I may have more to say about this later, but I wanted to at least get things started.
As you may know, Massachusetts has a law prohibiting discrimination against gay and lesbian families when placing children for adoption. A few months ago Catholic Charities' board unanimously voted to continue to facilitate adoptions of hard-to-place children in state care, despite the state law. Last week Catholic Charities announced that, pursuant to the decisions of local bishops, it would no longer participate in adoptions in Massachusetts.
First, kudos to Catholic Charities' board -- especially the members (seven, I believe) who resigned in protest -- for intending to make this decision after careful thought and consideration. It's my sincere hope that those former board members -- perhaps with the assistance of others still on the board -- have the desire and ability to found a new agency that continues the good work that Catholic Charities had been doing for all children.
Second, was there really no way to work around this apparent conflict?
I still need to look at the Massachusetts statute itself to see how it's written. But I'm not sure that writing a law that prohibits a major adoption provider from finding homes for hard-to-place children -- with no exceptions -- is such a good thing.
From what I've read so far -- and, frankly, I could be mistaken at this point -- Catholic Charities wasn't working on "ordinary" adoptions. It wasn't doing your run-of-the-mill private placements. Rather, Massachusetts social service agencies would go to Catholic Charities for help with the hard cases. Usually -- though again, I'm making assumptions here -- they involve older children and children with behavioural difficulties or physical/mental disabilities. And I'd certainly doubt that Catholic Charities was the only agency helping the state -- I'm pretty sure that those kids could be placed with gay and lesbian families through other means.
While Infidels' readers may not know this because we focus on religious freedom issues here, I'm a major supporter of LGBT rights. I'm also a major supporter of laws that are thoroughly considered, researched and drafted -- and yes, I'm questioning whether the MA law in question meets my standards. And yes, I'm also peeved with the decision of the bishops in question, but I recognize and understand why they issued the directive they did. If their religion teaches that being raised in a lesbian/gay household is damaging to a child (though I do question whether thoroughly-considered Christianity inexorably leads to that conclusion), then they may have fulfilled their religious duty by doing it.
I'm hoping to follow-up with at least one more entry about this, after I've done a bit more research. But until then, I'm hoping it's something for you to ponder.
Comments