Homosexual Adoption and Catholic Charities

From Illinois Family Institute:

Higgins Responds to Anti-Christian Op/Ed in the Daily Herald
Friday, August 26, 2011
By David E. Smith, IFI Executive Director - Illinois Family Institute


Responding to a letter-to-the-editor I sent in earlier this month in which I accuse the state of Illinois of being guilty of religious discrimination in shutting down Catholic Charities' vital and laudable foster care and adoption work, the editors of The Daily Herald opined:
When we wrote in this space that it was time for Illinois to have civil unions, we quoted Gov. Pat Quinn, who said we "need to encourage tolerance in this state." And that's just what the legislature did when it passed the law allowing for civil unions and what Quinn did when he signed it. However, with that law (effective on June 1) came another issue. Again, we side with Quinn.

Catholic Charities in five Illinois dioceses, including those covering DuPage, Kane and McHenry counties in the Daily Herald circulation area, are suing the state so the agencies would not have to accept civil union and unmarried couples as foster parents. At issue is the state money used by Catholic Charities to run their programs for about 2,000 children. Illinois now requires that foster and adoptive care agencies treat same-sex couples in civil unions the same as married couples if they want to use state dollars.

"If an organization ... decides they don't want to voluntarily participate with the state, they have that choice and we honor that choice," Quinn said last month, as quoted by the Capitol Fax Blog. "We have other entities that are involved in foster care that are willing to assume that duty."

And therein lies the crux of the debate: Faith-based agencies like Catholic Charities are not forced to accept state money and therefore are not forced to change long-held beliefs. This is not a freedom of religion issue.

We believe, however, that there are many same-sex couples who would make excellent foster or adoptive parents if given the chance. Loving families and good parenting skills are not limited to straight couples or single people.

And yet that is exactly what opponents of the civil union law believe and espouse. David E. Smith, executive director of the Illinois Family Institute in Carol Stream, said as much in a letter to the editor on this page on Monday.

" ... In upholding traditional religious teachings, and in the best interests of children, (Catholic Charities) will not place foster children in nonmarried or homosexual homes," Smith wrote. A person's sexual orientation on its own should not be a disqualifier. That's a form of discrimination the state won't and shouldn't accept.

We hope the Illinois judicial system affirms the state's point in this matter. All they need to do is look to Rockford to see that there are alternatives. About 300 foster-care cases once handled by the Rockford Diocese were transferred to the Youth Services Bureau of Illinois Valley when the diocese shut its program down. In 2007, when the Chicago Archdiocese halted its foster-care services because of insurance issues, the state also was able to transfer cases to other agencies.

"We will explore every option to prevent disruption to these children," said Ken Marlowe, spokesman for the Department of Children and Family Services. "Discrimination has no place in child welfare."
IFI's Laurie Higgins submitted a response to their editorial, which the Daily Herald declined to publish.


Here is Laurie's fantastic response:
The Daily Herald reveals a profound lack of understanding when it argues that homosexual couples should be allowed to adopt children because in the Daily Herald's view "Loving families and good parenting skills are not limited to straight couples or single people."

If those are the only criteria necessary for parental fitness, then the Daily Herald must support adoption by polyamorists or incestuous couples, for surely there are polyamorists and brother-sister couples who are capable of "loving and parenting" children.

Historically, however, criteria for adoptive fitness have included not merely the capacity of those adopting to love and parent children. Criteria for adoptive fitness included an evaluation of the moral nature of the relationship between adopting parents. Types of relationships considered inherently morally flawed would be excluded from adoptive consideration.

Of course, in a wiser, less relativistic culture, this criterion did not need to be explicitly articulated. It would go without saying that society would not place children in environments defined by inherently morally flawed relationships -- like polygamous, incestuous, or homosexual relationships -- regardless of the ability of the partners to love, parent, and provide for children.

