A Major Win for Religious Freedom

On January 11, 2012 the U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision that affirmed a religious group to choose their own ministers. This decision followed a lawsuit, Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC which was brought by an employee against a church-operated school.

The underlying question in this case was "whether the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses of the First Amendment bar such an action when the employer is a religious group and the employee is one of the group's ministers."

It is my understanding that ministers of a particular religion are hired to teach the accepted dogmas of that particular religion...that should stand by itself. Now the primary job of a minister of a particular religion is to teach the dogmas of that particular religion for which that minister was hired. The opinion authored by Chief Justice Roberts for the Court was "that both  Religion Clauses bar the government  from interfering with the decision of a religious group to fire one of its ministers."

Now common sense should tell us that if a religious group can fire one of it's ministers for not teaching it's dogmas it should also be protected under the Religion Clauses from HHS (the federal government) telling them which dogmas they must abide by or they will incur a monetary penalty; the federal government fully understanding that this dogma has been promulgated for almost two thousand years. The sanctity of life must be protected from conception until natural death.