The Health and Human Services mandate presents a number of problems to the stability of American law.
The issue it raises is whether people should be allowed to express and live by their religious beliefs in public or whether the state should be allowed to confine religious behavior to various worship services.
The former is the status quo of the American legal system. The exemption given to Mennonites not to serve in war is an example.
The HHS mandate forces religious institutions to compromise their beliefs, something not proposed before in American law.
This legislation sets the precedent that religious conscience should only be respected when it does not conflict with the wishes of the state.
Such a precedent, when investigated more closely, would make it easier for the state to force people of other religious beliefs to go against their consciences whenever they come in conflict with the needs of the state.
Patrick Roy
Johnstown
