In case you missed it, NPR this morning ran a piece on the issue of religious liberty and government health mandates. Specifically, Michael Sean Winters of the National Catholic Reporter argues that the requirement to provide contraceptive coverage in the Affordable Care Act violates free exercise.
[Host Michel] MARTIN: No. But I do have to go back to the question that you just raised, which is that if the Catholic Church is willing to negotiate this matter on a state-by-state level, why isn't that an appropriate guideline for how this issue is navigated on an – on a federal level? Why isn't it? I mean, if it's simply a matter of first principles and core principles and is non-negotiable, why can't the Catholic Church negotiate these matters on a state-by-state basis?
WINTERS: I think the history of accommodation between church and state – and not just in this country, but every country in every century – is always kind of complicated, and people try to make accommodations. But then there are these moments – and this is one such moment – where, all of a sudden – and I think here, it's because it's happened at the federal level – people do start engaging the first principles that are involved here in a way that, if you're just a local bishop and you're dealing with, you know, a state official in California, it may not dawn on you that there are these kind of underlying concerns. So I think there's a bit of a tipping-point argument here.
The entire exchange is worth a read/listen.
