I have to revive this one. I just read almost all 10 pages of arguments, and I am surprised at how little of it was a) logical and b) had a clue as to what's really going on here. So let me widen your gaze:
1) Birth control is HEALTH CARE. Either an employer provides insurance for health care or they don't. I'm happy to argue against mandates, but no employer should be able to dictate what an employee does with their health, even and especially if it has no negative (and actually a positive) impact on employer costs. No priest should be sanctioned to deny health care access for his parishioners. No "pro-life" logic would support letting a woman die (and I might add, her unborn child) in a hospital waiting room because it's a Catholic hospital and they won't provide an abortion even to save her life. Alan's analogy about a camel's nose in a tent is applicable here -- but it's more like other people's nose's sticking up a woman's ___ is the first step to them taking over her whole body.
2) Think this isn't about controlling women? Note that the Catholic institutional insurance often pays for vasectomies, and no crying from the bishops has been heard. Check out the Stupak-Pitts Amendment for just how bills are being written (and passed) to deny due process to one gender. Catholic institutions have been dealing with/paying for birth control, sterilizations, and yes, even abortions (I once worked in a Catholic hospital run by nuns, not priests) for decades. They do this because the majority of Catholics are capable of nuance, something this new pope and these latest "small-government" pols seem to lack.
4) This pope has decided to go on a rampage about sex, in order to try to regain a “moral standing” after being shown to be blatantly complicit in the wide-scale perpetration of pedophilia. But it really started back when he became chief inquisitor in the early 80s. Read 1993's Holy Seige; this article has a list of radical totalitarian actions after he was appointed to guard the Doctrine of the Faith. He has been organizing a witch hunt (historical references intentional) to not only attack women and gays, but to destroy anyone or any organization that does not get in lockstep with his orthodoxy, even if the institutions aren't Catholic!
e.g. Church Fathers are defunding charitable organizations where leaders express PERSONAL, free speech in support of the attacked groups. (e.g. women's homeless shelter in Sacramento) and especially if the organization tries to support the attacked groups (e.g. homeless group in Maine). Or the group has some loose affiliation with a group that advocates for women's health. (e.g has suddenly decided to de-fund Komen for its funding of the mammogram programs at Planned Parenthood, despite the fact they've been funding Komen, and Komen has been funding Planned Parenthood for YEARS – they've even sent letters to parishioners telling them they shouldn't make personal donations to Komen!) In states with gay marriage issues, all priests have been ordered to make sure their entire congregation marches in lockstep. The acquiesence to this even amongst liberal priests in pro-gay dioceses where gay parishioners give LOTS of money indicates the level of pressure being exerted from on high. If priests don't comply, their funding will be cut. This is a new inquisition, make no bones about it, and this Pope is getting pretty darn close to Leo XII.
5) It's not “the Church's” money. God didn't drop it into those men's coffers like mana. Except for its corporate profits, this is money given by parishioners to support the administration of the church and it's charitable works. I don't think bashing women and gays is anyone's definition of charitable works. Benedict's attempts to deflect from his own moral decay will fail, most especially because, rather than deal with critically serious issues of violence, greed, corruption and environmental degradation, he has chosen to pick on two groups that his parishioners actually support. American Catholics overwhelmingly support the human rights of homosexuals, much more than other Christian groups. They are predominantly pro-life, and they certainly believe in using birth control.
6) As an Arkansas church leader stated, "it won't hurt women if priests tell parishioners not to donate to Komen, because they'll donate to the hospitals directly." Indeed, it is time for Catholics who believe differently than the hierarchy – ESPECIALLY WOMEN -- to stop putting money in the collection plate, and give it directly to the non-Catholic non-bigoted charities who are doing good non-political work! (There are plenty of Christian denominated agencies out there that foot the bill: Methodists, Lutherans, Episcopalians, Quakers... and that's just in my small community.)
7) and one more thing... those of you who say "it's okay, poor women have Planned Parenthood" should wake up and see that Conservatives are stopping at nothing to destroy services for poor women - PP is practically the only agency left and it is under severe attack by powerful people, not just to defund it federally, but to SHUT IT DOWN. (Hello! Georgian Sec. of State, anyone?) And again, see Stupak-Pitts Amendment regarding denying ALL women access to (anti-)reproductive health care.
Regarding HeyDude's original question, I imagine Obama is aware of all the above, especially #1 and #7.
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