Although the ongoing healthcare wars between Democrats and Republicans have been raging for some time now, the recent HHS mandate has ignited a more direct and particular conflict. Whereas the former was and is primarily political, the latter seems to be cultural. Regardless of what we call it, this recent battle in the healthcare wars amplifies a longstanding tension between secular/American and religious/Catholic cultures and worldviews.
Leaving aside policy issues and the constant stream of news—none more interesting to me, an alumnus of Franciscan University of Steubenville, than this report about my alma mater’s quixotic decision to discontinue student health insurance altogether—it might be worth considering a more fundamental human condition: the ways in which we live and die in the modern world.
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