Not respecting liberty of conscience

It is sadly ironic that at a time when Americans pause to remember the pilgrims who gave thanks to their creator for graciously granting them the opportunity to live in a land where they could freely practice their faith in every aspect of their lives, a federal judge has declared that we, the pilgrims' successors, are not so free.

The owners of Hobby Lobby legitimately object to the federal requirement that they pay for the destruction of their employees' unborn children through the use of abortifacients. By asserting that corporations do not possess the right of free exercise, the Obama administration implicitly mandates that business owners with a conscience should act as religious hypocrites.

While the government attorneys play clever word games over the term "abortion" (the morning-after pill can cause the death of an embryo by preventing implantation, instead of aborting the pregnancy), the real world result is the proliferation of dual-action contraceptives and the limitation of liberty of conscience.

Here's hoping and praying that our president can come to a realization that the freedom of religion envisioned by the founders goes deeper than the clothes we don for weekly religious worship services.

SHEILA GREEN

Oakdale