Baptist Press reports on a June 11 letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius from over 140 leaders of Christian churches, educational institutions and other Christian organizations protesting the "two-class concept of religious organizations" that has been created by attempts to accommodate faith-based objections to the Obama administration's mandate on contraceptive coverage in health insurance policies. (
Full text of letter.) The letter says in part:
[W]e are united in opposition to the creation in federal law of two classes of religious organizations: churches—considered sufficiently focused inwardly to merit an exemption and thus full protection from the mandate; and faith-based service organizations—outwardly oriented and given a lesser degree of protection. It is this two-class system that the administration has embedded in federal law via ... rules providing for an exemption from the mandate for a narrowly defined set of “religious employers” and ... a different "accommodation” for non-exempt religious organizations.
And yet both worship-oriented and service-oriented religious organizations are authentically and equally religious organizations.... We deny that it is within the jurisdiction of the federal government to define, in place of religious communities, what constitutes true religion and authentic ministry.... The scheme honors acts of worship while burdening those whose faith leads them to service in our common life.
The letter was organized by the
Institutional Religious Freedom Alliance.
