Questions of Perspective

By William L. Garvin

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way. . . .”Charles Dickens, A TALE OF TWO CITIES

Recent Supreme Court decisions continue to define the cultural field of war and harden battle lines.  Chief Justice John Roberts continues to display amazing agility by ignoring plain language and resorting to “intent” in his ruling on Obamacare and then becomes a strict constructionist in his dissent on gay marriage.  Apparently he can have his cake and eat it too!

Now that he has extended federal subsidies for health care to those states without exchanges, what must they be thinking about all that time and money wasted setting up state exchanges?  It’s not as if they worked all that well anyway.  After more than $200 million, Hawaii closed down their state exchange as “economically unviable” and joined the shutdown ranks with Oregon, Massachusetts, Maryland, Vermont, New Mexico, and Nevada.  So half the state exchanges have failed and proven to be bad ideas poorly executed and now turn to the federal exchange which is even more poorly executed and far more expensive!

In the meantime, all the promised Obamacare savings are gone with the wind.  Oregon expects more than half their plan premiums to be increased from 20 to 38 percent.  Blue Cross and Blue Shield have announced 2016 premium increases of 23% in Illinois; 25% in North Carolina; 31% in Oklahoma; 36% in Tennessee and a whopping 54% in Minnesota!  Furthermore, Aetna has bought up Humana and now Anthem and Cigna are in merger talks.  The “big five” may soon be the “big three” and consumers will have even fewer choices to bundle with their increased premiums and astronomical deductibles.

On the gay marriage front, battle lines center on the struggle between God’s law and Man’s law, between freedom of religion and a “no limits” interpretation of the 14th Amendment.  The ink was scarcely dry on the SCOTUS decision before a married couple in Montana requested a marriage license for a second wife.  Two sterling examples of leftist intolerance spit on Father Jonathan Morris during their gay pride parade.  Oregon levels a $135,000 fine against a bakery for not baking a cake.  After numerous threats and burglaries, the bakery closed down.  Adding insult to injury, Oregon has now issued a gag order and told them they cannot speak out on their views regarding freedom of religion while they appeal.  So no free speech for them either!  In their justification for the $135,000 damages, the plaintiffs allegedly suffered 88 symptoms such as “acute loss of confidence,” “excessive sleep,” feeling “mentally raped,” “resumption of smoking habit,” “impaired digestion” and “loss of appetite” which curiously also led to “weight gain.”

Meanwhile, all three clerks in Decatur County, Tennessee resigned their positions rather than issue same sex licenses.  An Alabama county has stopped issuing marriage licenses altogether.  Another judge has said he will no longer perform courthouse marriages.  Of course, the SCOTUS majority position assures churches and religious institutions that they have nothing to fear.  Apparently they think that the millionaire couple who will sue the Church of England to force them to perform their gay marriage could never happen here.  Tell that to the marriage chapel in Coeur d’Alene.  Tell it to the pizza parlor in Indiana, etc., etc., etc.  Tell it to the New York Times which advocated the loss of tax exempt status for churches saying they should be considered “political entities.”  Their premise is that the SCOTUS ruling makes “clear” that government shouldn’t be “subsidizing” religion and non-profits.

Finally, you’ve probably noticed that the illiberal left never asks a Muslim bakery for a cake or a mosque for a gay marriage ceremony.  Their activism is almost universally targeted at Christians.  So do not be surprised when more and more Christians engage in acts of civil disobedience based on sincerely held religious convictions and do not be surprised when God’s law prevails.  “When in the course of human events….”