Ladies' choice: Christian women want birth control in health insurance 2

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- The old feminist slogan, 'If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament,' probably overstates the case for Christian men and women. But there are nearly twice as many Christian women who think companies, including Hobby Lobby, should be required to offer health care benefits that include a full spectrum of birth control options, as Christian men who think so.

Jonathan Merritt, a senior columnist for Religion News Service, has more to say on the topic in his column posted Friday, April 11, 2014, on the not-for-profit news website. The survey, from Public Religion Research Institute, was conducted in 2012, but the break-down by gender was released to Religion New Service this week.

In light of both the on-going court battles over health insurance mandates and the findings of the survey, Merritt talks to religious leaders about the topic. As quoted by Merritt, Amy Butler, senior pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., points out that too many people of faith 'are preoccupied with issues related to sex, and not concerned enough with issues of justice and poverty and loving our neighbors and other issues Jesus asked us to care about.'

Merritt also quotes Sister Simone Campbell of Network, a national Catholic social justice lobby, on Catholic teachings related to writing laws that attempt to govern a person's intention. And, Campbell adds, in real life, the act of allowing a religious exemption for secular, for-profit organizations, even one as focused on charity work as Hobby Lobby, opens the doors to, as she puts it, 'chaos.'

'If an employee needs to worry about the conscience of their employer, that creates marketplace chaos,' Campbell told Merritt. 'If I work for a Christian Scientist who doesn't believe in healthcare or a Jehovah's Witness who doesn't believe in blood transfusions, now I need to worry about what my employer believes is right for me.'

Read Merritt's complete column at ReligionNews.com, and have a look at more details of the survey itself at Public Religion Research Institute's website, PublicReligion.org.