365gay.com reports that the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco has decided to get out of the adoption business rather than submit to state regulations requiring same-sex couples be treated equally. This is unfortunate.
It is too bad that the Catholic establishment feels the way it does about same-sex couples. There are kids needing adopted, and couples willing to raise them. Many children today are raised by only one parent, so having two, of any sex, seems like a blessing.
more . . .
I must admit that it is their right to set any criteria they want for whom they deal with, no matter how much I may disagree with their logic (or faith, as logic may not have been involved). Which brings us to the second part of the tragedy.
The state does not believe in the Archdiocese's freedom of association . . . it is telling them exactly how they must conduct the business of adoptions, and with whom. That "whom" includes same-sex couples. For the church that is a show-stopper.
Instead of two wrongs making a right, we just have a lot of heartbreak and disapointment.
- The church stops helping with adoptions for those 90-plus percent of couples that they are willing and anxious to serve
- Those couples don't get kids
- Those kids don't get placed, and many stay as wards of the state; surely not the best parenting organization around
- And ironically, same-sex couples—those austensibly "protected" by the non-discrimination law—still don't get served
When will everyone learn? Force is seldom the way to accomplish a social objective. That is, unless your objective is specifically to increase the size and scope of government.
Update: The church blinks first, with a creative approach to the problem.
