‘A rising handful of blue state legislators, in league with obnoxious, atheist media figures like John Oliver and national atheist associations, are taking aim at these ministries,’ said AHCSM Executive Director Katy Talento
WASHINGTON — Under the shadowy figures running the Biden administration, the FBI targeted Christians.
The FBI actually used the “hate map” generated by the infamous anti-American Southern Poverty Law Center. Unfortunately, the war on Christians didn’t end with the last election.
There are other forces in the public square who reject the God-given rights to free speech and free exercise of religion recognized by the First Amendment and who are targeting Christians.
“Specifically, those hostile to faith have set their sights on an even more vulnerable minority than traditional Catholics, or Christian cake-bakers in Colorado: members of Health Care Sharing Ministries,” wrote Katy Talento, executive director of the Alliance of Health Care Sharing Ministries (AHCSM) in a recent column for The Christian Post.
“There are only about a million members of Health Care Sharing Ministries in the United States. Some smaller states are home to only a few hundred. Yet, a rising handful of blue state legislators, in league with obnoxious, atheist media figures like John Oliver and national atheist associations, are taking aim at these ministries (more on this below). Why is there an orchestrated effort to squelch the First Amendment rights of these groups?
“The problem seems to boil down to this: Health Care Sharing Ministries are not health insurance. Health Care Sharing Ministries are 501(C)3 nonprofit charities. They convene communities of like-minded religious believers and facilitate the sharing of medical bills between them, praying for one another and supporting each other in their health journeys.
“When a group of ministries sued Colorado for violating its First Amendment rights, evidence surfaced during discovery that the state was far from a neutral actor merely trying to “protect consumers,” or just applying religiously neutral law to all sharing organizations.
“A particularly egregious example of bias that emerged in discovery was, as the ministries’ legal brief describes, the state’s collusion with none other than “John Oliver — best known for creating a fake church and mocking religion — to ridicule health care sharing ministries as ‘hypocritical organizations’ that ‘exploit morality clauses to deny coverage to queer people, the obese or even people who smoke or drink.’
“A recent symposium called ‘Keeping Track of Health Care Sharing Ministries’ was hosted by the American Humanist Association, the Center for Freethought Equality and the Association of Secular Elected Officials and featured a three-hour hate-a-thon against the ministries and celebratory platforming of the atheist legislators orchestrating persecution of them, blue state by blue state.
“It’s fine to disagree with our Christian faith, or to wish that everyone signed up for unaffordable Obamacare plans that often implicate enrollees in subsidizing a godless moral agenda. But this kind of orchestrated attack must be recognized for what it is: bigotry and intolerance toward religious Americans, their beliefs and their organizations, and a threat to the First Amendment protections of all Americans.
“Jesus warned that His followers would be hated and persecuted. But our Founders designed a constitutional system that prohibited this kind of state-sponsored War on Christians.
“Voters should hold their legislators accountable for protecting the rights of believers to organize and provide for their own health care needs without government harassment, bought and paid for by organized atheist interests across the country.”
For more, see “John Oliver and atheists target Health Care Sharing Ministries” by Katy Talento in The Christian Post.
Founded in 2007 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., the Alliance of Health Care Sharing Ministries is a 501(c)(6) trade organization representing the common interests of Health Care Sharing Ministries, which are facilitating the sharing of health care needs (financial, emotional and spiritual) by individuals and families, and their participants. The Alliance engages with federal and state regulators, members of the media, and the Christian community to provide accurate and timely information on health care sharing.
To learn more about the Alliance of Health Care Sharing Ministries, visit www.ahcsm.org or follow the ministry on Facebook or Twitter.
To interview a representative from The Alliance of Health Care Sharing Ministries, contact Media@HamiltonStrategies.com, Beth Bogucki, 610.584.1096 ext. 105, Dawn Foglein, ext. 100, or Richard Jefferson, rjefferson@hamiltonstrategies.com.