Tuesday, March 19, AD 2024 5:35am

Can Catholics Abstain From ObamaCare

I came across this American Thinker article on the exclusion of Amish and Muslims from ObamaCare:

The Senate health care bill just signed contains some exemptions to the “pay-or-play” mandate requiring purchase of Obamacare-approved health insurance or payment of a penalty fine. As Fox News has pointed out, for instance, the Amish are excused from the mandate:

So while most Americans would be required to sign up with insurance companies or government insurance plans, the church would serve as something of an informal insurance plan for the Amish.

Law experts say that kind of exemption withstands scrutiny.

“Here the statute is going to say that people who are conscientiously opposed to paying for health insurance don’t have to do it where the conscientious objection arises from religion,” said Mark Tushnet a Harvard law professor. “And that’s perfectly constitutional.”

Apparently, this exemption will apply similarly to believers in Islam, which considers health insurance – and, for that matter, any form of risk insurance – to be haraam (forbidden).

Steve Gilbert of Sweetness & Light calls our attention to the probability that Muslims will also be expempt. According to a March 23 publication on an authoritative Islamic Web site managed by Sheikh Muhammed Salih Al-Munajjid, various fatwas (religious decrees) absolutely forbid Muslim participation in any sort of health care or other risk insurance:

Health insurance is haraam like other types of commercial insurance, because it is based on ambiguity, gambling and riba (usury). This is what is stated in fatwas by the senior scholars.

In Fataawa al-Lajnah al-Daa’imah (15/277) there is a quotation of a statement of the Council of Senior Scholars concerning the prohibition on insurance and why it is haraam:

It says in Fataawa al-Lajnah al-Daa’imah (15/251):

Firstly: Commercial insurance of all types is haraam because it involves ambiguity, riba, uncertainty, gambling and consuming people’s wealth unlawfully, and other shar’i

Secondly: It is not permissible for the Muslim to get involved with insurance companies by working in administration or otherwise, because working in them comes under the heading of cooperating in sin and transgression, and Allaah forbids that as He says: “but do not help one another in sin and transgression. And fear Allaah. Verily, Allaah is Severe in punishment”

[al-Maa’idah 5:2]. End quote.

reservations.
And Allaah knows best.

So, it turns out that observant Muslims are not only strictly forbidden from buying any health insurance under the ObamaCare mandate, but may also not even work for any company that provides such insurance or any other form of commercial insurance.

(…)

Being an observant Catholic I don’t have to participate because it goes against my faith to kill unborn innocent children?

The 5th, 7th, and 10th Commandments and the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) forbids me from participating.

5th Commandment & CCC 2268-2269: You shall not kill. (ObamaCare kills unborn babies)[1]

7th Commandment & CCC 2401-2408: You shall not steal. (ObamaCare needs to be funded by taxes)[2]

10th Commandment & CCC 2534-2550: You shall not covet your neighbor’s goods. (ObamaCare was created because of liberals covetous of others.)[3]

If this is correct, in addition to not having to purchase ‘cumpolsory insurance’, I also don’t have to pay for any taxes that contribute to the death of the unborn.

We may have a case here.

_._

Oh, and let’s not forget all those passages in the Bible for our Protestant brothers and sisters in Christ to go over and see that we can abstain from ObamaCare (including the Deuterocanonical books) as well as the Second Vatican Council documents and Canon Law:

[1] 54 Ex 20:13; Cf. Deut 5:17. Mt 5:21-22. CDF, instruction, Donum vitae, intro. 5. Cf. Gen 4:8-12. Gen 9:5-6. Cf. Lev 17:14. Ex 23:7. Mt 5:21. Cf. Mt 5:22-39; 5:44. Cf. Mt 26:52. Lk 23:40-43. John Paul II, Evangelium vitae 56. Cf. Gen 4:10. Cf. GS 51 § 3f (Got V2?). Cf. Am 8:4-10. Cf. CDF, DÚnum vitae I,1. Jer 1:5; cf. Job 10:8-12; Ps 22:10-11. Ps 139:15. Didache 2,2:ÆCh 248,148; cf. Ep. Bárnabae 19,5:PG 2 777; Ad D 5,6:PG 2,1173; CIC, can. 1398 (Don’t mess with the LAW). CIC, can. 1314. Cf. CIC, cann. 1323-1324. 80 CDF, Donum vitae III. CDF, Donum vitae III. CDF, Donum vitae I,2. CDF, Donum vitae I,3. CDF, Donum vitae I,5. CDF, ùonum itae I,6. Mt 18:6; cf. 1 Cor 8:10-13. Mt 7:15. Pius XII, Discourse, JuÇe 1, 1941. Cf. Eph 6:4; Col 3:21. Lk 17:1. Cf. DS 3722. Cf. Tob 1:16-18. Cf. CIC, can. 1176 § 3. Mt 5:21. Mt 5:22. Mt 5:44-45. Cf. Isa 32:17; cf. GS 78 §§ 1-2. Isa 9:5. Eph 2:16 J.B.; cf. Col 1:20-22. Eph 2:14. Mt 5:9. Cf. GS 78 § 5. Cf. GS 81 § 4. GS 79 § 4. Cf. GS 79 § 5. Cf. GS 79 § 3. GS 79 § 4. GS 80 #3. Cf. Paul VI, PP 53. GS 78 § 6; cf. Isa 2:4.

