Hobby Lobby and Pennsylvania Cabinet Maker Set to Argue Religious Liberties Before Supreme Court on March 25

PHILADELPHIA—Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), one of the most outspoken pro-abortion Democrats in the country, has petitioned the Supreme Court to force Hobby Lobby to obey the Obamacare mandate that would require businesses to provide their employees with birth control or abortion-causing drugs.

Murray told her peers on the Senate floor recently that the Christian company is hiding behind religious freedom in order to deny women birth control. It’s a matter that has caused a stir in health care and religious liberties circles, with more than 60 lawsuits, including one from a Pennsylvania cabinet maker, Conestoga Wood, challenging the mandate.

As Christian business owners with faith-based convictions against birth control and abortion face fines for not complying with the Obamacare mandate, American Pastors’ Network (APN, www.AmericanPastorsNetwork.net) says that people of faith who support the businesses should stand together for religious liberties.

“These businesses who are taking up the cause to defend our rights of religious freedom are to be highly commended because they fight for all our Constitutional and God-given rights,”   said APN President Sam Rohrer, also President of Pennsylvania Pastors’ Network (PPN, www.papastors.net). “We pray that on March 25, the Supreme Court will begin to act on their Constitutional duty and proceed to  restore the confidence of Christian business owners who are at the present experiencing the harsh reality of religious persecution, right here in our own nation.”

Hobby Lobby, a family-owned chain of arts and crafts stores, is challenging the mandate in court because it doesn’t want to pay for health care or medication that are against leaders’ morals and convictions.

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., on March 25, as well as details about a similar case, Conestoga Wood Specialties v. Sebelius, involving the Lancaster County-based cabinet maker owned by the pro-life Mennonite Hahn family. Conestoga Wood Specialties has provided its 1,000 employees generous health benefits, including preventive care coverage that goes beyond what the law requires. But because they are pro-life, they excluded coverage for contraception that may act as an abortifacient. A decision regarding both companies is expected sometime in June.

Both Christian-owned businesses say providing their employees with and paying for life-terminating drugs and devices violates their deeply held religious convictions. Companies who don’t follow the mandate may be penalized $100 per day, per employee. For the Hahn family, for example, the total would be $35 million in fines per year.

A Rasmussen poll found that half of voters now oppose a government requirement that employers provide health insurance with free contraceptives for their female employees. Another poll by Family Research Council (FRC) and Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) found that 59 percent of Americans disagree with the mandate.

The American Pastors’ Network has a mission to identify, encourage, equip, educate and network pastors and church members to “Stand in the Gap for Truth” across the nation while providing Bible-based and constitutionally consistent analysis and recommendations on matters of public policy.

APN is the largest, national network of pastors who believe in the authority of scripture, who boldly preach the whole counsel of God with a disciplined application of a biblical worldview to public policy, and who are building a permanent infrastructure of biblically faithful pastors and lay leaders and mobilizing congregations to participate in the political process.

The Pennsylvania Pastors’ Network is a group of biblically faithful clergy and church liaisons whose objective is to build a permanent infrastructure of like-minded clergy who affirm the authority of Scripture, take seriously Jesus’ command to be the “salt and light” to the culture, encourage informed Christian thinking about contemporary social issues; examine public policy issues without politicizing their pulpits and engage their congregations in taking part in our political process on a non-partisan basis.

For more information on American Pastors’ Network, visit www.AmericanPastorsNetwork.net. For more information on Pennsylvania Pastors’ Network, visit www.PAPastors.net or call 610-584-1225.

The American Pastors Network is a Ministry Program Affiliate of Capstone Legacy Foundation (a 501(c)(3) non-profit Christian Public Community Foundation registered nationwide).