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Hobby Lobby
A United Methodist Insight Editorial Analysis
Christians who oppose the contraceptive mandate of the Affordable Care Act have been celebrating the U.S. Supreme Court's June 30 ruling that sided with craft retailer Hobby Lobby, whose owners claim a religious exemption from the law. Such jubilation may be short-sighted, however, since the decision actually spells disaster for all American believers because it gives employers the authority to decide how religion is practiced.
Set aside for a moment the ruling's inherent sexism, in that the high court didn't strike down the ACA's men's health provision that requires insurance pay for drugs that enhance erectile performance. The most far-reaching effect of the Hobby Lobby decision is that it opens the door for owners of "closely held" for-profit corporations to assert authority on how faith is interpreted in their workplaces. Instead of being a victory for religious freedom, the Hobby Lobby ruling has in fact dealt a serious blow to one of America's most basic rights.
While the ruling attempts to provide lip service to the idea that its confines are narrow, the fact is that nearly 90 percent of for-profit American businesses are "closely held" – that is, owned by a small group of people, often related by kinship, and not publicly traded, according to The Business Insider website. This judicial fiction of "narrowness" can't keep this genie in its bottle. With the Hobby Lobby ruling, corporations whose owners are so inclined now have precedent for seeking exemption from other federal laws on the basis of religious objections.
But even more insidious than the potential for circumventing laws that have helped to create a more equal workplace is the official sanction the Hobby Lobby ruling gives to a particular expression of faith, in this case, a conservative, anti-abortion form of Christianity. Historically, Christianity is the most creedal of world religions (however much some Protestant denominations may deny that their brand adheres to a creed). In fact, hundreds of years of religious strife among Christians – to say nothing of Christian conflicts with Jews, Muslims and Hindus around the world – has to do with one group's conviction that another group believes the wrong things. Philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah noted this Christian propensity to penalize "wrong-thinking" believers in a recent talk he gave at one of the TED seminars.
One needs to look no farther for a current example than The United Methodist Church's conflicts over the acceptability of homosexual practice. It's a soul-searing battle, if not a physically bloody one, simply because two schools of thought on the matter are diametrically opposed. The moment a person utters a position for or against accepting same-gender sexual behavior, even within the confines of covenantal relationship, that single stance defines one as a "right-thinking" or "wrong-thinking" Christian – or not even a Christian at all.
In the case of Hobby Lobby, the U.S. Supreme Court has itself violated the First Amendment to the Constitution, in that it has given official sanction to one particular type of religion – anti-abortion Christianity. In its broadest application, this ruling can be construed as discrimination against all other faith groups including The United Methodist Church, whose official doctrine upholds a woman's right to reproductive health. Official United Methodist doctrine states that contraception is well within a woman's right to control her own health. Furthermore, the UMC holds that a decision about abortion is a private matter among the woman, her spouse or partner, her physician and her pastor. The UMC supports reproductive rights, in that it recognizes "tragic conflicts of life with life" that sometimes make abortion the most appropriate option to protect a woman's health (see United Methodist Social Principles, "The Nurturing Community," section on abortion).
Unlike United Methodism's carefully reasoned and nuanced perspective, the Hobby Lobby ruling endorses a single, supposedly faith-based viewpoint that refuses women employees the right to employer-paid insurance for reproductive health care that men employees receive. The Hobby Lobby decision cannot be "narrowly construed," as the majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito erroneously contends. In effect the ruling has abrogated the First Amendment doctrine of religious freedom by giving that authority over to commercial interests at the expense of a woman's individual right as a citizen. Hobby Lobby is an especially egregious representative of this perspective, for while it alleges to uphold the sanctity of life, the corporation sells hundreds of products made in Chinese sweatshops where workers are oppressed and exploited for profit.
As with other recent Supreme Court decisions – such as the 2010 Citizens United ruling that for the past four years has greased the way for big money to corrupt government – the Hobby Lobby ruling has undermined one of the most basic freedoms for which Americans have fought. It has turned "closely held" for-profit corporations into churches whose beliefs are determined by the creeds of their owners, not by millennia of religious tradition, experience, reason and sacred scripture. Instead of testing and perpetuating beliefs based on the reasoned experience of generations of believers, Americans now will be subjected to the religious interpretations of corporate owners for whom the overriding ethic often is profit, not love or justice.
It may take years for us to fully grasp the religious freedom impact of the Hobby Lobby ruling. Unfortunately, as with other bad decisions by the current U.S. Supreme Court, we may be well down the path toward chaos before we can redress this grievous assault on religious freedom.
Cynthia B. Astle serves as coordinator for United Methodist Insight. She has been a professional journalist for more than 41 years, most recently specializing in religion and its intersection with public policy.