[2] EX 20:15; Deut 5:19; Mt 19:18. Cf. Gen 1:26-29. GS 69 # 1 (a Vatican II document!). Cf. GS 71 # 4 (another V2 document, woo hoo!). 2 Cor 8:9. Cf. GS 69 # 1 (Vatican II is awesome!). Cf. Deut 25:13-16; 24:14-15; Jas 5:4; Am 8:4-6. Lk 19:8. Philem 16. Cf. Gen 128-31. Cf. CA 37-38. Cf. Mt 6:26; Dan 3:79-81. Cf. Gen 2:19-20; 9:1-4. GS 23 # 1 (I looove Vatican II!). GS 76 # 5 (Viva Pope John XXIII!).  Cf. CA 3 (VII-whoop!). Cf. SRS 1; 41 (Liberals gone wild!). Cf. CA 24 (smoke of Satan, shmaten!). Cf. GS 63 # 3 (game over libs); LE 7; 20 (down for the count); CA 35 (there is the Episcopal Church ya know). GS 65 # 2 (it’s not over!). Mt 6:24; Lk 16:13. Cf.CA 10; 13;44 (hook ’em horns). CA 34 (Bear Down!). Cf. GS 64 (Father Richard McBrien got nothin’ on me!). Cf. Gen 1:28; GS 34 (u want more?); CA 31 (u got it). 2 Thess 3:10; Cf. 1 Thess 4:11. Cf. Gen 3:14-19. Cf. LE 27 (bye, bye, New American Bible-the tune to Mrs. Robinson). Cf. LE 6 (The Unitarians are looking good now mr. Liberal?). Cf. CA 32; 34 (shazam!). Cf. LE 11 (Gig ’em). CA 48 (Scum Devil). Cf. CA 37 (We are SPARTA!). Cf. LE 19; 22-23 (Welcome to Thunderdome!). Cf. CA 48 (Yippee, Kai-ay…). Cf. Lev 19:13; Deut 24:14-15; Jas 5:4 GS 67 # 2 (I got a lot more where this came from). Cf. LE 18 (had enough?). Cf. SRS 14 (back for more?). SRS 9. Cf. SRS 17; 45 (Prediction? Pain!). CA 28; Cf. 35 (Vatican II isn’t just for liberals anymore). Cf. SRS 16 (Snausages). Cf. CA 26 (you still reading this?). Cf. SRS 32 (what); CA 51 (me). SRS 47 # 6; cf. 42 (worry?). Mt 5:42; 10:8. Cf. Mt 25:31-36. Mt 11:5; cf. Lk 4:18. CA 57 (Hasta la vista); cf. Lk 6:20-22, Mt 8:20; Mk 12:41-44. Eph 4:28. Cf. CA 57 (It aint over till its over). Jas 5:1-6. PG 48, 992 (Got a lot more where this came from!). AA 8 # 5. Cf. Isa 58:6-7; Heb 13:3. Cf. Mt 25:31-46. Cf. Tob 4:5-11; Sir 17:22; Mt 6:2-4. Lk 3:11. Lk 11:41. Jas 2:15-16; cf. 1 Jn 3:17. CDF, instruction, Libertatis conscientia, 68 (the coup de gras!). Deut 15:11. Jn 12:8. Am 8:6; cf. Mt 25:40.

[3] Ex 20:17; Deut 5:21. Mt 6:21. Cf. 1 Jn 2:16; Mic 2:2. Cf. Wis 14:12. Cf. 2 Sam 12:14. Cf. Gen 4:3-7; 1 Kings 21:1-29. 324 Wis 2:24. 329 Gen 3:6. Cf. Rom 7:7. Rom 7:23; cf. 7:10. Rom 3:21-22. Gal 5:24; cf. Rom 8:14, 27. Lk 14:33; cf. Mk 8:35. Cf. Lk 21:4. LG 42 # 3 (this is a Vatican II document! Yay liberals?). Mt 5:3. Cf. Lk 6:20. cf. 2 Cor 8:9. Lk 6:24. Cf. Mt 6:25-34. Cf. Rev 22:17. cf. Lev 26:12; cf. 1 Cor 15:28.

