Funny how religious organizations have no problem forcing their views on others but when it's the other way around they have a problem. If the churches would just butt out of public policy and politics in general,the world would be easier for everyone, including them.

Won't the $2000 fine per employee the church run hospitals will pay to uphold their beliefs just be passed on? In the form of medical bill increases for us tax payers and the non-working people we support? Fines don't seem to be the answer to enforce this rule unless they shut down the hospital, which is not desirable.

A limit on what church run "non-profit" hospitals can pay their top executives would be interesting.... If you don't comply, your top executive can't make over $60,000 a year like the average hard working American....that might be effective and easily monitored by the IRS.

I was born and raisedc a Catholic, went to St. Pat's from 1st to 8th grade, learned the Bible front page to back page. I don't go to church much though I do still have my beliefs, and I know that God is happy with me,I don't need to go once a week to have that reinforced, nor do I have to hang around some of the most hypocritical individuals on the face of this planet. I have friends that are Atheists and I can relate to them as a lot of what churches attempt to put out does not make a lot of sense, at least if you are a reasonably intelligent being.
This anti abortion stuff is another example, the extreme end is the killing of those directly associated with it because they kill, yet its okay to kill a doctor? There are too many babies born into a living hell as it is, the greater percentage of society is not going to abstain, the antis aren't adopting in droves,and truly, their business of bodily finctions ends at the tip of the noses they put itno other's lives and business.
But, the real hypocrisy is that the Lord wants us to love each other, do good by our fellow man, not judge others,yet there's always the supreme christian telling us what the bible says, condemning their fellow man and using ill-translated phrases from the bible to justify it, and usually in tones of hatred that are so totally opposite of what God wants.
Sorry for the preaching, I'm not like this ususally but I am so tired of all these so-called christians and their ill-mannered, hate filled translations of the bible to justify their agendas, no matter ho 180 these agendas are from anything the Bible teaches.

tpeacock, I like your common sense approach to Christianity. Even though I agree with your perspective, you made a few references to "what go wants" and that is the problem with Christianity in general. There are tens of thousands of different interpretations of "what god wants" and each group is just as certain that they know "the truth" of what god wants. That fact alone should cause all Christians to at least pause and wonder why, but it never does. They all just forge ahead, trying to force the world to live by their definition of god and what it means to be a "true Christian". Personally, I could never get past the "I love you but if you don't love me back I'll burn you to a crisp for eternity" part of Christianity. I wish that more people could just believe what they want and leave their beliefs out of the public sphere. Churches pay no taxes to support anything public and that alone should exclude them from being able to influence public policy.

The Catholic position on birth control is out-dated. Of course a church would not want its followers to practice birth control as it would decrease their numbers at mass.

The bigger issue here is that not everyone who works for a religious charity is a member of that religion. Since families, churches, counties, states and countries all have limited resources, over-populating the world, which is currently at 7 billion, is a stupid policy. It's also funny how most people who oppose birth control are women who are no longer in their childbearing years and men who can't bear children.

To commonsense; My point exactly is that there is no need for reinterpretation, God made it clear what he expects, and those that reinterpret are defying His word, plain and simple. They condemn others as they reinterpret, and this goes against the very simple basic things we should all be doing.
Accepting others, not condemning others, claiming those who don't follow their misguided interpretations are going to hell, it's kind of ironic in that these condemners are most likely in for a very rude awakening in a rather warm place.
And if you don't believe, well that's okay too, because if you do believe you should understand that God will be the one that makes all the calls in the end. I don't understand why these so called high and mighty christians just walk right by that very simple fact sa it's in the Bible in clear black and white, no interpretation necessary.
Not trying to argue with you, I think we are singing off the same sheet of music, as the saying goes.
I've crafted a letter I'm sending in for print in Opinions, I m hoping it won't cause grief for my mother who attends St. Pats every Sunday, but I will deal with it.

I know of no place where god's word is "plain and simple". The bible is already man's interpretation of god's word. By reading the bible, you are reinterpretting his word and that is why it's never clear what god wants. You make reference to the other's "misguided interpretations", but I want to know what qualifies you to know that your interpretations are the truth and the others are misguided. You are human just like everyone else and as such, equally prone to put your own spin on the bible. Honestly, you sound like every other chriastian when you say the bible is "black and white" and you understand it perfectly while all of the other people are reinterpretting it improperly.