Posted on 07/15/2005 11:29:25 AM PDT by nypokerface
JACKSON, Miss. - A Christian adoption agency that receives money from Choose Life license plate fees said it does not place children with Roman Catholic couples because their religion conflicts with the agency's "Statement of Faith."
Bethany Christian Services stated the policy in a letter to a Jackson couple this month, and another Mississippi couple said they were rejected for the same reason last year.
"It has been our understanding that Catholicism does not agree with our Statement of Faith," Bethany director Karen Stewart wrote. "Our practice to not accept applications from Catholics was an effort to be good stewards of an adoptive applicant's time, money and emotional energy."
Sandy and Robert Steadman, who learned of Bethany's decision in a July 8 letter, said their priest told them the faith statement did not conflict with Catholic teaching.
Loria Williams of nearby Ridgeland said she and her husband, Wes, had a similar experience when they started to pursue an adoption in September 2004.
"I can't believe an agency that's nationwide would act like this," Loria Williams said. "There was an agency who was Christian based but wasn't willing to help people across the board."
The agency is based in Grand Rapids, Mich., and has offices in 30 states, including three in Mississippi. Its Web site does not refer to any specific branch of Christianity.
Stewart told the Jackson Clarion-Ledger that the board will review its policy, but she didn't specify which aspects will be addressed.
The Web site says all Bethany staff and adoptive applicants personally agree with the faith statement, which describes belief in the Christian Church and the Scripture.
"As the Savior, Jesus takes away the sins of the world," the statement says in part. "Jesus is the one in whom we are called to put our hope, our only hope for forgiveness of sin and for reconciliation with God and with one another."
Sandy Steadman said she was hurt and disappointed that Bethany received funds from the Choose Life car license plates. "I know of a lot of Catholics who get those tags," she said.
She added: "If it's OK to accept our money, it should be OK to open your home to us as a family."
Bethany is one of 24 adoption and pregnancy counseling centers in Mississippi that receives money from the sale of Choose Life tags, a special plate that motorists can obtain with an extra fee.
Of $244,000 generated by the sale of the tags in 2004, Bethany received $7,053, said Geraldine Gray, treasurer of Choose Life Mississippi, which distributes the money.
"It is troubling to me if they are discriminating based on only the Catholics," Gray said.
Not if they have not accepted Christ as their Savior.
The Catholic Church did not create the Bible
There are a lot of Angry Jews at that statement.
(Judg 5:24 KJV) Blessed above women shall Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite be, blessed shall she be above women in the tent.
I guess that isn't goood enough then, I guess...ABOVE WOMEN, that's sounds pretty blessed to me...
Yes, and you STILL failed to show me anyone actually praying, BOTH of these people were in sight of each other, right?
BOTH of these people saw each other, right?
So, you STIULL failed in your attempt to show me anyone praying to someone other than God.
Prayer in the Bible is calling upon God, not men, yet for some rreason you believe that calling upondead people is prayer.
You still fail in your attempt, no mattter how many paragraphs you use to try to justify your answer.
A lot of Jews would be angered by the statement that the Messiah which Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Elijah, David and Isaiah and other prominent Jews hoped for is the same Jesus Christ we worship.
But you wouldn't care if that made Jews angry, since it is the truth.
Likewise, the Catholic Church considers its present members and the Apostles and the prophets and the patriarchs to all be members of the same Church worshipping the same Lord - which would make all the human authors of Scripture Catholics.
It's actually "above women in the tent" - making her preeminent among nomadic women.
She was indeed blessed, and the Church honors her as a saint.
However, Catholics believe that in the grand scheme of things the mother of the Savior ranks higher than the slayer of Sisera.
Thank you for a thoughtful post. While I certainly agree that the elders in the Book of Revelations are a select group of saints, there remains a jump in your connections.
Here is what the passages you cite do say...
"And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four [and] twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints." Revelation 5:8
"And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer [it] with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne." Revelation 8:3
So what do we find in those passages and more importantly, what do we not find?
> It nowhere says the saints were prayed to.
> Nowhere does it say the elders heard the prayers. >
> Nowhere does it say saints directed their conversation/prayer to the elders (or the 4 beasts, which also have vials of incense).
It is always Biblical to start with what the Bible teaches - rather than start with an idea we like and try to find a verse that seems to support it.
best, ampu
Thanks for your response. In reviewing the scripture passages cited in the thread you referenced, I find none that show the other apostles believed Peter had primacy above the them. It isn't overtly said. I do find Peter being rebuked by the Apostle Paul for hypocrisy (in Galatians) for not holding to the gospel.
Most of what is there is an attempt to collect data to show he was special - more special - like the counting of the number of times his name is used. While this shows he was a central character and person in the scriptures, that kind of thing does not teach what you referred to.
Are there any specific scripture passages you can point me to that overtly teach Peter's primacy among the Apostles? I would appreciate it. I am assuming that if God meant for Peter to be the main Apostle and the leader of the whole church, He would make it overtly clear.
I think you would have a better time arguing Paul was central. He had direct revelation, was caught up into heaven, wrote huge portions of the NT (some of which Peter said are hard for him to understand!), was charged with bringing the gospel to the gentiles (Christ's last charge to the Apostles in Mathew 28), and defended the gospel in Rome - the center of civilization at the time.
best, ampu
Thank you. That's encouraging. :)
Mark
Of course, and while tracing that back to Christ, you find branching off of the CATHOLIC church in all of them.
I too am very Pro Life and thank you as well for your Christian Witness for God's Littlest Ones!
Peace of Christ be with you!
Frank
My point is that we might mistakenly emphasize a human run, error filled entity, over the action and words of the one and only Rock, that is Jesus.
I have no argument with how you stated your case. All Christians agree that Jesus is the Son of God. Would it not be more accurate to say that Mary is the Mother of the Son of God?
No. Since they are Christians who discriminate against Catholic Christians they ought to call themselves the Protestant Adoption Agency, then there would be no confusion.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1443726/posts?page=751#751
Still at it, street lawyer? I thought this argument had come down in favor of Billy Boy's position days ago. The Trinity and all that, Co-Equal and Eternal God, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost, Three Persons but only One Nature (Divine)...
It seems you have God "giving rise" to a Son as in generationally speaking. That again is Arianism.
Frank
"Such is the genuine doctrine of Arius. Using Greek terms, it denies that the Son is of one essence, nature, or substance with God; He is not consubstantial (homoousios) with the Father, and therefore not like Him, or equal in dignity, or co-eternal, or within the real sphere of Deity. The Logos which St. John exalts is an attribute, Reason, belonging to the Divine nature, not a person distinct from another, and therefore is a Son merely in figure of speech. These consequences follow upon the principle which Arius maintains in his letter to Eusebius of Nicomedia, that the Son "is no part of the Ingenerate." Hence the Arian sectaries who reasoned logically were styled Anomoeans: they said that the Son was "unlike" the Father..."
Frank
You are a TRUE Christian and I am truly honored to be called your brother. May the Peace of Our Saviour, Jesus Christ, be upon you and yours.
In friendship,
Frank
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