The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod supports the Catholic legal action against this discriminatory denial of religious liberty.
Matt Harrison
Thursday, Aug 25, 2011
Posted on Tue, Aug. 23, 2011
What about the children?
Illinois’ civil union law was supposed to be about extending rights to same-sex adult couples, not taking them away from thousands of children in need of adoption and foster care. But welcome to the world of unintended consequences.
The state won’t renew its contracts with Catholic Charities in Belleville, Joliet, Peoria and Springfield because they won’t comply with the state’s new civil union law.
Catholic Charities is getting criticized for its stand, but it is not the bad guy here. This is consistent policy. Now if an unmarried couple wants to adopt or be foster parents, gay or straight, they simply are referred to a different agency.
Catholic Charities went to court trying to force the state to renew its contract. But last week, a judge ruled that no one has a right to a state contract.
However, just because the state can legally cancel its contract with Catholic Charities doesn’t mean it should.
Catholic Charities has a decades-long track record of providing high-quality services for the children of Illinois at a reasonable price for taxpayers. These agencies combined handle about 20 percent of adoptions and foster care placements in Illinois; more than 600 children are served by Catholic Charities based in Belleville.
Why won’t the Department of Children and Family Services allow a religious exemption? Some other states with same-sex laws including New York do. Gov. Pat Quinn just signed into a law a bill that could allow Amish people to not have their photograph on state IDs, but Illinois can’t accommodate a Catholic group on the issue of civil unions?
Everyone in state government keeps talking about acting in the best interest of the children. Well, it’s in children’s best interest to keep this proven social services network in place.
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1 comments:
Does our LCMS affiliated agency (is that LCFS?) maintain the same standard? I note on the LCFS website that they have no requirements for adoption with respect to religion or situation; same-sex couples are not mentioned. It would be sad indeed if our Synod supported the position of the Catholic Charities on the one hand while its affiliated agencies do not take a stand.
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