Supreme Court
Supreme Court Rules Catholic Group Doesn't Have To Consider LGBTQ Foster Parents
This isn't a case about the ability of the Catholic church to believe or teach that gay marraige is wrong. The church can do that to its heart's content. This is a case about whether the Catholic church can use government money to discriminate against citizens.
As I've written before, the Catholic church runs many of its charities on government money through government grants and contracts. If the church paid for this charity and didn't take the government's money, yet still discriminated against LGBTQ people, this case would not exist.
Basically, the church wants to have its cake and eat it too. And the (mostly Catholic) Supreme Court has allowed them to do so.
If this doesn't sound disturbing to you, imagine if the Catholic church wanted to discriminate against Jewish people being foster parents, or inter-racial couples being foster parents, or disabled peoplem being foster parents, all while running a government funded program.
When we talk about this case, we should also keep in mind that the majority of Catholics actually support marriage equality. It is Church leaders who perpetuate the failed teaching that there is something wrong with gay people marrying.
As this 2020 Pew survey notes, US Catholics are in favor of marriage equality by about 2/3 (61% approve). That view holds for Europe as well ...
Another point - this illustrates too how little of its own money the Catholic church is willing to invest in charity work. Here's a story in The New York Times from 2011, when the very same subject was in the news ...
Bishops Say Rules on Gay Parents Limit Freedom of Religion
Roman Catholic bishops in Illinois have shuttered most of the Catholic Charities affiliates in the state rather than comply with a new requirement that says they must consider same-sex couples as potential foster-care and adoptive parents if they want to receive state money. The charities have served for more than 40 years as a major link in the state’s social service network for poor and neglected children ....
The bishops are engaged in the religious liberty battle on several fronts. They have asked the Obama administration to lift a new requirement that Catholic and other religiously affiliated hospitals, universities and charity groups cover contraception in their employees’ health plans. A decision has been expected for weeks now.
At the same time, the bishops are protesting the recent denial of a federal contract to provide care for victims of sex trafficking, saying the decision was anti-Catholic. An official with the Department of Health and Human Services recently told a hearing on Capitol Hill that the bishops’ program was rejected because it did not provide the survivors of sex trafficking, some of whom are rape victims, with referrals for abortions or contraceptives ....
Catholic Charities is one of the nation’s most extensive social service networks, serving more than 10 million poor adults and children of many faiths across the country. It is made up of local affiliates that answer to local bishops and dioceses, but much of its revenue comes from the government. Catholic Charities affiliates received a total of nearly $2.9 billion a year from the government in 2010, about 62 percent of its annual revenue of $4.67 billion. Only 3 percent came from churches in the diocese (the rest came from in-kind contributions, investments, program fees and community donations) ....
And the Catholic church benefits from taxpayer money in ways other than charity work ...
U.S. Roman Catholic Church used special exemption from federal rules to gain at least $1.4 billion in taxpayer-backed coronavirus aid, AP analysis shows
The U.S. Roman Catholic Church used a special and unprecedented exemption from federal rules to amass at least $1.4 billion in taxpayer-backed coronavirus aid, with many millions going to dioceses that have paid huge settlements or sought bankruptcy protection because of clergy sexual abuse cover-ups ....
File under reasons why I don't go to church anymore.
This isn't a case about the ability of the Catholic church to believe or teach that gay marraige is wrong. The church can do that to its heart's content. This is a case about whether the Catholic church can use government money to discriminate against citizens.
As I've written before, the Catholic church runs many of its charities on government money through government grants and contracts. If the church paid for this charity and didn't take the government's money, yet still discriminated against LGBTQ people, this case would not exist.
Basically, the church wants to have its cake and eat it too. And the (mostly Catholic) Supreme Court has allowed them to do so.
If this doesn't sound disturbing to you, imagine if the Catholic church wanted to discriminate against Jewish people being foster parents, or inter-racial couples being foster parents, or disabled peoplem being foster parents, all while running a government funded program.
When we talk about this case, we should also keep in mind that the majority of Catholics actually support marriage equality. It is Church leaders who perpetuate the failed teaching that there is something wrong with gay people marrying.
As this 2020 Pew survey notes, US Catholics are in favor of marriage equality by about 2/3 (61% approve). That view holds for Europe as well ...
Bishops Say Rules on Gay Parents Limit Freedom of Religion
Roman Catholic bishops in Illinois have shuttered most of the Catholic Charities affiliates in the state rather than comply with a new requirement that says they must consider same-sex couples as potential foster-care and adoptive parents if they want to receive state money. The charities have served for more than 40 years as a major link in the state’s social service network for poor and neglected children ....
The bishops are engaged in the religious liberty battle on several fronts. They have asked the Obama administration to lift a new requirement that Catholic and other religiously affiliated hospitals, universities and charity groups cover contraception in their employees’ health plans. A decision has been expected for weeks now.
At the same time, the bishops are protesting the recent denial of a federal contract to provide care for victims of sex trafficking, saying the decision was anti-Catholic. An official with the Department of Health and Human Services recently told a hearing on Capitol Hill that the bishops’ program was rejected because it did not provide the survivors of sex trafficking, some of whom are rape victims, with referrals for abortions or contraceptives ....
Catholic Charities is one of the nation’s most extensive social service networks, serving more than 10 million poor adults and children of many faiths across the country. It is made up of local affiliates that answer to local bishops and dioceses, but much of its revenue comes from the government. Catholic Charities affiliates received a total of nearly $2.9 billion a year from the government in 2010, about 62 percent of its annual revenue of $4.67 billion. Only 3 percent came from churches in the diocese (the rest came from in-kind contributions, investments, program fees and community donations) ....
And the Catholic church benefits from taxpayer money in ways other than charity work ...
U.S. Roman Catholic Church used special exemption from federal rules to gain at least $1.4 billion in taxpayer-backed coronavirus aid, AP analysis shows
The U.S. Roman Catholic Church used a special and unprecedented exemption from federal rules to amass at least $1.4 billion in taxpayer-backed coronavirus aid, with many millions going to dioceses that have paid huge settlements or sought bankruptcy protection because of clergy sexual abuse cover-ups ....
File under reasons why I don't go to church anymore.
posted by crystal | 4:08 PM
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