Hobby Lobby Day 3: A Bit of Poetry & A Whole Lot of Rage

Why does it matter?

A reasonable question:

Why does it matter that

HL is a corporation?  Are 

not corporations simply

organizations or structures

made up of people?  And if

so, why does it matter to say

that a corporation has religion?

This a friend did ask

and this I did truly and seriously

ponder and this is what I walked

away with . . . 

Quite simply, it matters . . . 

Because it is not true

[and Truth does indeed matter]

Because it is not true 

A corporation is not a person

We call it a legal fiction

Fiction is another word for ‘not true’

Made up

Pretend

A lie

in this case

a legal lie – 

meaning a lie

we agreed would be okay

because we all know it’s

a lie in advance – 

like Santa Claus

or the Easter Bunny

or Tooth Fairy

or “Yes, you look great in that dress”

yeah, like that

as a Christian

I do have to ask

exactly how it is

that a lie –

a self-professed lie

not just a liar –

as in someone who

sometimes lies – 

but a lie –

a thing which by

its very identity is

a sham, a pretense,

a farce, a false

yes, how that ‘thing’

that is Lie, albeit legal,

can be Truth?

I’m as fond of paradox as

the next person, but I tell

you, that dog won’t hunt

even if the cows and the chickens

do finally, at the last, come

home and come home to roost

***

Hobby Lobby had a prize

it’s truth – a pack of lies

that a SCOTUS – whatever that is – 

did say was true – ah, now we’re in biz!

Turns out you can be a bad Christian

so long as you’re not no Christian at all

and you get favors – the specialness

of your own peculiar brand of spe-ci-al-ity-ness

a prize – a ring – or perhaps a calf?

Oh now, let the cheating begin – at least by half

Your idolatry of your Christianity

would rouse hilarity if you had 

even a smidgeon of charity

but you are no-thing

so how can it even be?

It cannot

The Liars Club has met

and well met and it is 

so and we are done 

and undone and there

is no more laughter

not because it is a big

thing – no – truly you

are right – in and of –

itself – not so much –

but aye, here’s the rub –

finally we are unmasked

come out of our closet

and stood in the light

to be proudly revealed

and here we are –

a Christian nation

it would make a grown woman 

weep were it not so damned

funny – Christian, you see –

the follower of the Christ he

– that Way – would seem to 

say I am to take the irony

and give it another cheek –

and yes I do and yes I will –

but every now and then I do

wonder where’s Hobby’s

cheek, for I would surely

like to smite it and be forgiven

I would surely like to witness

that act of Christian fidelity

from a piece of paper filed 

away in a court house somewhere

and yes, my blood does boil

for I have not forgotten history

and the reasons that corporations

have existence in any form, 

fictitious or otherwise –

and let me assure you, 

it is not for the worship of God

never has been

never will be

and no, God does not need my defending

but thanks to SCOTUS, now I think I have

found it and it doth make me tremble –

for here stands the place where I make

the fool’s declaration

if there be corporations in heaven

then count me out . . . 

And surely this will make you laugh

and laugh some more – when it comes

to the ‘faith’ + corporations new math

[I do so love irony]

in its origins, 

‘corporation’

could 

and 

did

refer 

to

the 

S-T-A-T-E

[now wasn’t that worth the wait?]

Yes – to the government

to that very entity 

whose requirements 

the secret

hiding

masked

owners

seek

to avoid

it too is one of them

it too, apparently may have a god

[as opposed, of course, to being one, 

as the ancients – and apparently a few

moderns – you know who you are – did

and do insist]

isn’t the irony fabulously rich?

And of course it does make sense

for a corporation to claim a religious

identity when one of the main historic

purposes of corporations was the survival

of the entity beyond the death of its members

the idea of perpetuity

isn’t that a grand word?

The other word, of course, is

eternity

You see – of course the corporation has a god

[you were merely surprised because you thought

it thought itself to be a god – we always love that one]

anything that’s going to claim infinity as its shelf life

darned well better have a god, after all

ah, but you thought our god was money

close – but not quite –

it’s not money we worship, you see –

rather, it’s money that is the expression of our faith

you sing

you praise

you thank

we make money

it’s all the same

isn’t it?

***

I think 

if I am

honest

it is a 

matter 

of jealousy

I cannot be it

but alas

it can be me

and the sweeping

grandiosity

the canard of it all

does truly take my breath

my breathing me breath

away

and since presumably

it must choose

I wonder that a corporation

would ever choose to be

a woman

I would not were I it

for if I did

on my own petard

would I not be hoist?

***

How to Know You’re Religious: Hobby Lobby, Corporations, Personhood and Religious Liberty

So claims Hobby Lobby in its law suit against the obligations of what’s been nicknamed Obamacare: that the corporation is, under the laws of the United States, a ‘person’ and as a ‘person’, it is a religious ‘person’ with particular ‘religious’ belief which preclude it (he?  she?) from providing certain types of birth control insurance coverage to its employees.

So the question now seems to become whether a corporation, a legal ‘person’, can be ‘religious’.

