It’s been awhile since I posted anything, so I thought I would throw out a couple of quick thoughts.
Catholic Charities
This week, Catholic Charities, the social arm of the Boston Archdiocese, announced that it would no longer provide adoption programs because of state law requiring them not to exclude same-sex couples from their services. Many in Massachusetts were shocked by the announcement, but few people realize what the real issue is. Money, and more specifically state funding, is the crux of the problem for Catholic Charities. Catholic Charities receives state funding and by accepting such money, agrees to comply with the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Now, Catholic Charities has decided it cannot comply with anti-discrimination laws with respect to its adoption programs.
State and/or Federal funding of religious organizations seemingly violates the notion of Separation of Church and State. Separation of Church and State is supposed to be a two way street – it protects the individual from state sponsored religion and it protects religious organizations from government influence. In this case, the Boston Archdiocese took the money so in its view it was forced to either comply with state law and subsequently violate a moral tenet of the Catholic faith, or to discontinue the child adoption program. It chose to discontinue the program, however that seems like a drastic move and possibly politically motivated.
By making such a surprise announcement, it’s possible that the Boston Archdiocese believed that Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney would come to its aid and assist it with state anti-discrimination laws, and it seems to have worked. Romney plans on filing a bill that would allow Catholic Charities and other religious organizations to exclude same-sex couples from child adoption services if it violates religious tenets. By filing such a bill, Romney is providing state sponsorship of discrimination against gays and lesbians. It’s a potentially slippery slope for the state on this issue. What other groups could be discriminated against in the future because serving them violates religious tenets?
If Catholic Charities doesn’t want to serve same-sex couples for their adoption services, the answer is simple. Don’t take the money! Then Catholic Charities can discriminate to its hearts content. Of course, that won’t happen and since the state has already made the critical mistake of providing funding to a religious organization, state sponsored discrimination is another step in the downfall of Separation of Church and State.
Students and Taping
On his radio show yesterday, Fox News’ Sean Hannity told Colorado high school student, Sean Allen, that he was proud of him for taping teacher Jay Bennish’s comments regarding President Bush’s State of the Union Address, and then turning the tape over to a local conservative radio host. Should we really be proud of this kid? This is the type of activity that Stalin encouraged among the youth of the Soviet Union. Totalitarian regimes bar dissent, not democracies. Perhaps Sean Hannity has forgotten that dissent is not against the law, and in fact it is an American tradition.
What’s been lost in this trumped up story is what Bennish actually said in its full context. He told his students that he didn’t expect them all to agree with his viewpoint, but he was trying to promote critical thinking. Perhaps that’s what Hannity really wants to discourage – teaching kids how to think critically as opposed to being spoon fed ideas from the neo-cons and Fox News. Notice how Bennish’s statement doesn’t discourage anyone from saying what they believe.
