Sunday Morning Services
Sunday School at 9:30 a.m.
Nurseries available for infants and toddlers
Classes for all ages
Contemporary Worship Service 10:40 a.m.
Nurseries available for infants and toddlers
Join us for VBS
June 25 - June 29 9:00AM - 12:00PM
Sunday Evening Pastors Class at 5:00p.m.
Classes will resume in the fall.
Ladies Bible Study
Classes will resume in the fall.
Wednesdays
Pastor's Prayer Meeting 6:30pm
From the Pastors Desk
Article from Vincent Phillip MuÑoz
Catholic Bishops Take on Obama
The United States Conference of Bishops has taken a bold stand for religious freedom. In a recent statement the bishops called for repeal of contraception coverage mandated by the Department of Health and Human Services. The clarified position sets up a dramatic confrontation with the Obama administration – and would, if the bishops prevail, help preserve the religious liberty of all Americans.
The HHS mandate requires employers to provide insurance for contraception and sterilization services. It is an “unjust law.” They write, “It cannot be obeyed and, therefore, one does not seek relief from it, but rather its repeal.”
The statement is a rebuke of President Obama and the so-called accommodation his administration proposed in February. The bishops call on Catholics in America not to obey this law. They implicitly compare the HHS regulation to a segregation-era statute, and even cite Martin Luther King Jr’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” In a not-so-subtle manner, the bishops tell the Obama administration that they are willing to go to prison rather than comply with the mandate’s provisions.
The Obama administration was not against an exemption per se, it just wanted a narrow one that only covered church employees serving members of their own faith with jobs pertaining to the inculcation of religious belief. The Catholic bishops want a more robust exemption that covers institutions of faith, including hospitals, universities, and other social service providers. Now the bishops have made clear that the contraception mandate must be rescinded, because even a more expansive exemption cannot sufficiently protect religious freedom.
If the bishops had settled for just a more expansive accommodation, what would the bishops have said to business owners who likely would not be covered by the exemption? How could church leaders say that its wrong for church institutions to pay for contraception and abortifacients, but that Catholic business owners must cover these costs?
To their credit, the bishops appear to understand this and are willing to lead the battle to preserve religious liberty for all; Catholics and non-Catholics, church institutions, and private employers.
This statement from the bishops sets a dramatic showdown between the leaders of the Catholic Church and the Obama administration.
Article from David French
The United States has endured and persevered through numerous attacks on religious freedom, some quite targeted and quite vicious. This present controversy is about subordinating all religious liberty to sexual liberty. The sexual revolution has always clashed with orthodox religious faith. After all, Judeo-Christian tradition limits sexual activity to the bounds of marriage. Yet we’ve long since passed the point where traditional religions could impose their will through force of law. One would think that in these legal changes one we would find the makings of a truce of sorts: the revolutionaries have the right to behave as they desire, while the religious have the right to believe (and act) as their conscience dictates. But, revolutionaries won’t settle for mere compromise when domination is within their grasp.
With the Obama HHS mandate, the government is coercing religious entities into participating in and even funding the sexual revolution. It’s not enough that men and women have the right to purchase contraceptives, now they have the right to get them for free! They want to decisively and finally subordinate religious freedom to an unwritten construct of debased culture that feels entitled to pleasure without obligation, cost, or consequence. I suppose the language of the Bill of Rights should now carry a disclaimer: “Subject to the sexual needs of the ruling class.”
Pastor Gary England
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