tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9238596.post1286509492365114693..comments2023-08-29T09:12:53.828-05:00Comments on OMIGOD ... I'm ThirtyWHAT?: I Shouldn't Be Happy ... ThirtyWhathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15013731537383431181noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9238596.post-69623090583629898502013-07-09T22:11:58.250-05:002013-07-09T22:11:58.250-05:00Hey there, Scrivner! Sorry I haven't written ...Hey there, Scrivner! Sorry I haven't written back sooner ... juggling a few things over here. But ... you're right on the money. You're preaching to the choir ... but that's alright. I appreciate a good sermon! hahaha :)<br /><br />I'm with you 100% ... whether their insurance pays for birth control ... or whether their employees pay for it out of pocket, the bottom line is that church funds ARE being spent on birth control. As you said, they're simply getting a healthier employee out of the deal, regardless of their moral standing.<br /><br />That's one of the things that Mom and I disagreed with that night. Her opinion was, "If you don't like their stance, don't work for them." My opinion was, "If they HONESTLY look out over their congregation and don't believe the majority of fertile women sitting there aren't using protection ... then they're delusional." They're putting their employees AND their followers in the position of breaking church law simply by controlling how many children they want to have. How does that MAKE SENSE? <br /><br />Mom argued that the Catholic Church wasn't against birth control ... only "artificial methods." After all, they taught classes on the rhythm method. I almost choke on my outrage on that one ... because the rhythm method works SO well ... said Catholic families of the 50's and 60's with 15 children.<br /><br />I know ... we're just preaching at each other. I just can't get past this. And I respect and admire that you're still going ... quite honestly, if it were a different parish I might feel differently? Maybe not. I told Mom I wanted to try a different location but she "belongs" to that parish and she wants to go to "her" church. It doesn't matter. I wasn't able to hide my disdain for their policies ... it was making her uncomfortable ... and I genuinely don't want to make her uncomfortable in her faith.<br /><br />And ... on the plus side? My Saturday nights are free again. I spent last Saturday night with Stoney and J at Buffalo Wild Wings and had an <i>great</i> time. And ... I wasn't struck by lightening once ... :) ThirtyWhathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15013731537383431181noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9238596.post-25299134865571195102013-07-06T22:55:13.202-05:002013-07-06T22:55:13.202-05:00I'm a pretty convicted believer, but the churc...I'm a pretty convicted believer, but the churches have it wrong about the birth control issue, no matter what they believe about birth control.<br /><br />Churches pay their employees to do their jobs. When the paychecks are handed out every other week, they come with no real stipulation about how those checks are to be used. The church may believe buying and using ______ is wrong (or sinful, or immoral, or whatever), but as long as _____ doesn't get in the way of job performance and as long as it doesn't sully the reputation of the institution (this second stipulation may be tenuous from a legal point of view, but I mostly believe it from a practical point of view), the employees are free to do whatever they want with their hard-earned pay.<br /><br />Churches have to stop thinking of the new health care laws as paying for birth control. What they are paying for is healthy employees, or if they can't understand that birth control is a health thing, they are paying for individuals' ability to take care of themselves the way they understand that to be. There are some out-there practices (valid or not) that health insurance companies don't cover, but whatever they do cover is stuff that they've decided is in their best interest to cover, and since the insurance companies are money-grubbing scoundrels (sorry; I just realized I don't know what field you work in. My assessment stands, but it's offered with an apology!), they don't offer birth control coverage just to be nice: they offer it because it means better customer health (that is, more money for the companies). <br /><br />In the cases where it's the government forcing the companies to offer birth control as coverage, it is our nation saying that we are all better off when people have access to birth control. Employers can agree or disagree if they wish, but disagreeing on moral grounds with, say, stop signs at intersections isn't good enough to disregard them.<br /><br />Churches could make all this conflict go away simply by following the law, convincing itself (rightly) that they are paying for their employees much-deserved health, and looking the other way on the birth control, having faith that if their doctrine is sound and if they can make a compelling case for it, their employees will CHOOSE to make health-care choices in line with the tenets of the church. Because that choice is at the heart of all doctrine, believe it or not, going back to the original man, woman, and forbidden fruit.<br /><br />Dang; why am I wasting these words here, on someone who I suppose I'm already in agreement with? I should be posting this in my own oft-neglected space. Maybe it's just to offer you sympathetic support from someone on THAT side of the religious throng. I'm still taking my place in the pew, but I understand and respect (and sometimes envy!) your decision to leave me there. <br /><br />I'll save you a space, though, just in case. <3onebadscrivenerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14369040536178632130noreply@blogger.com