Brace yourselves for another unbelievable law! Actually, there will be one thing about this story easy to belief. It takes place in California. If it happened anywhere else, you might have to suspend belief. Guadalupe Benitez visited the North Coast Medical Group in 2001, seeking artificial insemination. Two Christian doctors refused treatment on the basis that it violated their personal, religious beliefs. They did offer to refer the young woman to other doctors and assured her that many would be willing to perform this procedure. Well, that wasn’t good enough for Benitez and she filed a lawsuit. The suit was based on a law that bans discrimination due to sexual orientation. Finally reaching the California Supreme Court a few days ago, the judges ruled in her favor.
Says Benitez, “It was an awful thing to go through. It was very painful, the fact that you have someone telling you they will not help you because of who you are.”
I think Miss Benitez is missing the point: The doctors were not refusing to help her because of who she is. They were refusing to help her because of who they were! They were Christians, with their own identities, their own beliefs, their own standards and their own morals. Neither were they refusing to help her at all. They did not slam the door in her face. They offered assistance in finding another doctor. Why was that not good enough? Could it be because she was intolerant of their beliefs?
What about religious liberty? What about religious discrimination? The good news, is that the California Supreme Court remembered such rights do exist in the California Constitution. But remembering this right, is the only thing they accomplished. Actually defending that right, would have been even more of an accomplishment. They claimed that religious liberty, while protected in the constitution, was not an excuse for discrimination. Hmm…Makes sense to me. Why should these robed men defend one’s belief in God, when they think they, themselves, are God?
Supposedly, we live in a country that guarantees separation between church and state. Those words are not actually found in our constitution, but let’s put that aside for a moment. To those who embrace this principle of separation, tell me, how come the separation never works the other way? Why is it that doctors are being forced to compromise their beliefs, while secularists fight for the right to not even have to look at a manger scene on somebody’s front lawn? Why is it that God cannot be defended in a college class room, but a professor can rip into Christianity in a public classroom? I’ll tell you why: Because the people who squeak about separation between church and state do not really want separation. They want Christianity to be made against the law, and it is starting to happen one step at a time.
What our constitution actually says is, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
Call me a romantic, but when doctors are told that they cannot practice their profession in step with their religion, is that not interfering with the “free exercise thereof?”
What’s next? Will it be considered discrimination for a Christian church to ask for Christian beliefs before accepting one as a member? No, not so long as we change our definition of repentance to exempt homosexuality. If not, we are the worst hate mongers on earth and we do not deserve to practice our religion. In the name of tolerance, our religion will no longer be tolerated.
The is Bob Siegel, making the obvious, obvious.
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