The Hazards of Belief

Rappler wrote:

MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) – The Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) said Catholic medical workers can refuse to implement provisions of the newly-approved Reproductive Health (RH) law, as the Supreme Court upheld the rights of “conscientious objectors.” The CBCP corrected a report by Agence France-Presse on Thursday, July 10, that said the CBCP “is encouraging members who are medical workers to refuse to implement a newly-approved birth control law.”

“What the CBCP brought to the attention of Catholic health care professionals are their rights as enunciated by the Supreme Court when it passed upon the law, particularly the rights of conscientious objectors,” CBCP president Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas said Friday, July 11. “The CBCP will always urge Catholics to obey all just laws but in all things to abide by the prompting of a well-formed conscience,” Villegas said. It is the latest move by the powerful church hierarchy in the largely Catholic Philippines against the reproductive health law that was declared constitutional in April.

The law compels the state for the first time to provide free condoms and contraceptive pills. (READ: Without RH law, contraceptives will run out in Payatas) A "pastoral guidance" issued by bishops this week explains how government health workers can legally refuse to dish out contraceptives on ethical or religious grounds, Marvin Mejia, executive secretary of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, told Agence France-Presse.

"Obviously, Catholics should not, on moral grounds, seek employment in the very government agencies that promote artificial contraception," reads the guidance. (READ: Next in RH battle: Full implementation by DOH, LGUs) "But if circumstances compelled them to be employed in such agencies...said Catholics should be aware that they cannot be forced to promote, distribute or dispense artificial contraceptives against their religious or moral conviction."

The CBCP pointed out, however, that “the accommodation granted the conscientious objector... does not extend to emergency cases, as when the mother's life is in danger.” “When a patient, for example, is rushed to the emergency room who has, with the help of a backstreet abortionist, commenced the abortion procedure that is botched, although the fetus has already been destroyed, with the result that she is bleeding profusely, the health-care providers cannot refuse intervention or treatment on the ground of conscientious objection but must take all steps necessary to save the life of the mother,” the bishops' conference said. “This exception is based on natural law, which calls for the preservation of human life,” it added.

The Church is an influential force in the Philippines, which counts around 80% of its 100 million-strong population as Catholics. Abortion and divorce remain banned in the nation. The deeply controversial birth control law was finally approved by the Supreme Court last April 8, ending a 15-year campaign by the Church to stop state-sanctioned family planning coming into force. It also mandates that sex education be taught in schools. However, the law allows for moral or religious objections.

Conscientious objectors are required to immediately refer patients to another service willing to supply information or birth control, but the church disputes this. Father Mejia said bishops are set to organize seminars in their dioceses to inform government health workers of the law's provisions. "The Church recognizes that it is already a law...but it's very important for people to know their rights," Mejia added.

Al Arabiya wrote:

A group of religious figures in Saudi Arabia have threatened to strike the labor minister who seeks to create jobs for women with “deadly prayers.” They threatened to pray that he gets cancer like his predecessor Ghazi al-Gosaibi, who died of the disease in 2010.

During a meeting at the labor ministry on Tuesday, about 200 religious figures accused Minister Adel Fakeih of executing a “Westernization” plan and asked him to ban women from working in lingerie shops within a month or he will face their dangerous prayers.

The ministry began in 2011 enforcing a decision to replace salesmen with Saudi women at lingerie shops in a bid to create jobs for women and meet the demands of female customers embarrassed to buy lingerie from salesman.

During the meeting, various religious figures successively attacked the minister and gave him little time to explain his decision and its benefit for the Saudi economy and for Saudi women.

One religious man told the minister, “I supplicated against a senior official at the ministry and he received the (cancer) disease and he died; this was because he began implementing the feminization decision,” according to al-Eqtisadiah newspaper. The man reportedly referred to previous Labor Minister Gosaibi.

Another religious figure told the minister that the government’s job is to employ women and not to decide where they should be employed.
Addressing the minister, another man said, “I am warning you, do not ignite sedition; we only came here to provide advice; your ministry has thrown our daughters in places that don’t suit their values.”

After a wave of attacks the minister finally snatched an opportunity to respond to the bearded men in front of him. He defended the decision to employ women, saying that women occupied jobs during the era of the Prophet Muhammad, adding that it made more sense if women rather than men are in charge of selling women’s lingerie.

The minister further told the congregation that they should take their case to court if they saw that his ministry is violating the law.