Posted by
ValiantForTruth on Wednesday, June 03, 2009 1:11:15 PM
President Obama has announced that he will rescind the conscience protection for medical workers that currently provides them legal protection for refusing to violate their conscience by participating in abortions.
The Bible makes the rights of conscience a repeated subject of emphasis. It is sin to wound the conscience of another. Christians are instructed to respect the rights of conscience in things indifferent [I Corinthians 8:9-13].
The rights of conscience have long been a cherished characteristic of the American civil fabric, and America's Framers openly praised these protections:
No provision in our Constitution ought to be dearer to man than that which protects the rights of conscience. THOMAS JEFFERSON, SIGNER OF THE DECLARATION
Consciences of men are not the objects of human legislation. WILLIAM LIVINGSTON, SIGNER OF THE CONSTITUTION
Security under our Constitution is given to the rights of conscience. JOHN JAY, ORIGINAL CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE U. S. SUPREME COURT
Government is instituted to protect property of every sort. . . . [and] conscience is the most sacred of all property. JAMES MADISON, SIGNER OF THE CONSTITUTION
Today, the safeguards for the rights of conscience now appear in forty-seven state constitutions. The President's decision to rescind these protections places him in direct opposition to four centuries of America's civic and religious leaders.
Protection for the rights of conscience is just one more reason that Biblical Christianity is so beneficial to a culture and why its principles must be preserved in public policy. [David Barton]