Obama and Catholics

President Obama has just renominated Dawn Johnsen to head the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel.

Ms. Johnsen (along with other sadly misguided souls) actually tried to strip the Church of its tax-exempt status over its pro-life stances (see Abortion Rights Mobilization Inc v. A. Baker III and United States Catholic Conference v. Abortion Rights Mobilization).

Add her to the list of bigots that Obama has nominated or appointed. She joins:

• Chai Feldblum, nominee for Commissioner of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. She has stated: "Sexual liberty should win in most cases. There can be a conflict between religious liberty and sexual liberty, but in almost all cases the sexual liberty should win because that's the only way that the dignity of gay people can be affirmed in any realistic manner." Ms. Feldblum also believes that the First Amendment should no longer be used to evaluate religious freedom claims: "...I want to suggest that the best framework for dealing with [the conflict between gay rights and religious liberty] is to analyze religious people's claims as belief liberty interests under the Due Process Clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, rather than as free exercise claims under the First Amendment."

• Harry Knox, member of the Presidential Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. He called the denial of the Eucharist to a lesbian couple "spiritual and emotional violence" and said that the Knights of Columbus were "foot soldiers of a discredited army of oppression."

• Kevin Jennings, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Drug-Free Schools. In a speech to Marble Collegiate Church, he said: "We have to quit being afraif of the religious right. We also have to quit - I'm trying to find a way to say this. I'm trying not to s ay, '[F---] 'em!' which is what I want to say, because I don't care what they think.Drop dead!" Mr. Jennings is also a donating member of ACT UP, a homosexual, anti-AIDS, anti-Catholic Church organization which, in 1989, broke in St. Patrick's Cathedral, disrupted Mass, desecrated the Eucharist and posted obscene depictions of Cardinal O'Connor. Mr. Jennings was not a participant in the attack.
  

They say you can judge someone by the company they keep. Such company does not reassure me that Obama respects the Catholic faith. (We won't even go into the issue of multitude of lapsed Catholics he's appointed.)

Such nominees are especially troubling, considering that Belmont Abbey College is currently fighting a ruling by the EEOC over their health care policy, which does not cover abortion or contraceptives.

Reuben Daniels Jr., of the EEOC Charlotte District Office Director wrote“By denying prescription contraception drugs, Respondent (the college) is discriminating based on gender because only females take oral prescription contraceptives… By denying coverage, men are not affected, only women."

In other words, Catholic college aren't allowed to be Catholic if it interferes with "sexual liberty." Sounds like something Chai Feldblum would applaud.

Something is rotten in the District of Columbia...

God help us.

photo credit: Indiana University Law School