Catholic Church gives DC an ultimatum
Posted on November 16, 2009
This is what happens when you let the government start messing around with private industry — and if they’re allowed to start messing around with religion. This country was founded on the basis of religious freedom, that anyone could come here and practice their faith freely and without fear of repercussions. The Roman Catholic Church has been a staunch defender of the pro-life movement and of traditional marriage. In the America that our founders built, the government would not be able to put the church into such a tough position. Forcing a church, after all, to either betray some of its most precious, sacred beliefs or cut off approximately 68,000 people from the social services offered by Catholic Charities is despicable. But it’s the situation the Catholic Church is in now — and liberals, of course, are blaming the Catholic Church.
The Catholic Archdiocese of Washington said Wednesday that it will be unable to continue the social service programs it runs for the District if the city doesn’t change a proposed same-sex marriage law, a threat that could affect tens of thousands of people the church helps with adoption, homelessness and health care.
Under the bill, headed for a D.C. Council vote next month, religious organizations would not be required to perform or make space available for same-sex weddings. But they would have to obey city laws prohibiting discrimination against gay men and lesbians.
Fearful that they could be forced, among other things, to extend employee benefits to same-sex married couples, church officials said they would have no choice but to abandon their contracts with the city.
“If the city requires this, we can’t do it,” Susan Gibbs, spokeswoman for the archdiocese, said Wednesday. “The city is saying in order to provide social services, you need to be secular. For us, that’s really a problem.”
Several D.C. Council members said the Catholic Church is trying to erode the city’s long-standing laws protecting gay men and lesbians from discrimination.
The clash escalates the dispute over the same-sex marriage proposal between the council and the archdiocese, which has generally stayed out of city politics.
Catholic Charities, the church’s social services arm, is one of dozens of nonprofit organizations that partner with the District. It serves 68,000 people in the city, including the one-third of Washington’s homeless people who go to city-owned shelters managed by the church. City leaders said the church is not the dominant provider of any particular social service, but the church pointed out that it supplements funding for city programs with $10 million from its own coffers.
“All of those services will be adversely impacted if the exemption language remains so narrow,” Jane G. Belford, chancellor of the Washington Archdiocese, wrote to the council this week.
The church’s influence seems limited. In separate interviews Wednesday, council member Mary M. Cheh (D-Ward 3) referred to the church as “somewhat childish.” Another council member, David A. Catania (I-At Large), said he would rather end the city’s relationship with the church than give in to its demands.
“They don’t represent, in my mind, an indispensable component of our social services infrastructure,” said Catania, the sponsor of the same-sex marriage bill and the chairman of the Health Committee.
The standoff appears to be among the harshest between a government and a faith-based group over the rights of same-sex couples. Advocates for same-sex couples said they could not immediately think of other places where a same-sex marriage law had set off a break with a major faith-based provider of social services.
The council is expected to pass the same-sex marriage bill next month, but the measure continues to face strong opposition from a number of groups that are pushing for a referendum on the issue.
The archdiocese’s statement follows a vote Tuesday by the council’s Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary to reject an amendment that would have allowed individuals, based on their religious beliefs, to decline to provide services for same-sex weddings.
How pathetic. D.C.’s stance is basically that the Catholic Church should abandon its principles if it wants to keep working with the city, because this is going to pass whether they like it or not, and they have to make this awful choice — but they, of course, are the bad guys. This is, of course, the liberal meme, because anyone who is against gay marriage is prejudiced and backward and wrong and might as well be the KKK. Check out this explanation from Feministing:
The closing of a major homeless shelter and budget cuts have worsened the situation in a city already struggling to serve its poor and homeless residents. As someone who organizes for access to abortion I have obvious problems with gaps in the services provided by Catholic Charities. But that does not discount the vital work they do for the 68,000 D.C. residents who rely on Catholic Charities for shelters, health care, and food programs.
The Archdiosese is making a clear statement: it considers keeping rights from same sex couples more important than the needs of this city’s most vulnerable. Their willingness to use the lives and health of 68,000 people in need as pawns in their fight for the right to discriminate is unconscionable. D.C. needs more social services, not less. I hope the Archdiosese can put aside the politics of hate for a moment to recognize what I would think they would consider a moral obligation to do vital life saving work.
With all due respect, this isn’t a choice the church can fairly make. They didn’t ask for this bill, and their input was completely ignored when it came to amendments in the bill. The passage of this bill puts Catholic Charities in the worst kind of situation. For the Catholic Church, this isn’t a political situation, which is what liberals want to make it into. For the Catholic Church, this is a religious issue, it’s a moral one. The church cannot just abandon its principles, and that’s what liberals are forcing the church to do. And if the church caves on this, it won’t stop here. Liberals will start putting the pressure on about abortion, and performing gay marriages, and who knows what else. Where will it stop? It’s disgusting that liberals are putting the blame on the church here, when they are the ones being forced between a rock and a hard place. The church is not the one using homeless people as pawns; the city is. And it is wrong for the government to be legislating religious beliefs, which is basically what has happened here. This is, at its core, a subtle attack on our rights to religious freedom. And apparently, there is no one who is going to stand up for religion in this case.
If this is the change you voted for, then I hope you’re happy.
Cross-posted from Cassy’s blog. Stop by for more original commentary, or follow her on Twitter!
» Filed Under 1st Amendment, Bigotry, Christianity, Church And State, Communism, Constitution, Government corruption, Government tyranny, Healthcare, Homosexual Agenda, Homosexual Fascism, Hypocrisy/Situational Ethics, Moral Relativism, Nanny State, News, Political Correctness, Political terrorism, Property Rights, Secular Humanism, Social Engineering, Socialism, U.S. Constitution, Unconstitutional, Unhinged, liberalism, religion
Trackback URL
Comments
3 Responses to “Catholic Church gives DC an ultimatum”
Leave a Reply
Those who value character will be tried with each passing day as evil attempts to destroy everything which is good in America. We have some very evil people in key positions at every level of government.
WOW!! First of all, you group all of the “liberals” as the force behind all legislation and evil. Secondly, you seem to have gone beyond your role as a human and taken on the role of God; you believe that you are worthy of judging persons— a role that only God is blessed or cursed with. After all, it was Jesus that wound up crucified on a cross for his beliefs and way of life. Just for a moment, step off your “soap box” and consider that all persons have their faults and strenghts. Are you really the person worthy of judging other persons? If you are, I assume that I shall start praying to you as “GOd.” Lay off hatred towards others and work to make your life the best it can be. Just a peice of friendly and spiritually motivated advice. May God be with you.
Fortunately, the Church is in a position where it doesn’t have to cave like GM. As usual, one should follow the money to see where the desperate, stressed (and undertalented) DC district political machine comes from. The local pols have benefited from Church largesse while mumbling about abortion and gay marriage. When the rubber hits the road, it’s usually about money, and DC, a pathetic example to the world of a capital city if ever there was one, is no different when it comes to the dosh. This argument has nothing to do with Church morals or gay marriage or abortion. It has to do with DC pols pondering the potential reality of picking up the social services the Church has nobly (and quietly) handled for decades.