Despite specious arguments to the contrary, subjective homosexual attraction and volitional homosexual acts do not constitute a condition analogous to race, and disapproval of homosexuality is not analogous to racism. Making judgments about the morality of homosexuality is no more unethically discriminatory than is making judgments about the morality of polyamory or adult consensual incest. Once society jettisons an evaluation of the inherent morality of the relationships between (or among) adopting parents, there is no rational reason to prohibit polyamorists or incestuous couples from adopting.

Religious -- and non-religious -- adoption agencies do have the right and should have the freedom to make distinctions about what types of relationships constitute moral relationships. The government is overstepping its bounds when it attempts to impose the subjective moral assumptions of homosexual activists and their ideological allies on all child welfare organizations.

THE RECESSION IS HITTING REALLY HARD!

THE RECESSION IS HITTING REALLY HARD!

The recession has hit everybody really hard...

My neighbour got a pre-declined credit card in the mail.

CEO's are now playing miniature golf.

Exxon-Mobil laid off 25 Congressmen.

A stripper was killed when her audience showered her with rolls of pennies while she danced.

I saw a Mormon with only one wife.

If the bank returns your check marked "Insufficient Funds," you call them and ask if they meant you or them.

McDonald's is selling the 1/4 ouncer.

Angelina Jolie adopted a child from America.

Parents in Beverly Hills fired their nannies and learned their children's names.

My cousin had an exorcism but couldn't afford to pay for it, and they re-possessed her!

A truckload of Americans was caught sneaking into Mexico.

A picture is now only worth 200 words.

When Bill and Hillary travel together, they now have to share a room.

The Treasure Island casino in Las Vegas is now managed by Somali pirates.

And, finally....

I was so depressed last night thinking about the economy, wars, jobs, my savings, Social Security,
retirement funds, etc., I called the Suicide Hotline. I got a call centre in Pakistan, and when
I told them I was suicidal, they got all excited, and asked if I could drive a truck.

Don't Fear the Translation - Roman Missal

H/T The Anchoress

Crappy People

Crappy People

I often consider what I can do to make myself a better man, a better Catholic, a better citizen; but once again I’ve been reminded that there are a lot of crappy people out there. After doing some Saturday morning shopping I decided to treat myself to a Chinese buffet lunch. I couldn’t help but observe a “gentleman” come in after me. He loaded a plate with one of the selections, and I mean loaded, he could not have put another spoonful of food on the plate without it rolling off. He proceeded to take a few bites and then left his table and filled another plate with a different selection. This second plate was loaded as much is the first. After eating a little more he pushed the first plate aside. An attendant came and took the first plate away and obviously it was destined for the trash. He then proceeded to fill up third plate with a third selection, again loaded. I would have given him the benefit of the doubt considering perhaps he might not have liked it, but why take so much in the first place if you weren’t familiar with that food? I think rather he was of their to simply waste food.

What a waste. It bothers me if I don’t finish a loaf of bread, or a bottle of milk in time, and I find that I need to throw it away. Yet this person had no qualms about wasting all this food. If I was younger, I would have approached him and admonished him, but in this world who knows how he would’ve reacted; people are shot for less.

Some of My Favorite Quotes

I am only one,
but still I am one.
I cannot do everything,
but still I can do something;
and because I cannot do everything
I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.

Edward Everett Hale


A true professional is excited about his work, promotes his field, seeks responsibility, maintains integrity, strives for competence and displays initiative, creativity and mature judgment.

Unknown


"Seek first to understand" involves a very deep shift in paradigm. We typically seek first to be understood. Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply. They're either speaking or preparing to speak. They're filtering everything through their own paradigms, reading their autobiography into other people's lives. If they have a problem with someone — a son, a daughter, a spouse, and an himemployee — their attitude is, "That person just doesn't understand."

from "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People"


“Nothing is so strong as gentleness, nothing so gentle as real strength”

St. Francis de Sales quotes (French Roman Catholic bishop of Geneva, active in the struggle against Calvinism, 1567-1622)