Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
Faith On The Line: Catholic Businessman Battles HHS Mandate
Faith On The Line: Catholic Businessman Battles HHS Mandate
Apr 4, 2025 7:22 AM

In today’s National Catholic Register, reporter Joan Frawley Desmond talks to John Kennedy, a Grand Rapids-based business owner of Autocam, pany that makes both precision auto parts and medical supplies. Kennedy (who is a board member of the Acton Institute) speaks candidly about his faith, pany’s future and the HHS mandate battle.

The Obama administration has sought to dismiss the merits of HHS lawsuits filed by business owners like Kennedy, arguing that free exercise and statutory religious-freedom protections only apply to individuals, not “corporations.”

While Kennedy and other HHS for-profit plaintiffs have gone to court to obtain a reprieve, Planned Parenthood has framedtheir legal fight as an effort to stop a threat to women’s reproductive rights. “The bosses want to deny your birth-control coverage,” announced one story on the Planned Parenthood’s website that has sparked editorials mentary echoing its claim.

But Kennedy contends that his faith is integral to Autocam’s corporate culture and that the country actually needs more business leaders inspired by strong ethical and moral values and guided by Catholic social teaching that affirms the fundamental dignity and rights of every worker.

“I went into this with some trepidation, knowing how it was going to be painted,” he acknowledged.

“But I am more convinced now that we have absolutely done the right thing by standing up for religious freedom.”

So far, Autocam has not fared well with court decisions. However, the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the case of Hobby Lobby, which could have implications for Autocam.

It is our expectation that if Hobby Lobby prevails, we will too,” said Tom Brejcha, the president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Society, a Chicago-based public interest group that joined with Catholic Vote Legal Defense Fund and a Michigan law firm to petition the Supreme Court to review and reverse the 6th Circuit’s decision.Brejcha also told the Register that the Kennedys plying under protest” with the mandate. To do otherwise would trigger massive financial penalties.

Kennedy also discusses his philosophy of integrity in business, and how Autocam treats their workers.

Kennedy says that Autocam’s generous wages — “high-school kids are paid $9 an hour” — and good benefits have allowed him to retain many longtime employees.

He is proud that Autocam has won recognition for its health plan, which offers incentives to help employees give up smoking or lose weight. The program has kept health-related costs “flat for the past seven years.”

“What we said is, ‘Look, we will provide the opportunity for everyone to get health benefits for free.’ Now, 91% of employees pay no premium and are taking advantage of the health-care credits,” he said.

That means Autocam’s “average employee spends $1,700 for health care, and we provide $1,500 of that.”

Kennedy notes that, as a nation, we want ethically-run businesses, yet he is paying a price for trying to do just that. “There is all this talk about the need for businesses to be more ethical, yet the government believes I should park my religious and ethical values at the door of my business.”

In a video created last year, Kennedy talks about the ramifications of the HHS mandate for his business, his employees and for the Grand Rapids area.

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Wichita Business Journal: The Call of the Entrepreneur
Pat Sangimino wrote an article for the Wichita Business Journal titled, “Documentary seeks to dispel negative images of entrepreneurs ” (subscription required). A premiere of The Call of the Entrepreneur took place in Wichita, Kan., on November 14th. Sangimino noted in his piece: Some consider Wichita to be the Midwest’s cradle of entrepreneurship. Evidence of that is the original Pizza Hut building, which was moved to the Wichita State University campus in 1984 to serve as a reminder of what...
Reports on Globalization and National Capital
Last month the World Bank published a report titled, “Where is the Wealth of Nations?” (HT: From the Heartland). The report describes estimates of wealth and ponents for nearly 120 countries. The book has four sections. The first part introduces the wealth estimates and highlights the level position of wealth across countries. The second part analyzes changes in wealth and their implications for economic policy. The third part deepens the analysis by considering the importance of human and institutional capital,...
Prosperity, Sexual Sin, and Forgiveness
A recent survey by the Pew Global Attitudes Project finds that “religion is less likely to be central to the lives of individuals in richer nations than poorer ones” (HT). Given the Bible’s many warnings about the danger presented by wealth, specifically the temptation to no longer rely on God and his providential care, that probably isn’t surprising. But what might be more surprising is that “the United States, the wealthiest nation, was ‘most notably’ an exception, scoring higher in...
Giuliani and the Godbloggers
After the jump is the (hyperlinked) text of a column I filed last week from GodblogCon. Here are some related items worth exploring: “Evangelicals and Evil Empires: Religious voters have long had an interest in foreign policy,” OpinionJournal (HT: CT Liveblog).“Rudy’s Gamble: Giuliani’s audacious strategy for the nomination,” OpinionJournal.“Evangelical flocks on their own at the polls,” LA Times (HT: J-Walking).“On second thought, conservatives give Huckabee an amen,” LA Times.“Clarifying Media Distortions,” Focus on the Family.“Robertson for Rudy,” God’s Politics.“The Robertson...
Rock N Roll ‘Jesus’
Last night the American Music Awards were televised on ABC. Among the big winners were alumni of the hit TV show, “American Idol,” whose stars won 3 AMAs. Kid Rock, the Rock N Roll “Jesus.” But there was another kind of “idol” on display at the AMAs, as Detroit’s own Kid Rock was a presenter and did a spoof of his fight with rocker Tommy Lee in edy bit with host Jimmy Kimmel. Kid Rock released a new album last...
George Hearst of Deadwood: ‘The-boy-the-earth-talks-to’
In a bit of an addendum to my review of the HBO series Deadwood in the current issue of Religion & Liberty, “A Law Beyond Law: Life Together in Deadwood,” I couldn’t help thinking of this bit from Clement of Alexandria when describing George Hearst, the über-robber baron of the Old West. In that piece I write, “Hearst fancies that he is doing his fellow man a service in his devotion to mining gold, to acquiring ‘the color.'” There’s a...
Black America Is Just As Class Divided As The Rest Of America
The Pew Research Center released a new report stating: “African Americans see a widening gulf between the values of middle class and poor blacks, and nearly four-in-ten say that because of the diversity within munity, blacks can no longer be thought of as a single race.” Here are the key findings: • Asked whether blacks can still be thought of as a single race, given the increasing diversity within the munity, 53% of blacks say they can, but 37% of...
God Hears the Compassionate
“If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard.” Proverbs 21:13 I remember being very young and hearing a minister dramatically describe the flames and fires of hell in a sermon. I know I was somewhere between the age of six and seven. At this time, I also had little knowledge of salvation in Christ, so I worried about my eternal destination. Couple this thought with a...
Alarmism and Corruption
Regis Nicoll over at The Point notes a WaPo story that is getting a lot of play on the blogosphere about the UN’s downgrade of the estimate of the extent of the AIDS epidemic, “U.N. to Cut Estimate Of AIDS Epidemic: Population With Virus Overstated by Millions.” Nicoll writes that while of course it is good news that fewer people are infected than were previously thought, “The bad news is that previous estimates were inflated because of politics, bad science,...
A Child’s Faith
“People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, ‘Let the little e to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.’ And he took the children in his arms, put...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved