On Tuesday of this week, the Supreme Court of the United States heard oral arguments in the Hobby Lobby case where the owners of a small family business have challenged the Affordable Care Act’s mandate that requires employers who provide health care coverage to their employees to include in that coverage all FDA approved drugs and devices designed to prevent pregnancy. The Court’s decision is expected before the end of June when the Supreme Court recesses for the summer.

This important religious liberty case has all but overshadowed many of the other cases which are being heard in these final days of oral arguments before the Court. One extremely important case of note is that of Elane Photography, LLC, v. Willock. In fact, today (March 28) is when the case is scheduled for Conference. Elane Photography also turns on the issue of liberty, but in actuality it is more aptly a free market issue.

The case began several years ago when a couple who owned a small photography business found themselves embroiled in controversy simply because the wife, Elaine Hugenin of Elane photography, declined to take the wedding pictures for a lesbian couple in New Mexico. Elaine firmly believes that marriage can only be contracted between one man and one woman, and it would be a violation of her conscience to contribute materially to a ceremony that essential was a fraudulent attempt at marriage. The woman who approached Elaine for the services, Vanessa WIllock, soon found another photographer who was happy to accommodate the couple and photograph the wedding. But Willock was not satisfied and soon filed a claim against Elane Photography for unlawful discrimination. The New Mexico Supreme Court ultimately ruled in August that the business owners violated the state’s anti-discrimination law by turning away a request to take photos of a same-sex commitment ceremony. That is when the case was appealed to the Supreme Court, which agreed to hear it.

You can read more about the substance of the claim and the briefs that have been filed in a number of places on the Internet. One particularly interesting article was written by the Alliance  Defending Freedom, which is involved in the Huguenins’ defense, and the article contains this analogy:

After we appealed to the New Mexico Supreme Court on behalf of the Huguenins, the court ruled against them last August.   While the ruling itself was shocking, perhaps the most shocking aspect of the case came in a written opinion from one of the justices.  He wrote that compelling the Huguenins to violate their deeply held religious beliefs on the definition of marriage was simply “the price of citizenship.”

There have been many governments throughout history that demanded its citizens compromise their deeply held beliefs.  The word for those governments is “tyranny.”

Just a pinch of incense

Perhaps the most famous example of this is the persecution of Christians in Ancient Rome. During periods of persecution, Christians could escape death if they would only offer a pinch of incense to the statue of Caesar and utter the words, “Caesar is lord.”  Denying Christ was the price of citizenship. Or in this case the price of staying alive.

Who would have thought that in America Christians are now expected to “offer their pinch of incense to Caesar” to avoid punishment?

 

The “pinch of incense” is an apt analogy. But as I have followed this case through the court system, I have been repeatedly reminded of another historical context — one not quite as old as the Roman persecutions. It is the story of Saint Thomas More, who happens to be my favorite saint since he is the Patron Saint of Lawyers. The classic movie A Man for All Seasons is a brilliant example of how Thomas More knew the law, loved the law, and died by the law–albeit a skewed interpretation of the law.

As in the case of the Huguenins, it was God’s law that Thomas sought to follow. Quite appropriately, his run-in with the authorities also involved marriage — in his case the illegal marriage of Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn. If you have not seen the movie A Man for All Seasons, I strongly recommend it, as it is a testament to how one with firmly held convictions can and should stand up to cowardly liberal authorities. There is one particular scene that I want to share here. It occurs after the farce of a trial in which Thomas is condemned for refusing to take an oath of fidelity to King Henry VIII. In Thomas’ heart that oath would have meant he was denying that the Pope was head of the Church. Whatever your religious beliefs, this saint’s life can provide a measure of inspiration in a time when media and men are bowing down to a secular, anti-religion government.