February 3, 2012

The National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) and the Assemblies of God, which is also an NAE member, have come out in strong support of the recent objection by the Roman Catholic Church to a President Obama administration ruling that mandates health insurance plans cover contraceptives ‹ including drugs that can cause abortions ‹ and only provides very limited exception for "religious employers."

Although some churches and other houses of worship are exempt from the Department of Health and Human Services guidelines (under the 2010 health care reform law), church-affiliated hospitals, colleges and social services are not.

In a letter to President Obama sent by NAE President Leith Anderson and signed by Wood and nearly 60 additional religious leaders in December, Anderson stated that despite the media's focus on the Catholic Church's objection to the ruling, the Catholic community was not standing alone on this matter ‹ organizations and leaders of others faiths are also deeply troubled by the mandate and limited exemption.

Anderson wrote, "It is not only Catholics who object to the narrow exemption that protects only seminaries and a few churches, but not churches with a social outreach and other faith-based organizations that serve the poor and needy broadly providing help that goes beyond worship and prayer."

Expounding on the NAE's objections, Anderson explained that in addition to affiliated religious-based organizations that serve the poor and needy (currently not exempt from the ruling), there are numerous other ministries that are not affiliated to one denomination or house of worship. "Rather, they are, and are considered in Federal law to be, religious organizations because of their religious mission, their faith-shaped internal operations and their presentation of themselves to the community as religious organizations," Anderson wrote.

"We join with the many other religious leaders, including the Roman Catholics, in our strong objection to this attempt by the federal government to discriminate against persons of faith and religious communities," states Dr. George O. Wood, general superintendent of the Assemblies of God. "I strongly encourage our AG constituency to contact their congressional representatives in voicing their objection to this ruling."

Last Sunday, Catholic churches across the country reportedly read letters to their congregations, asking them to contact their congressional representatives to object to the controversial ruling, with a goal of 6 million contacts taking place.

Wood says is he also concerned that if the federal government is successful in mandating this action, what may be next is a regulation that imposes a requirement on Assemblies of God (and all religious) colleges and universities that if they choose to decline admittance to students on the basis of gender orientation, they will lose federal grants and student loans.

"Additionally, this intrusion by the federal government into religious rights granted under the First Amendment could have enormous negative implications for non-profit organizations that function with religious beliefs and values," Wood says.

In concluding the letter to President Obama, Anderson wrote: "We believe that the Federal government is obligated by the First Amendment to accommodate the religious convictions of faith-based organizations of all kinds, Catholic and non-Catholic. We respectfully ask that your administration, should it maintain the current contraceptives mandate, devise an exemption for religious employers that accurately defines such employers and exempts them from being required to offer to their employees (and students, if they are among America¹s many religious colleges and universities) health services to which they have deep religious objections."

To read the entire NAE letter to President Obama, see http://s2.ag.org/letter.

AG-NEWS