Conscience Coercion; Anti-Christian Government Action Looms

Could a health care worker be forced to exterminate the most vulnerable life of all? Are we living in a 'new Rome'?

ROME (Zenit) - A long time ago, during the reign of Commodus, six Christian men and women in North Africa refused to acknowledge the law declaring the divinization of the Emperor. It was little matter, some incense on the fire, and a public vow. First they were shunned and insulted, then they lost their jobs and homes and ultimately they were brought to trial before the Roman Proconsul Saturnius. The acts of the trial, lovingly preserved over 1,800 years, tell us what transpired.

Saturnius demanded that they swear by the divine genius of the emperor, as did every inhabitant of the Roman Empire.

One of the six, Sperato, countered that he served "that God which no man has seen or can see with these eyes." But as a citizen, he pointed out that "I have committed no theft; on that which I purchase I pay taxes, because I recognize my sovereign."

Saturnio ordered them to "renounce their persuasion," but Sperato held firm: "It is wrong to persuade another to commit homicide and perjury." A woman, Donata, chimed in with "Honor Caesar as Caesar, fear God alone."

Saturnio offered them a 30-day waiting period to think things over, but for the Christians there was no decision to make. The proconsul commandeered their belongings which were "books and the epistles of Paul -- a just man," and ordered them decapitated on July 17, 180. They are honored today as the Scilitan martyrs.

Let's look forward to a few years from now, a not too distant future to another group of Christian men and women. These are health care workers, who again are denying the right of the State to coerce their conscience, and refuse to perform or assist abortions. They have already been derided by their colleagues, lost their jobs, and now they stand on trial for not killing an unborn child.

The modern proconsul exhorts them to abandon their beliefs and get with the program, while the crowds jeer at the troublemakers. Eventually, these men and women are also sentenced, convicted felons for obeying their conscience instead of the State.

Does this seem far-fetched? Anything but. One of the first priorities of the administration of President Barack Obama razed the path to unrestricted abortions. The greatest impediment to this plan is a formed human conscience that recoils at the idea of murdering an unborn baby while she lies in her mother's womb.

Six weeks into President Obama's term of office, he has begun to uproot this obstacle by repealing a regulation granting broad protections to health workers who refuse to take part in abortions or provide other health care that goes against their consciences.

Announcing NEW Catholic Online News - Visit Today!

The promulgation of this conscience rule was one the last acts of President Bush, and it codified a previous law ensuring that no health care providers at institutions receiving federal funds should be discriminated against for refusing to participate in abortion or sterilization procedures.

President Bush attempted to protect medical and health care professionals from being coerced into actions they deemed wrong on moral and religious grounds

This protection could seem almost unnecessary. If one shrinks from killing an enemy soldier, the government allows for conscience objectors to serve their country in a way that doesn't conflict with their conscience, opponents to the death penalty are not forced to participate in executions. How could it be that a health care worker, one devoted to the assistance and care of human life could be forced to exterminate the most vulnerable life of all?

And yet Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards is determined to expunge this protection of conscience as a dangerous thing, proudly claiming that "this president is not going to stand by and let women's health be placed in jeopardy."

So to preserve "women's health" from jeopardy, one must trample the consciences of millions of men and women. Consequently, the most powerful man in the world has decided to employ his might in silencing the moral conscience.

It's really not too far from Imperial Rome after all.

The Roman Empire, led by the Divine Emperor, imposed its rules on all levels of human life, recognizing no authority but itself. It governed not only political life but also the private sphere of individual existence. Rome told its subjects what to think, how to act, and no part of their lives was independent from the whims and caprices of temporal power.

Christians challenged the authority of the government by claiming that its influence controlled only one area of their lives. They paid taxes, fought and died in the military and supplemented the State's weak provisions for the poor and the ill with their own charity. But their duty to their God directed by their conscience would not let them recognize the Emperor as having control over actions that would affect their immortal souls. The State can give you a home and job during your time on earth, but it cannot do a thing about Eternal Life.

The Christians who claimed that the Empire could not dictate to their conscience were tortured, beaten and killed as the Empire tried to purge what Proconsul Saturnius called "dementia."

Beautifully Designed Prayer Cards Now 15% Off

Saturinius' insistence that the Christians sacrifice for "the health of the Emperor" sounds chillingly like Cecile Richards demanding that consciences be sacrificed for the sake of "women's health."

Two thousand years later, the Empire strikes back, infiltrating the sphere of the human conscience as it did in the day when Romans had more slaves than citizens, sought amusement in blood sport in the arena, and executed men, women and children for not sprinkling a little incense before a metal statue.

As then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger presciently wrote in his book "Church, Ecumenism and Politics": "The Roman state was false and anti-Christian precisely because it wanted to be the totality of human capacity and hope. In that way it claimed what it could not achieve; and it distorted and diminished men and women. Through the totalitarian lie it became demonic and tyrannical."

Every day I walk through the remains of the pagan, murderous, self-serving Empire that put its faith in man-made gods and their mortal skills and achievements. These are the crumbled ruins and scattered stones of a once great society.

Sprouting from the rubble and holding strong today are the churches, palaces, fountains and piazzas of Christian Rome, which breathed a new life into those sterile bones and allowed the city to be reborn into the splendor we know today. May modern Christians exhibit the same courage in the face of tyranny that we see in the glorious example of the early martyrs.

* * *

Elizabeth Lev teaches Christian art and architecture at Duquesne University's Italian campus and the University of St. Thomas Catholic studies program. She can be reached at lizlev@zenit.org.