A Brief Catalog of Press Stories Regarding President Harrison's Testimony Before Congress on Religious Freedom
LCMS President Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison’s February 16, 2012, testimony before Congress with representatives of the Roman Catholic, evangelical Christian, and Jewish on the threat to religious liberty posed by the contraception mandate recently promulgated by President Barack Obama’s Health and Human Services department has generated significant press coverage.
President Harrison testified in a hearing titled, “Lines Crossed: Separation of Church and State. Has the Obama Administration Trampled on Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Conscience?”
President Harrison testified: ”I’m here because there is a narrow but very significant provision in the HHS provisions that is, I believe, very dangerous to religious people with our kind of convictions — and it’s also dangerous to any religious people with unique convictions.”
Below is a brief catalog of press stories about President Harrison’s testimony before congress on religious freedom:
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| Saint Louis Post-Dispatch Story About President Harrison’s Congressional Testimony |
Tim Townsend of the Saint Louis Post-Dispatch wrote a story titled, “Lutheran leader sides with Catholics on contraceptives issue in fiery testimony.”
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| New York Times Coverage |
The New York Times covered the event with a story titled, “Passions Flare as House Debates Birth Control Rule.” The NY Times writes quotes Harrison, “‘I pray for the president every day,’” Mr. Harrison said, even as he expressed ‘deep distress’ over the new policy and complained of ‘government intrusions into Christian conscience and practice.’”
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| Fox News Coverage |
Fox News posted a story titled, “Contraception ruling: Democrats accuse clergy of complicity with GOP at hearing.” Fox News quoted President Harrison testifying, “While we are grandfathered under the very narrow provisions of the HHS policy, we are deeply concerned that our consciences may soon be martyred by a few strokes on the keyboard.”
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| CBS News Coverage |
CBS News displayed its bias with a story titled, “Dems decry all-male House panel on WH contraception rule.” CBS News quoted President Harrison, “Religious people determine what violates their consciences — not the federal government. Please get the federal government, Mr. Chairman, out of our consciences.”
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| CNN Front Page Coverage |
CNN posted a story on their front page titled, “Culture War 2.0: The New Front Lines.” CNN did not quote President Harrison.
Molly Hemingway wrote a clever-titled story, “A Lutheran, a Jew, a Baptist and a Catholic Walk Into A Hearing.“
THOMAS MESSER, an LCMS pastor, wrote an op-ed piece, “Religious liberty on trial in America.”
Maggie Karner, LCMS Director of Life and Health Ministries wrote a piece titled, “Where the Women Were During the House Contraception Mandate Hearing,” for Christianity Today.
St. Louis Radio Host Interviews LCMS President Matthew C. Harrison on HHS Ruling
On Friday, Feb. 17, KMOX radio host Charlie Brennan interviewed LCMS President Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison on his appearance before a House committee regarding the recent HHS mandate on health insurance and its mandatory coverage of contraceptives.
You can listen to the audio file of the eight-minute interview by clicking either here or here.
Right-click here to save MP3
President Harrison’s testimony before Congress can be seen here:
The LCMS Webpage also is maintaing up-to-date coverage at http://www.lcms.org/hhsmandate.
– Posted by Rev. Dr. Albert Collver, Director of Church Relations
| Print article | This entry was posted by Al Collver on February 18, 2012 at 8:58 am, and is filed under Al's Posts. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |
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about 1 year ago
I am so fed up with hearing the “Where were the women?” and “This is a women’s health issue.” comments. As a strong, independant, LCMS Lutheran woman who does believe in the use of birth control methods, I was proud of the way that President Harrison stood in a strong, clear, non-partisan way as the voice of my Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod. Distorting the argument by trying to make it about birth-control when it’s about religious freedom isn’t going to work. If the infringement on religious freedom was the government trying to stop the churches from giving capfuls of wine during communion to congregants under the age of 21, the outcry would be the same. The response would be the same. What would be noticibly absent would be the demands for a panel of women so that the focus of the issue could shift from religious freedom to alcohol abuse or some such nonsense. I know that President Harrison will stay true to his (and my) beliefs and stand strong and ignore the voices of the intellectually and morally compromised.