While I can understand a genuine desire to be allowed to practice one's own religious beliefs, I'm concerned about how that has translated into this latest legal action involving Hobby Lobby and the Affordable Care Act.
It looks as though Hobby Lobby is attempting to impose their religious beliefs upon their employees. Even though the employees may not share Hobby Lobby executives' religious beliefs, there is an attempt to trap them into making choices as though they share those beliefs. This seems controlling and oppressive to me. Hobby Lobby could allow employees to have access to birth control, then do what they can to influence employees not to use it.
In general, humans have a tendency to rail against control (rebel) and be attracted to influence. A teenage girl may devise a plan to wear a makeup to a party because she's moving away from the angry control of her parents and towards the relaxed influence of her friends. She was forbidden to EVER wear makeup by our parents (control). Her friends casually let her know that they will be wearing makeup to the party (influence). We're drawn to fall in line with the influence (All my friends will be wearing makeup at the party and I'll be the only one who isn't! That can't happen!). We rebel against the control (I can't wear makeup? We'll see about that!).
A wife may go out with her friends once a week--more often than her husband is comfortable with. He tells her he doesn't want her going out with them any more than once a month. Beyond the possible disrespect, belittlement, and resentment she may feel, she may have an urge to now go out twice a week, just to spite her husband's attempts at control and to continue to enjoy the pull of the influence of her friends. The husband tells her what she is and is not allowed to do, the friends simply invite her out to a movie (with no attempt at controlling her).
If Hobby Lobby really were interested in changing the kinds of reproductive choices their employees were making, it would seem that they would take a more influential approach, as opposed to attempting to wield their power over employees in the form of control. Then again, I suppose the issue could be more about saving money than actually helping employees make specific decisions.
What are your thoughts?
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The problem with this, and many arguments I've seen over the past few days, is everyone ignores that Hobby Lobby is NOT against birth control. They are against four specific types of "birth control" that prevent a fertilized egg from implanting in the endometrium, and thus can be considered abortifacient. Arguing that they should just influence their employees rather than prevent abortion(/murder) is the same as saying that you should influence someone not to kill their neighbor and refuse to take away the gun.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for commenting! I didn't mean to imply that Hobby Lobby was against any kind of birth control, I was only commenting on their methods of 'persuasion'. Yes, your gun example is very much how things work in the United States. Most people are allowed to own and carry guns in many circumstances. Many people are shot and killed with guns on a daily basis, in the United States and around the world.
DeleteMy point is that taking away legal access to things like guns, birth control, drugs, or abortions is like putting a bandage on a broken limb. Why not show people the skills that will help them NOT WANT to shoot someone when they have a disagreement, WANT to abstain from having sex until they want to have children, WANT to refrain from using illegal drugs and make the CHOICE to use legal drugs responsibly, and NOT WANT to have an abortion. When you try to manage the symptoms of something, rather than trying to remedy the root of the problem, people just find other ways to get what they want. If your neighbor wants to kill someone, and you take their gun away, what's to keep them from picking up a knife, waiting until you leave, or using their bare hands to kill someone? Not a thing.
If, however, you can help that neighbor understand that violence is senseless, you don't have to try to control whether or not they have access to a gun, because they wouldn't want to kill anyone with it if they did.
Great comment!