Who is vindictive?

While all the talk of the town in Washington, DC, is about what Donald Trump may do to his enemies, the liberals have proven themselves adept at this game for a very long time.  Now, it seems, the Little Sisters of the Poor were given a Christmas gift that just might that could help them end their near-14-year religious liberty battle with the U.S. government.  Again, this is the insistence of the government that the Little Sisters of the Poor could not claim a religious exemption from the health insurance mandate to cover reproductive costs, IVF, and abortion.  While the Little Sisters of the Poor are, well, little in comparison to the government, their stand is of particular importance for all religious institutions insisting that this is really about freedom and the guarantees of the right to practice religion unimpeded by government interference.  It is a faith issue that directly impacts all of us.  So the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a notice in the Federal Register stating that it has opted to withdraw rule changes to the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) contraception mandate.  That rule had been proposed by the Biden administration last year and would have effectively barred the nuns and other religious organizations from claiming exemptions to the ACA requirement that employers provide abortion and contraception coverage in their employee health plans.  While the HHS offered some lame excuse, so the government could “focus their time and resources on matters other than finalizing these rules,” this was one area where diverse religious groups had a common interest.  

My point here is that the government and in particular the liberals have a vindictive streak that will not let go of their will and intent to abrogate the rights of religious expression in favor of things they determined to be in the higher public interest.  They have created a giant headache for this little group of Roman Catholic nuns and doggedly pursued this through more than half a generation -- until now.  Was it due to an administration change?  Did even liberal and progressive churches see the handwriting on the wall and raised a concern?  Who knows but the battle is likely not really over, except for now.  The progressive wing of politics and religion have proven to be remarkably vindictive against the enemies of their liberal causes and abortion and contraception rights are the holy grail of their cause.  Once again those in pursuit of tolerance are profoundly intolerant of views that would have been thoroughly normal only a generation or so before.  I would remind all of us to watch how things unfold.  It is highly unlikely that we have heard the end of this.  Like a dog on a bone, this probably a momentary pause in their pursuit of reproductive rights over religious expression.