And Jesus said, “Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not…unless teh gayz try to adopt, in which case thou shalt displace the children and fire thine adoption and foster care workers.” Or something like that.
Today (actually, not today – I was a little late reading this) in loving Christianity, Catholic Charities in Rockford, Illinois, has announced it is terminating its adoption and foster care services. Why? Because of the new civil unions law set to take effect within days, which may result in cohabitating straight couples, and even gay couples, wanting to adopt children. Horror of horrors – not. Regardless, Catholic Charities is not pleased about the idea of couples in civil unions being able to demand service from the organization. So it’s taking its marbles and going home, displacing approximately 350 children, not to mention 58 employees.
Lovely.
It’s unclear whether the other Catholic Charities branches in Illinois will follow suit, but Rockford was likely only the first domino. Catholic Charities, it should be noted, has over 3,000 children in its care and represents about 20% of such services in the state of Illinois. And it might all come to an end, just to keep the children out of the hands of the gays and the unmarried straight couples. I find it difficult to imagine the Jesus of the New Testament being down with this.
The only way the Rockford Catholic Charities will reverse its decision is if the legislature passes an amendment (which has already failed to advance on multiple occasions) to the civil unions bill allowing them to freely and openly discriminate against couples in civil unions. In other words, using 350 children and 58 employees, they are trying to blackmail the Illinois legislature into granting them the right to discriminate – with taxpayer dollars. Catholic Charities, after all, receives $30 million a year from the state of Illinois. That’s how “freedom of religion” works, right? As Celeste Matheson of Catholic Charities puts it, “The amendment bill that we’re looking for, that would allow us to partner with the state, it would really help us preserve those rights [to discriminate].”
But, as Anthony Martinez of The Civil Rights Agenda points out, it doesn’t exactly work that way. Catholic Charities cannot and will not have it both ways.
If an organization receives state funding, they must serve all residents of that state equally. I don’t want my tax dollars to fund discrimination in any form, and that is exactly what the Catholic Charities are asking for: the right to discriminate.
And so here we are. 350 children are about to be displaced, and 58 employees in already-hard-hit Rockford are about to lose their jobs. And we may see more stories like this coming out of Illinois in the very near future, as this is not exactly an isolated incident with Catholic Charities. All because children might fall into the hands of a gay or unmarried straight couple. After all, they’re better off with no parents than gay or unmarried straight ones, right?
It’s time for the Catholic Church to catch up with the times – and with its members, which don’t exactly have a problem with gay people. And maybe look into fixing their translation of the New Testament. I think it’s a bit off.