Bigots! What else can you call a bunch of “religious” leaders who condemn public officials based upon their religion because they properly carried out their constitutionally defined role?

Hypocrites! What else can you call a group that complains that judges applying the Constitution and the clear (as mud) standards set out in Roe v. Wade to uphold an act of Congress are guilty of imposing their religion upon the American people – and then insist not only that THEIR religious values should be enacted but also that legislation be passed to forbid medical personnel from abiding by their own values?

A coalition of religious leaders took on the Catholic Church, the U.S. Supreme Court and the Bush administration on Tuesday with a plea to take religion out of health care in the United States.

They said last week's Supreme Court decision outlawing a certain type of abortion demonstrated that religious belief was interfering with personal rights and the U.S. health care system in general.

The group, calling itself the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, said it planned to submit its proposals to other church groups and lobby Congress and state legislators.

"With the April 18 Supreme Court decision banning specific abortion procedures, concerns are being raised in religious communities about the ethics of denying these services," the group said in a statement.

"They are imposing their points of view," Barbara Kavadias, director of field services for the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, told reporters in a telephone briefing.

She noted that the five Supreme Court justices on the majority in the 5-4 decision were all Catholic men -- Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Anthony Kennedy, Justice Samuel Alito, Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Antonin Scalia.

All were appointed by conservative Republican presidents who oppose abortion, including President George W. Bush.

The group also complained about Catholic-owned hospitals that refuse to sterilize women who ask for it, refuse to let doctors perform abortions and do not provide contraception.

"Doctors, pharmacists and nurses are also increasingly exercising a so-called 'religious or moral objection,' refusing to provide essential services and often leaving patients without other options," the group said in a statement.

In other words, they not only want to disqualify Catholics and other conservative Christians from holding public office (or at least bringing their values with them), but they want to require that Catholic hospitals quit being Catholic and that Catholic and other conservative Christian medical professionals stop acting on their religious beliefs.

I think that this response says it best.

Marie Hilliard of the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia said she had grave concerns about the report.

"There is no recognition of the true meaning of the separation of church and state, which mandates that the free exercise of religion, including that of the provider, be respected," she said.

And at the risk of offending these hypocritical religious bigots in pastor’s robes, may I heartily say “Amen!”

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