Shortly after 3 PM Eastern Time Monday afternoon, an outfit called "Faithful America" issued a "Media Advisory" for an event which would take place at 7:30 PM Central Time.
In the email, Faithful America claimed to be "the largest and fastest growing online community of Christians taking action for social justice," and to have 300,000 members. They may have that many members, but only about 0.01% of them showed up for the event involved: a "vigil" opposing today's Supreme Court decision at Hobby Lobby's flagship store in Edmond, Oklahoma. In covering the titantic event, Edmond Sun reporter Mark Schlachtenhaufen appears to have exaggerated the puny turnout, and made the same misstatement concerning the circumstances of the case we've seen constantly in the national press (bolds are mine):
Pastor rallies faithful opposed to Hobby Lobby court ruling
Just before a moment for silent reflection, Bruce Prescott, who served 12 years as pastor at Easthaven Baptist Church in Houston before coming to Oklahoma, said he was going to pray for the Green family.
Prescott organized an event advertised as a vigil outside Hobby Lobby’s Edmond store to pray for employees who will now have difficulty accessing health care.
Stop. Right. There.
"Difficulty accessing health care"? Sounds pretty comprehensive, but of course it isn't.
Hobby Lobby isn't preventing any access to health care. It just isn't going to cover or pay for a very small number of items Schlachtenhaufen identified in his very next paragraph:
Monday’s Supreme Court ruling means the Oklahoma City-based crafts store will not be required to cover four objectionable types of contraception in its health insurance plan. The company has said it will continue to cover 16 preventative contraceptives.
Speaking to several dozen people, an audience that included another clergyman and a University of Central Oklahoma professor, Prescott said Monday’s ruling lacks common sense.
... Prescott said the conscience of employers should not trump the conscience of employees, particularly when decisions are being made about an employee’s family planning, reproductive health and their access to FDA-approved medications and contraceptives.
“Those decisions are best made by the employee in consultation with their physician, their family and under the guidance of their own ministers and spiritual advisors,” Prescott said.
... In addition to praying for the Green family (Hobby Lobby's owners — Ed.), Prescott said he will pray for the “war on women” to end.
Lord have mercy. No one is interfering with any of the aforementioned consultations.
These pathetic folks aren't lacking in chutzpah.
Their email announcement quotes "Rev. Richard Cizik, former vice president of the National Association of Evangelicals," who apparently hysterically asserted in a recent op-ed that "If you are pro-religious liberty and pro-life and family, you can't support allowing a for-profit corporation to use religion to deny contraceptive coverage." No sir, if you're pro-religious liberty and pro-life and family, you can't force the Greens to violated their consciences as the price of staying in business. Additionally, as I noted on Monday afternoon, the items the Greens refuse to cover are inarguably abortifacients, i.e., they take the lives of pre-born babies.
The two Sun photographs at the article (here and here) contain a combined ten people, including several who aren't fully pictured. It's impossible to ignore how absolutely grumpy they are.
Excuse me for doubting that the event drew even "several" (meaning more than two) dozen. Dogs, cats, squirrels, ants and rodents don't count, Mark.
Monday evening's "vigil" turnout would seem to indicate the awesome groundswell of opposition to the Hobby Lobby ruling is almost entirely located inside the Metro Washington, DC Beltway.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