The Senate health care bill just signed contains some exemptions to the “pay-or-play” mandate requiring purchase of Obamacare-approved health insurance or payment of a penalty fine. As Fox News has pointed out, for instance, the Amish are excused from the mandate:

So while most Americans would be required to sign up with insurance companies or government insurance plans, the church would serve as something of an informal insurance plan for the Amish.

Law experts say that kind of exemption withstands scrutiny.

“Here the statute is going to say that people who are conscientiously opposed to paying for health insurance don’t have to do it where the conscientious objection arises from religion,” said Mark Tushnet a Harvard law professor. “And that’s perfectly constitutional.”


Apparently, this exemption will apply similarly to believers in Islam, which considers health insurance – and, for that matter, any form of risk insurance – to be haraam (forbidden).

Steve Gilbert of Sweetness & Light calls our attention to the probability that Muslims will also be expempt. According to a March 23 publication on an authoritative Islamic Web site managed by Sheikh Muhammed Salih Al-Munajjid, various fatwas (religious decrees) absolutely forbid Muslim participation in any sort of health care or other risk insurance:

Health insurance is haraam like other types of commercial insurance, because it is based on ambiguity, gambling and riba (usury). This is what is stated in fatwas by the senior scholars.

In Fataawa al-Lajnah al-Daa’imah (15/277) there is a quotation of a statement of the Council of Senior Scholars concerning the prohibition on insurance and why it is haraam:

It says in Fataawa al-Lajnah al-Daa’imah (15/251):

Firstly: Commercial insurance of all types is haraam because it involves ambiguity, riba, uncertainty, gambling and consuming people’s wealth unlawfully, and other shar’i

Secondly: It is not permissible for the Muslim to get involved with insurance companies by working in administration or otherwise, because working in them comes under the heading of cooperating in sin and transgression, and Allaah forbids that as He says: “but do not help one another in sin and transgression. And fear Allaah. Verily, Allaah is Severe in punishment”

[al-Maa’idah 5:2]. End quote.

reservations.
And Allaah knows best.


So, it turns out that observant Muslims are not only strictly forbidden from buying any health insurance under the ObamaCare mandate, but may also not even work for any company that provides such insurance or any other form of commercial insurance.

It is not made clear whether or not it is religiously okay to accept “free” non-insured medical care such as that offered in hospital ERs and to some who are covered by Medicaid.

Whether it’s all right to serve as a doctor, nurse, or orderly caring for patients whose medical services are being paid for by insurance is not covered in the present response – but one could probably obtain a religious ruling from the Sheikh, whose site welcomes the submission of questions about Islamic law and practices.

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Blackadder
Blackadder
Thursday, March 25, AD 2010 12:47pm

The bill requires that at least one plan on the exchange not cover abortion, so I don’t think this is an issue.

Nate Wildermuth
Nate Wildermuth
Thursday, March 25, AD 2010 12:47pm

The Church also teaches about double effect and remote material cooperation with evil. I don’t know how many times I’ve been told to pay taxes for nukes because Jesus said, Give to Caesar what is Caesars. Perhaps there is some common ground in the making here! 🙂

Tito Edwards
Thursday, March 25, AD 2010 12:50pm

I’m willing to allow an out on my tax filings for both nukes and ObamaCare.

Is this possible in the U.S.?

Donald R. McClarey
Admin
Thursday, March 25, AD 2010 12:52pm

Abstain from it Tito? I want to kill it!

Tito Edwards
Thursday, March 25, AD 2010 12:53pm

I’m with Donald.

Though being proactive and searching for many possible alternatives to further mitigate ObamaCare is what I’m after as well.

JohnH
JohnH
Thursday, March 25, AD 2010 1:00pm

Does your insurance at work cover abortion or contraception? If so, should you opt out and pay for a private plan that excludes these?

Tito Edwards
Thursday, March 25, AD 2010 1:01pm

JohnH,

I plan to once I get a permanent full time job.

Contract work at the moment.

JohnH
JohnH
Thursday, March 25, AD 2010 1:05pm

Good on you, Tito.

Dale Price
Dale Price
Thursday, March 25, AD 2010 3:26pm

I’d be a little leery of saying Muslims are forbidden to participate on the basis of Sheik Sumduud’s website, or even a fatwa. Fatwas are pretty easy to come by, actually, and have about as much force as the individual Muslim wants to accord it. To use a (very, very) rough analogy, they are like a trial court’s ruling, binding to varying extents on the parties involved, but lacking precedential force.

More to the point, Muslims have worked out ways to get around prohibitions like this before (e.g., murabaha, which manages to do a fine job of mimicking interest via a client paying a financial institution an agreed upon marked-up price for a commodity).

