A headline in a news story the other day asked ‘Is Obama losing the Catholic vote?’  The story sought to answer a question that might interest political strategists more so than the American public.  It is a curious thing, the relationship that Americans have to government and to religion.  Depending on the political environment, Americans rush to any and all sides of any debate involving both.

Given the unrelenting scandals that have afflicted every religion with wanton pastors and preachers and priests gone wild no one should be surprised that anything religious would be viewed at the very least as curious.

But of course the Catholic Church is trying to do its best to stir up its members – a shrinking number to be sure relative to population over time – against the Obama Administration.  Had the Church reacted as heatedly when Mitt Romney admitted that he cares hardly about the poor, then the Church might have a leg to stand on and be given time to explain its latest attack on President Obama.  But as it is with the Church these days it gives its worst critics the excuse to see nothing more than hypocritical self-interest in its actions.

The issue is rather direct: The Department of Health and Human Services will now require the insurance policies of Catholic schools, hospitals and its other institutions to pay for birth control for employees who opt to use them.  The Church and its Republican allies are framing the requirement as an attack on religion.  As I said, if the Church had more credibility it might find more support.  But the number of Catholics who pay attention to the bishops these days is contracting daily.

The scandal here is as much the Church’s attempt to set itself above the rule of law than anything else.  The automatic retort to that statement is always that a higher law is at work.  Well, true, except that the last individuals we want to be interpreting the law are those bishops of the Catholic Church who have so damaged it and whose standing in society has fallen so sadly.  If they cannot interpret the highest law for themselves, how can they be entrusted to implement any law in society?

I rather doubt that when the votes are totaled on election night that Obama will have lost the Catholic vote given that so much of it is HispanicLatino.  If he does lose the Catholic vote but still wins the election that will say more about the Church than many of us Catholics would want to believe.

The hierarchy of the Catholic Church has fast become yet another organ of the Republican Party.  Its machinations during the last three elections are well known.  As its standing continues to deteriorate from its own missteps and those if its priests and bishops given to scandal, the Church is doing everything it can to accelerate its decline by entering into an ill-advised confrontation with the American Constitution.

The Church should do this instead: Counsel its employees to not use birth control instead of resorting to strong-arm tactics.

The question is not whether Obama is going to lose the Catholic vote over the DHHS decision.  The better question is how many of its employees would follow its heed.

The reason the Church wants to get others to do its work for itself is because it knows the answer to the more important question.

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