Q: Why has there been so much opposition
among religious leaders about the government’s new mandate concerning insurance
coverage for contraception? Does the
Bible say that it is a sin to use birth control?
Most news coverage of this issue has focused
on the Roman Catholic Bishops’ public opposition to this mandate. The particular reason for their opposition is
because this policy would require them to provide contraception,
abortion-inducing drugs, and sterilization surgery in their health plans—all of
which are forbidden according to Roman Catholic doctrine.
Even though there is a narrow
exemption covering churches themselves, the exemption does not extend to
non-church religious employers, such as religiously-affiliated hospitals,
schools, colleges, and social service agencies.
This results in a circumstance where many religiously-affiliated
employers would be forced to pay for and provide drugs and procedures to which
their doctrine and conscience are opposed or face extreme fines and
penalties. Even after the accommodation announced
the following week by the administration, which shifts the responsibility of
providing the services to the insurer rather than the employer, they argue that
the cost of these services would still be paid by employers who self-insure
their plans or passed on in their premiums in cases where the organization
purchases insurance, thus forcing them to provide for services they consider
morally wrong.
This mandate and the
previously-mentioned opposition have sometimes been framed as a women’s health
issue, but the opposition is not on the grounds of disagreements over the
services offered, but rather on the grounds of religious freedom. The religious leaders opposing this mandate
are not asking that the services be made illegal, nor are they asking that
other employers and insurers be forbidden from providing them. Instead, they argue that the Free Exercise
Clause of the First Amendment forbids the government from requiring them to
provide and pay for services to which they are morally opposed.
There are a great many non-Catholic
Christian leaders who have joined the opposition to this mandate. Their participation is not because of
contraception, or even surgical sterilization, because their doctrine does not
forbid it, but rather because abortion-inducing drugs, such as the
morning-after pill are included in the mandate.
They argue that providing coverage for their employees to receive
abortion-inducing drugs amounts to participation in murder according to the
teachings of their churches because these drugs are known to cause the death of
an already-conceived child. Since the
Bible treats unborn children as persons and speaks of them being already known
by God and formed by Him, they consider abortion of any kind to be murder, and
many of them have stated that they would be jailed rather than participate in
such an act.
Many of the denominations which are
opposing this mandate, including my own (The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod)
typically avoid taking stands on political issues. They refuse to endorse candidates for public
office, the denomination and its leaders do not publicly affiliate themselves
with any political party, do not have Washington offices or lobbyists, and do
not accept federal funding to do their work.
They urge their parishioners to pay
their taxes and participate in their civic duty even if the government acts
immorally, and they believe in obeying the government, even when one does not
like its laws. At the same time they
also believe, according to Acts 5:29, that Christians “must obey God rather
than man.” So, when this mandate was
announced, they felt compelled to speak out, because the government was
obligating them to materially participate in acts they consider immoral. Their demand was not that the government obey
the Bible, but rather that the government honor the nations commitments
embodied in the Constitution by not interfering in their freedom of religion
and conscience.
As to the question of the propriety
of birth control in general, the Bible, at all times, considers children to be
a blessing to a husband and wife from God, and defends their lives, even while
yet unborn, causing the majority of Christians throughout history to insist
that aborting them would be murder, including contraceptive methods that could
cause already-conceived children to die.
However, it is silent on birth control methods that prevent conception
by use of barriers or preventing ovulation, leaving these methods as matters of
conscience to be decided between husbands and wives.
