The Father, the Son, and the Holy CEO

What is at stake before the Supreme Court is whether a CEO’s beliefs can trump a woman’s right to healthcare. — Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), in a floor speech on the Supreme Court contraceptive coverage cases.  (Source: National Partnership for Women & Families)

Signing a work contract should not amount to signing away your soul, but that is ostensibly what the Dirty 100 expects of their employees. For these 100 companies refusing to comply with the ACA’s contraception mandate, religious freedom means the freedom to impose religious values on employees.

It’s God, Incorporated.

In this new model, the Board of Trustees amounts to the Church Elders, employees their unwitting flock. Check your own religious beliefs at the door; in the House of Hercules Industries, the Church of Eden Foods, St. Freshway Foods’ of the Woods, corporate doctrine is scripture.

Sorry if your personal religion says birth control is fine, this is Father M&N Plastics’ domain. The good Father is simply trying to save your soul, whether you asked him to or not.

It seems that the American people have been so afraid of government abusing its powers we forgot that corporations could do the same.

Now, corporations are cross-listed as people. They have free speech and the power to spend endlessly and anonymously on elections. (Thanks Citizens United!) Their current bid for religious freedom poses an essential question: is the US so pro-business that we would sacrifice individual rights to corporate whims?

Employees don’t always choose jobs because they agree with the corporate mission. Often, especially after a recession, workers take jobs because they need money to feed their kids and benefits to keep them healthy. People should not have someone else’s religious views imposed on them just because Holland Chevrolet was the only place hiring.

Religion plays a role in most US citizens’ lives. According to a recent Pew poll on religion, 83 percent of people in the US are affiliated with some religion. For them, a bosses’ religious doctrine could directly violate their own. Individuals’ freedom of religion should not be obstructed by employers’ religious demands. For the unaffiliated, freedom not to practice should be respected.

Last time I accepted a paycheck I didn’t expect communion to come with it. And if it had, my not-Catholic self would have been fairly offended. Taking a job should not amount to conversion.

The government can’t tell us how to pray–neither should our bosses.

A corporation dictating the personal decisions of employees hearkens back to the days before necessary regulation, when too many workers were mired in abusive company towns. But now the factory boss isn’t Mayor, he’s Pastor.

Corporate religious freedom isn’t freedom. It’s companies making moral choices for its employees. It’s bosses depriving employees of necessary medical care. It’s individual religious freedom that is only a right if your employer allows it.

Say goodbye to King George and hello to Pope Hobby.

Take a stand with NOW by signing our petition to the Dirty 100.  

One response to “The Father, the Son, and the Holy CEO

  1. Any corporation that treats its employees this way will get NO business from me. And, believe me, I will let family and friends know about these businesses. Any company that behaves this way does not understand the meaning of “religious freedom.”

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