-Church Sues Washington State Over Forced Abortion Coverage

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The State of Washington is forcing churches to provide for abortions in their health care package if they offer coverage for maternity care. State officials are literally forcing churches to provide for abortions or pay fines and even go to jail. Cedar Park Assembly of God Church in Seattle is suing the state over this oppressive law.  From CBN News:

The church’s lawsuit challenges the constitutionality and legality of Washington State Senate Bill 6219, legislation signed into law last March. The legislation requires Cedar Park to provide coverage for abortion if the church also offers maternity care coverage to its employees, or face fines and criminal penalties, including imprisonment.

     “Washington state has gone out of its way to bully churches and other religious nonprofits to violate their beliefs by paying for abortions,”

said ADF Senior Counsel Kevin Theriot, vice president of the ADF Center for Life, in a press release. 

     “The Supreme Court has consistently held that government hostility toward people of faith is unconstitutional and has no place in our society. The state’s policy crushes dissent and violates the Constitution’s Free Exercise Clause by targeting Cedar Park’s entirely legitimate internal policies and religious beliefs.”

Read the whole article>

Response: The attitude of the bill’s sponsor, Democrat state Sen. Steve Hobbs, says it all. When warned that it would be a possible violation of religious freedom he replied that churches and religious organizations could always sue.

This kind of arrogant approach to religious freedom can be expected to escalate among progressive politicians in the future. It started with President Obama who thumbed his nose at religious freedom with his Contraceptive Mandate that forced religious organizations to provide for contraceptives and abortifacients. Then there was the Mayor of Houston who tried to force churches to provide for transgender bathrooms and intimidated pastors about their Biblical teaching on homosexuality.

Then there was California who passed a law that forced pro-life clinics to advertise referrals to local abortion clinics. We can go on and on— Hillary said during her campaign for president that Christians must be forced to change their minds on abortion; and lately Bernie Sanders and a whole bunch of other progressive Senators challenged and voted against Trump appointees because they were Christians that still believed in the Bible.

Now the State of Washington wants to force churches to go against their Biblical beliefs and teachings to provide for abortion coverage or be fined and go to jail. California has similar laws but the progressives there didn’t dare try to apply it to churches. The officials in Washington obviously know that it violates the First Amendment of the Constitution but they couldn’t care less. 

The attitude of the bill’s sponsor that they can sue if they don’t like it doesn’t take in consideration the time and money involved in such a legal challenge– or maybe that is the point since progressives increasingly view conservative Bible believing Christians as their enemies. In any case, this is just another battle in the progressive ‘war’ against Christians.               *Top