Religious opposition to the HHS contraceptive mandate is not universal. The decision has been praised by clergy who support women's reproductive rights, such as the Episcopal Church, the UCC, and non Orthodox Jews. But you didn't see any of these faiths in the audience for Sean Hannity's all male conclave of right wing clergy who oppose the HHS mandate, as well as women's reproductive rights in general. In addition to the clergy, including Roger Ailes' personal house priest, Fr. Jonathan Morris, the Fox anointed Catholic leader, the  homophobic, anti-Semitic, and blamer of victims of pedophile priests, Bill Donohue was present to do his usual incoherent braying. When Hannity asked how many of the clergy would disobey the HHS policy, all but one of the guys raised their hand. Not only did Fr. Morris raise his hand; but he said that clergy should be "ready to die" for this issue. While all this sound oh, so butch and brave, it turns out that Morris' (and many of the other clergy) really don't have anything to protest about and in Morris' case, he's been strangely silent about things in his hood.

First of all Morris (as well as the other clergy in Hannity's group) are clergy from churches. (Morris works at Old St. Patrick's Cathedral in NY City) They are not administrators of Catholic hospitals or universities. There is an exemption for religious groups who primarily serve and employ members of their own faith. In other words, individual churches. So Morris isn't really in any position to "disobey" a rule that doesn't apply to his church - and besides, he's not the head honcho of Old St. Pat's anyway. But the inconvenient truth, being ignored by the Fox Christian soldiers, is that a number of states already have a health coverage contraception mandate that is identical to the HHS mandate before the compromise - and in those states, large Catholic institutions are being required to cover birth control unless they self insure. One of those states just happens to be - wait for it - the state where the courageous Fox clergyman resides -New York!!!!!

Maybe the little padre doesn't know it; but as we speak, those Catholic institutions, who aren't getting around the law by self insuring, are providing contraceptive coverage such as Manhattan College and Fordham. Shouldn't the clergy, at these schools, be manning the barricades? And if they aren't interested in taking it to the streets, shouldn't Fr. Morris be out there waving his Vatican revolutionary flag on their behalf?

But if Fr. Morris does decide to engage in civil disobedience that gets him arrested, it would be rather amusing to see his priestly posterior being frog marched off to Rikers. Hopefully Fox would provide wall to wall coverage!