Speak Out 2/28/12

AS a local pastor, I'm against gay marriage. This doesn't mean I'm against gay people. I still believe marriage is between a man and a woman. If Missouri ever approves a bill making gay marriage or civil unions or domestic partnership legal, I still have an option to say, "Ask someone else to perform your service." No law can force me to marry anyone.

BY a lopsided margin of 66 percent to 26 percent, Americans support President Barack Obama's proposal to require private health insurance plans to cover the full cost of birth control for women, according to a CBS/New York Times public opinion poll. But "oh no," our Republican state legislature as well as the U.S. Congress and Senate are going to try to pass a bill against it. Just more of their wasting of taxpayers' money. We are wasting our money paying them for doing nothing to help our country and state.

IF Obama is allowed to issue a mandate that forces insurance companies to provide free contraception to every woman, how much longer until he issues another that forces all women of childbearing age to use it? Until he mandates that all must obtain a government waiver to go off it or bear a child? Look at population control practices in China for the role model. Is this kind of government really what you want?

GUESS which states' residents call themselves conservatives but are most hooked on government earmarks? You guessed it. The red ones.

PLEASE understand as a practicing female Catholic, I see nothing wrong with President Obama's health care plan that includes contraceptive coverage and mandating that our church cover its employees. Many non-Catholics work for our church. They should not be discriminated against. As I understand it, more than 26 states already have this provision, and since 2000 this has been a part of the ruling of the Equal Opportunity Commission. For the Republican Party to take such a two-faced opposition to this is almost as ridiculous as the Catholic Church doing so. George Bush accepted this ruling and this will come out in any primary election. "ObamaCare" is the same program as the Heritage Foundation supported in the '80s and '90s. As women, we thought the battle to control when we had children was settled. To open this venue up is to literally give this election away. Let's get on with providing jobs and stop with the moralizing.

LEAVE it to Republican hawk Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham to call for arming the rebels against the Syrian government, thereby strapping the taxpayer with even more debt.