Well, there actually are ways to know whether an actual (as opposed to a legal) person is religious:

1. To what religion does the person adhere?  When a person is religious, it’s actually an easy question to answer.

2. What church/synagogue/mosque/meeting house does the person attend?  Ditto #1.

3. What are the tenets of the religion to which the person adheres?  Ditto.  Whether they’re sensible to others isn’t actually the question.  But what the tenets actually are is.

4. What are the religious texts applicable to the person’s beliefs?  Ditto.

These are fairly straightforward questions for a genuine person.  But what does a corporation read?  Nothing.  It cannot read for it has no eyes.  What worship house does a corporation attend?  None.  It has no legs and a wheel chair will not help it get there.  Where does a corporation tithe?  (Trust me when I tell you that if this corporation were an evangelical ‘person’, it would be a person required to tithe.)  To what religious authority does the corporation submit for discipline?  A person’s behavior can and does come under the discipline of its religious authority.  But there is no body to discipline, for a corporation is an idea put to paper.  Ideas may be condemned, but they are notoriously difficult to discipline.  To what church/synagogue/ mosque does the corporation belong?  None.  It can’t.

Think this is silly?  Then let’s ask when the corporation was baptized.  To belong to any evangelical Christian church with which I am aware, one must be baptized.  It’s a non-negotiable.  I don’t know about you, but I’m trying to imagine what a corporation’s baptism would look like.

And there immediately arises a very practical differentiation that must need occur: this ‘exception’ that Hobby Lobby seeks, could always and only apply to privately-held corporations.  There are many such entities, but it is impossible (at least under currently existing laws as I understand them) for there to be anything approaching religious unanimity of the stockholders of a publicly-traded entity: in order for that to be so, save the extremely random element of chance, the entity would have to discriminate against those seeking to acquire publicly-traded stock on the basis of their religion.

And it wouldn’t be enough that the stockholders even be all Christian, for example: they would all have to be Christians of the particular view that birth control is wrong/sinful/immoral.

Public activities overseen by the government cannot discriminate against persons on the basis of their religion/religious beliefs.  That’s the very point of the law suit brought by Hobby Lobby.

And here’s the practical problem with even a privately-owned entity: how does one know that the claims of religiosity are universally held by the private shareholders?  Hobby Lobby says that in its trust documents, all trustees must be ‘Christians’.  It does not say that they must all be evangelical Christians who are against certain forms of birth control.  And I’m willing to bet (although I could be wrong) that there are at least a few women among the family that set this business up in the first place who actually have used the IUD (one of the forms of birth control that would be problematic according to their ‘theology’ – assuming women are given any voice in the company).

What the folks filing this law suit are actually trying to say is that some or all of the people who are stockholders (or in this case trustees) of the legal entity we call a ‘corporation’ themselves hold certain religious view which conflict with the obligations of Obamacare when it comes to providing contraceptive care insurance coverage.

I feel their pain.

When it came time to ‘sign up’ as a minister, I wanted to opt out of Social Security because I did not want to provide any monies to my federal government, directly or indirectly, that would be utilized for our war efforts.  Plain and simple, that violates each and every tenet of my faith as I understand it.

But then I read the rules of opting out.  What they said was that I had to be able to state (remember the part of Christianity that says your yes is to be yes and your no, no) that my religion prohibits participation in Social Security.  The fact is that my religion does not prohibit participation in Social Security.  Nowhere close.  So I had to participate.  Or I had to (at least be willing to) go to jail by simply refusing to comply.  I thought about that.  I still do, every tax day.  Thus far, I’ve not been willing to make that sacrifice.  That may make me a coward (trust me when I tell you that I feel that condemnation deep in my soul).  But it also makes it my choice.

I am a person.  Not a theoretical person.  An actual person.  And I am free to choose when, where and how to take my ethical stands.

If a corporation is a person, it too can make such decisions.  It can ‘decide’ to make a moral stand and face the consequences.  That, actually, and contrary to what Hobby Lobby asserts, is a choice.

Jesus never promised us good choices and neither did the United States Constitution.

So, Hobby Lobby, if you are a person and this really does violate your moral conscience, woman up and make the choice and face the consequences.

Religious people have been doing that for a very long time now.  You’ll be in good company.

But it’s a problem for you, isn’t it?  Because you’re not a person; you’re a legal fiction and your particular legal fiction sets your ultimate reason for existing the serving (financially) of your owners/stockholders/ trustees in a way that does nothing to hurt the financial standing of your shareholders (trustees).  It actually has a name, this concept:  fiduciary duty.

It would be immoral for you to violate that duty according to your own construct, your own reason for being.

What a conundrum that must be for you.

The Fly in the Ointment: A Short Reflection on the Fallacy of Citizens United*

Thesis: Human beings, people in common parlance,

are moral beings – don’t take my word for it –

read the philosophers – 

Corporations are by definition amoral**

therefore they cannot be people – 

citizens – 

or good ones, at any rate – 

by definition corporations exist for profit

all other considerations

all other constraints

on human behavior – 

kinship

altruism

sacrifice

even love

must fall by the wayside

for there is no profit in such things

sometimes there’s even loss

Life is not a balance sheet

and corporations are not people

__________

*See Citizens United for the text of the Supreme Court's opinion upholding a First Amendment right of free speech for corporations as citizens.

**A nice way for people in polite society to say immoral, for sooner or later, that not governed in its own view by the mores of a society will violate those mores.