Gabriel Austin
Gabriel Austin
Thursday, March 25, AD 2010 4:33pm

Eliminating “nukes” in paying one’s taxes: would this include nuclear power plants? Labs which study detection of atomic weapons? etc etc

restrainedradical
Thursday, March 25, AD 2010 5:30pm

Catholics should get involved in a campaign to sign pro-lifers (and others) up with plans that don’t cover abortion. Hopefully, abortion coverage will die from lack of demand.

Kevin in Texas
Kevin in Texas
Thursday, March 25, AD 2010 5:34pm

RR, that is really an excellent suggestion, and I can imagine it’s also one that would be quite easy for us to do as individuals, as well as collectively. Even for my moderately pro-choice friends (esp. the males), I think they would probably agree to purchase insurance that excludes abortion coverage.

This seems worthy of really looking into and organizing as a pro-life goal.

Donald R. McClarey
Admin
Thursday, March 25, AD 2010 5:48pm

“Catholics should get involved in a campaign to sign pro-lifers (and others) up with plans that don’t cover abortion. Hopefully, abortion coverage will die from lack of demand.”

Considering the number of abortions we have in this country I think that hope is both futile and farfetched.

trackback
Thursday, March 25, AD 2010 6:42pm

[…] to get rid of the Democrat party?  Then, I read this today over at American Thinker, by way of American Catholic, and really – it has all gotten so absurd, though definitely scary. If Muslims and Amish […]

Elaine Krewer
Admin
Thursday, March 25, AD 2010 8:10pm

The concern I have is that in order to get a general religious exemption from Obamacare for Catholics, wouldn’t we have to prove that abstaining from absolutely all participation in abortion, no matter how remote, was an integral and non-negotiable part of Church teaching, and that ALL Catholics were bound under pain of mortal sin or excommunication to abide by it (like the teaching against participating directly in abortion itself)?

However, that is not true — remote material cooperation such as would occur in the case of paying taxes under Obamacare or participating in an insurance program that covered abortion is permitted for sufficient reasons, for example, if it would be extremely difficult or impossible to find another insurance plan. A Catholic CAN refuse to participate in such a plan on moral grounds, but he or she is not necessarily obligated to take such action.

As for Muslims, I have heard that many Muslims do not believe in borrowing money and so they pay cash for everything, but how on earth do so many of them manage to run businesses (shops, etc.) without insurance? What happens if the shop burns down, or a pipe freezes, etc.? How do they legally drive cars if they can’t have car insurance? If Muslims really are forbidden to have insurance, it must be a teaching many Muslims either don’t know about or ignore, kind of like Catholic teaching against contraception.

restrainedradical
Thursday, March 25, AD 2010 8:11pm

Donald, I don’t think it’s futile or far-fetched to think plans that cover abortion can become unpopular, not just among pro-lifers but anyone who doesn’t think they need abortion coverage.

Elaine Krewer
Admin
Thursday, March 25, AD 2010 8:13pm

Ooops, my first sentence should have read “wouldn’t we have to prove that abstaining from all COOPERATION in abortion, no matter how remote…”

Donald R. McClarey
Admin
Thursday, March 25, AD 2010 8:20pm

restrainedradical, don’t get me wrong. If people wish to persuade others not to get insurance that covers abortion, I am all for it. However, considering the sheer number of abortions, I don’t think this strategy will have much of an impact in reducing the total number of abortions. However, I would be delighted if I were proven to be in error.

restrainedradical
Thursday, March 25, AD 2010 8:38pm

So the Stupak Amendment wouldn’t have had much of an impact on the number of abortions? Maybe.

Donald R. McClarey
Admin
Thursday, March 25, AD 2010 8:52pm

I don’t know how many abortions the Stupak amendment would have stopped. I know it would have stopped any of my tax money paying for abortions which is extremely important to me. Too bad Stupak folded like the weasel he apparently is.

Foxfier
Thursday, March 25, AD 2010 11:04pm

Donald-
I was really hoping the pro-life dems would actually come through.

When I heard the news say they agreed to vote for it in exchange for Obama signing something that “clarified” federal funding of abortion… sounds like a setup for a bad, bad literal genie moment.

Donald R. McClarey
Admin
Friday, March 26, AD 2010 5:28am

I have long had hopes for the pro-life Democrat movement Foxfier. More fool me. A handful of pro-life Dems stuck to their guns, but most proved that their pro-life stance was, at best, conditional to the needs of their party. These remarks are of course only aimed at pro-life Dem Congress Critters and not at rank and file pro-life Dems.

Peter
Peter
Friday, March 26, AD 2010 5:27pm

Are believers in Christian Science exempt?

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