Wash. Times' Kuhner: "Mr. Obama Is An Anti-Christian, Anti-Religious Bigot"

In his February 10 Washington Times column, titled "End of the Constitution: Obamacare birth-control mandate would defeat the First Amendment," Jeffrey Kuhner called President Obama "an anti-Christian, anti-religious bigot" whose "goal is to purge Christianity from civil society, to marginalize religion from the public square." Kuhner's attack is in response to the president's announcement that he would require most employers to cover contraceptives for women. President Obama later announced an accommodation in which insurance companies would directly offer contraception coverage to employers who have religious objection to such coverage.

From the Times:

Is America sliding toward autocratic rule? This is the essential question of Barack Obama's presidency. Mr. Obama vowed to "fundamentally transform" the United States. Despite his incompetence and economic failure, the president is making good on his central promise: the destruction of our constitutional republic. He is trying - piece by painful piece - to reverse the legacy of the Founding Fathers.

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His greatest assault, however, is on religious freedom. Fortunately, his latest effort sparked a rebellion. Mr. Obama had declared war not just on the Catholic Church, but on the First Amendment. The administration ordered almost all religious organizations to provide health insurance coverage that includes free birth control and sterilization procedures - even the morning-after pill, which can induce abortions. Otherwise, under Obamacare, Catholic hospitals, charities and universities would face major fines totaling millions of dollars. The choice was clear: Catholic institutions must either abandon their fundamental tenets or go bankrupt. The contraceptive mandate denied the conscience rights of the church. It was state-sanctioned coercion of private entities to act against their explicit religious beliefs. This is why it triggered such furor among Catholics and non-Catholics alike. If such basic liberties could be trampled on, then nothing - and no one - is safe from big government's crushing grip. Fortunately, a three-week outcry forced him to back off.

Like many on the radical left, Mr. Obama is an anti-Christian, anti-religious bigot. His goal is to purge Christianity from civil society, to marginalize religion from the public square. He essentially told the church that Washington, not the Vatican, will dictate how it must run its affairs and administer its social services. He demanded that Catholics sacrifice their beliefs on the altar of secular liberalism. The state - with him at its helm - is the new pagan church. Women's "reproductive health care" trumps Catholic positions on birth control and abortion. The fact that most health insurers already cover contraception and that it is widely available and accessible to women - just go to your local Walgreens - means nothing to feminists or the powerful abortion lobby. The real aim is to smash the Catholic Church as a bulwark against the sexual revolution, reducing it to a quisling of the liberal regime.

Catholic leaders rightly stood up. The Church understood it was under siege. That may not be over. Mr. Obama could win a second term. Hence, Obamacare - along with its contraceptive mandate - might not be repealed and may even expand. If so, he will have succeeded in giving birth to his Frankenstein monster: a post-constitutional, post-American soft tyranny.