In the [Oklahoma] Journal Record today, front page article states that Hobby Lobby cannot use First Amendment freedom of religion to shield it from providing employees of different religions full and complete health care coverage.
The argument states that to rule otherwise "would permit for-profit, secular corporations and their owners to become laws unto themselves" and "Because there are an infinite variety of alleged religious beliefs, such companies and their owners could claim countless exemptions from an untold number of general commercial laws designed to protect against unfair discrimination in the workplace and to protect the health and well-being of individual employees and their families."
No link because it's a print paper.
For those who don't have Hobby Lobby in their states, Hobby Lobby decided they weren't going to comply with allowing their insurance to provide the morning after pill as it violated the owners' religious beliefs. There was an outcry and a lawsuit, and it looks like Hobby Lobby lost. And they didn't lose gracefully. The back page continuation of the article is a story of the owners of Hobby Lobby whining that their religious rights being trampled.
I don't get it.
The owners of Hobby Lobby don't have to take the morning after pill if they choose not to. They are also not responsible for the actions other people take regarding their own health and well-being.
I'd think, if they felt this strongly about life they'd manage to make their warehouses more humane towards the employees, providing adequate breaks in climate controlled areas so employees overcome by the heat could cool off, rehydrate, and then get out to work again - or to warm up before getting back into a freezing warehouse. My son worked there briefly, so I know just how inhumanely they treat their employees.
Denying their employees the health coverage for which they are paying is just another way to control the after-work lives of their employees, which changes them from owners of a business to owners of people.
I cheered when I saw this article - it meant someone in our government recognized that business-owners own businesses not people.