by Tom Strode, posted Monday, October 15, 2012 (11 years ago)
WASHINGTON (BP) -- The Southern Baptist Convention's religious freedom entity has joined the legal battle against the Obama administration's abortion/contraception mandate in the first case to reach a federal appeals court.
The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) signed on to a friend-of-the-court brief filed Oct. 12 that asked a
"
(I)t is an issue of religious freedom across the board for all people of faith –- Protestant, Catholic and otherwise."–- Richard Land
federal appeals court to reverse the dismissal of two lawsuits against the controversial requirement under the 2010 health care law. The brief supports challenges by Wheaton College, an evangelical Christian school in suburban Chicago, and Belmont Abbey College, a Roman Catholic institution in North Carolina, to the mandate that employers provide workers with health insurance that covers contraceptives and abortion-causing drugs.
The ERLC -- and 10 other evangelical organizations -- joined by invitation in a brief filed by Christian Legal Society (CLS) in support of the colleges' appeal on religious liberty grounds to the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals. More than 35 suits have been brought against the mandate, but the D.C. Circuit is the first appeals court to consider such a challenge. Oral arguments will not be held until after the final briefs are filed in mid-November.
Though resistance to the mandate has been portrayed widely as Catholic in nature, ERLC President Richard Land said the case demonstrates the opposition is much more diverse than one religious body.
"This particular case is vitally important both because of the nature of the appeal concerning a very narrow definition the government is following for religious employers and secondly because of who is involved in the suit," Land said Monday (Oct. 15). "One of the most prestigious evangelical colleges in the world in Wheaton College -- of which Billy Graham is a graduate -– is one of the participants in the suit, which demonstrates this is not 'just' a Catholic issue, but it is an issue of religious freedom across the board for all people of faith -- Protestant, Catholic and otherwise."
The ERLC is not the first Southern Baptist institution to join the court fight. Three Baptist schools -- Louisiana College, Houston Baptist University and East Texas Baptist University -- have filed lawsuits against the mandate. Federal courts have yet to rule in those challenges. Read More
