At least, I hope so.
My two cents.
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no subject
But I really do wish that people could see that what's going on here, with this law, isn't so much an assault on religious liberty as an assault on workers. Not just women, though it certainly affects us most. Workers. It favors corporations over human beings. And THAT is something the Church has opposed in the past. So why aren't the powers that be speaking up for individual conscience and against corporate control?!
Anyway, glad you liked the post.