Tejada 1

Sara Tejada
John Kubler
English 115
19 November 2014
Religious Freedom Conflicts
Hobby Lobby Case:
The Supreme Court came to a conclusion that requiring family-owned businesses to
provide insurance coverage for contraception, which may be viewed as abortion, under the
Affordable Care Act, which failed to comply with the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The
Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993(RFRA) supplies people with protection for religious
liberty. In the Hobby Lobby Case, Justice Alito wrote for the majority opinion, along with the
four justices Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas, and Chief Justice Roberts. Five men ruled against the
contraception and abortifacient pills mandate, while four ruled for the other side. Two businesses
owned by families with Christian beliefs claimed that providing insurance coverage that contains
20 types of contraception would disobey their religious values. These businesses were Hobby
Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialties.
Hobby Lobby, a chain of craft stores, expressed disapproval against four main types of
contraception: the Mirena IUD, the Paragard IUD, Plan-B, and Ella. The court ruled that
businesses owned by religious families cannot be forced to pay for contraception coverage for
their female workers. These forms of contraception include the use of artificial methods or other
techniques to prevent pregnancy. Alito recognized that making sure women have access to
contraception is a vital right, but argued that there are several ways of doing that without

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violating a businesses religious rights. These four methods of contraception may result in
stopping an already fertilized egg from developing anymore by hindering the egg from attaching
to the uterus. As a result, the RFRA guarantees that the Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS) cannot make owners of a business with religious beliefs supply contraceptives in
their insurance policies because the contraceptive mandate substantially burdened the exercise
of religion by requiring the companies to choose between compromising their religious beliefs
and paying a heavy fee(15). Giving an ultimatum to businesses with religious beliefs to decide
whether to pay a fee or go against their values is not considered legitimate or reasonable with the
RFRA.
The health care law requires a majority of employers to supply female workers with
complete insurance coverage for several methods of contraception. The companies with religious
beliefs protested against covering contraceptive devices within the uterus and pills that prevent
fertilization because they were related to abortion. Anything that related to abortion, or
preventing an embryo from growing goes against these companies religious and virtuous values.
The Hahns family and owners of Conestoga Wood Specialties, a business that makes wood
cabinets, believe that they are required to run their business in accordance with their religious
beliefs and moral principles (12). The RFRA protects the Hahns family from having to provide
female workers with this insurance because it violates their religious liberty.
For-profit corporations are considered persons protected under RFRA. Congress
provided protection for people like the Hahns and Greens by employing a familiar legal fiction:
It included corporations within RFRAs definition of persons (18). The motive of this is to
protect the religious rights of these people who own and control these businesses with religious
beliefs.

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The HHS mandate significantly burdens the exercise of religion by the families of Hobby Lobby
and Conestoga Wood Specialties and therefore does not pass the least-restrictive means test. In
order for the HHS mandate to be sustained, it must also constitute the least restrictive means of
serving that interest, and the mandate plainly fails that test (2).
Albright Essay on Religion:
Madison Albright is the first woman to become the United States Secretary of State and is a
widely known American politician and diplomat who strongly believes that people of faith
should be involved in the government. Albrights essay, Faith and Diplomacy, demonstrates how
the role of faith in government and diplomacy can be used as an asset for the religious
dimensions of inter- and intranational disputes(34), which is utilized to explain that religious
perspectives can help rectify global conflicts. Madison Albright offers three stories to signify
how faith can be a powerful tool in reinforcing values for diverse cultures to live in peace.
In 1981, Albright was visiting Poland during the Solidarity movement against the
communist government. She witnessed how communists were attempting to eliminate religion
from their culture by taking away peoples rights to their own religions, but the Poles remained
faithful to the word of God. Due to his faithfulness, a man named Pope John Paul II was being
criticized and verbally attacked by the communists for teaching by his religious values. John
Paul II argued that if people were to fulfill their responsibility to live according to moral
principles, they must first have the right to do so(36). John Paul II was giving people faith in
religion while the communists were trying to destroy it. Although fear was inevitable in this
dispute, the people were now proud to be Polish because they had faith in God and a
willingness to run risks for freedom(36). The pope assisted his people to prevail over their own
fears and opened their eyes to the fact that communism was taking away their rights and

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freedom. Albright uses the story of Pope John Paul II to remind people to recognize when
religious beliefs should be present and when it should not, due to its influence on how people
think, feel, and act.
The second story is one of a young girl named Mary, whose town was invaded by a
Muslim militia. While being held at gunpoint, Mary was demanded to deny God, or choose to
die. Mary immediately responded, I was born a Christian I will die a Christian(37). She was
shot and a bullet hit through her neck and spine; She was left there to die. The day after this
tragedy, Mary was found alive but unable to move. The militiamen who found Mary decided to
take her to the hospital. When Mary is asked about this day, she responds, I forgive [the guy
who pulled the trigger]... I forgave him because my God forgave me. Its as simple as that(37).
This story reveals how powerful religion can be. Some people are willing to kill or even die for
their faith, and some people are willing to forgive others, even in extremely difficult situations,
because of a simple lesson of religion: faith teaches forgiveness.
The last story is about a little boy who was left an orphan after the village his family had
previously lived in was attacked. The boy and his baby sister walked for hours until they were at
Gulu, a town in northern Uganda. Gulu was helping people who were attacked find safety.
Several armies and rebel leaders who caused chaos in the past survived by instilling fear into
others. Gulu and their camp officials were the safehaven for the victim of this town. They
provided a hospital and welcomed anyone who needed their assistance. Later, that little boy and
his sister were found. The little girl was named Charity, after one of the volunteers who helped
them. This story shows how faith creates love and compassion. Something as terrible as a town
suffering, was turned around because of the Italian doctor who ran the facility. Religion

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expresses this type of love in many ways, and someone as simple as a victim, could create a
place where so many lives were saved.
Madison Albright uses all three of these stories to show how religious faith can be used to
create a kinship between people. Whether it is hope, forgiveness or love, religion has the ability
to result in conflict resolution. Seeing yourself in your enemys shoes is necessary to understand
each other. When applied in the government, religion could resolve several issues that need
attention. Religion will always remain in everyday human lives, and there is no way to separate
religion from world politics(39). To use religion as an advantage, then American policymakers must learn as much as possible about religion, and then incorporate that knowledge in
their strategies(39). This is because religions need to find similarities to live in peace and come
to an understanding with each other. Fighting for your religion and fighting for yourself are two
different options. By incorporating this knowledge into the government, we will get a better
understanding of why people act as they do, and what tools can be used to resolve global
conflicts.