STAND UP FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM RALLY in JEFFERSON CITY, MISSOURI

Photo taken by our youngest daughter Disa of us after the Rally at the Missouri Capitol.
Left to right:  Leif, Andy, Dale, Micki, and Julia.

We drove three hours to get there, prayed the Rosary in procession in front of the Capitol, participated in the hour-long Rally, and came back the next day. When we went to the Country Kitchen to eat breakfast the following morning, we noticed that the Rally was the front-page headline in Jefferson City's News Tribune, with this good article by Tribune reporter Bob Watson:

'We do not need it'

Rally protests 'assault' on religious freedom

      Again and again during an hour-long midday rally Friday at the Capitol, eight speakers in Jefferson City joined counterparts around the nation in demanding the Obama administration stop attacking Americans' freedom to practice their religion.

Mike Hoey
Executive Director of the
Missouri Catholic Conference

      They also demanded the president cancel both the federal health care law and the mandate that employers provide insurance coverage that includes birth control, sterilization and abortion services.
      Mike Hoey, Missouri Catholic Conference director, noted the nationwide rallies were sponsored by the Prolife Action League and by Citizens for a Prolife Society.
      Several of the Capitol rally speakers also urged Gov. Jay Nixon to sign a bill that lawmakers passed this spring, protecting people, businesses and health care providers from being discriminated against, or penalized, for choosing not to cover some procedures and medicines when providing that coverage goes against religious beliefs or moral convictions.

Most Rev. John Gaydos
Bishop of the Catholic
Diocese of Jefferson City

      Nixon spokesman Scott Holtse said Friday afternoon that bill, like all other measures, will get a thorough review before Nixon decides to sign or veto it.
      Bishop John Gaydos, head of the Catholic Diocese of Jefferson City, said the federal health care mandates requiring people to support services they consider immoral---like the Catholic Church's stance on contraception and abortion---violate the constitutional protections for religious freedom.

Sarah Greek
of Bott Radio Network

      "Religious freedom is not merely about our ability to attend church on Sunday," Gaydos said. "Freedom of religion guarantees our right to make our contribution to the common good of all Americans.
      "It is impossible to exercise that religious freedom and, at the same time, compromise the faith that inspires us to action."

Elise Kostial
Founder of Concerned
Young Women for America

      Sarah Greek of the Bott Radio Network, a religious broadcaster which co-sponsored the Capitol rally, noted the 200 [actual count 374] people attending the rally were "here because the United States Department of Health and Human Services has neither prioritized health, nor have they served humans."
      "Unlimited access to abortifacients, no questions asked, does not empower women," Greek said. "The next generation of American woman can do better than this mandate, and I believe we will. ...

Don Hinkle
Editor of The Pathway 

      "We have not asked for this mandate, and we do not need it."
      Elise Kostial, 16, said: "No American should ever be forced to participate in, or contribute to, any actions that we believe violate a human being's right to life."
      She noted "freedom of religion" comes before freedom of speech in the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment.

Gina Newlon
Pro-life Wife, Mother
and Speaker

      Don Hinkle, editor of the Missouri Baptist Convention's newspaper, "The Pathway," said the federal contraceptive mandate "is the very kind of tyranny our founding fathers intended to prevent when they passed the First Amendment...guaranteeing our religious freedom."
      Gina Newlon of Jefferson City said today's arguments over religious liberty are similar to the nation's anti-slavery and civil rights battles, as well as the efforts of those who fought against Nazi Germany.

Kelli Smith
of St. Martin's Church

      "Their common thread was persecution," she said. "Full-blown persecution doesn't happen overnight. It starts with a mandate."
      Kelli Smith of St. Martin's added: "Our government has gone too far in imposing their morality on the American people...If our government continues to pursue a secular, humanistic and atheistic agenda, I fear they can enact many other unconstitutional and morally devoid laws that would slowly, but surely, deny our God-given and constitutionally protected religious liberties."

Rev. Susan Jaramillo
Assemblies of God Minister

      And the Rev. Susan Jaramillo, an Assemblies of God minister, said the nationwide rallies featured "Christians (working) to stop the unjust violation of our religious liberty (and) the lies that the American people are hearing from Obama and his administration and through the voices of liberal media."
      Adolf Hitler used this same tactic of telling lies often enough to convince people the information was true, she said.

And of course afterwards we had to sneak into the Capitol's attic.

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