My Church !

I respect people's right to believe what they wish and behave according to those beliefs. What I don't understand is how a BUSINESS - even one run by a religious group - has the right to impose their beliefs on employees of all different religious background­s. Just as the government can't force a Catholic woman to take contracept­ion - the Catholic Church shouldn't be able to force other women into unwanted pregnancie­s or abstinence only practices. Religious freedom works both ways.

President Obama is right in requiring that all women be treated fairly when it comes to health care and contracept­ion. The Catholic Church has been meddling in public policy for far too long. It's time to pull their tax exempt status and let them pay taxes like the rest of us especially if they want to influence public policy that affects all of us that are not Catholic. I tremble at the thought of living under the thumb of the Church .

It would be discrimina­tion based on religion if all other women in the U.S. could have birth control under a federal health care program except for women who work for certain Catholic or other religiousl­y owned businesses­. Not every nurse at a Catholic hospital is a Catholic (by the way 98%of Catholics in America approve of birth control) but these women would be denied the same rights as other women

The Catholic Church is losing parishioners in droves. Matter-of-­fact, the most defectors of any time in the church's history! The church's stance on this issue just might be one of the reasons. Might behoove them to come on into the 21st Century with the reasonable people!

Please remember it was the Church that was against organ transplants when they first were being introduced. They were against dissection as a method of teaching Physicians. They were even against the first operations. They have always been against medical advancement that might loosen some of their supposed power over their followers. They have been discriminating against women for years.

I must also add that I am a Catholic and see all the good they do around the world but must take a stand when the Bishops make an issue out of this while ignoring all the Catholics that are allowed to get divorced today. (NEWT GINGRICH).  The Church has much more important battles to fight today than deny contraception to followers that use it anyway.  I also take offense at Politicians who are taking advantage of this issue.