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.
again, you're ignorance is abundant. i'll repeat my message to you. find me any instance on this board where i have said that Catholics are not Christians.
as i know you will not find that, take a hike and you are now hereby ignored.
Post 2, of course.
You said that it was a Christioan adoption agency not a Catholic, Jewish, Mslim, Hindu one.
In other words, a Christian adoption agency definitionally excludes catholics, and you list Catholics along with Jews, Muslims, and Hindus - all of which are explicitly non-Christian religions.
You can't weasel out of it now.
This thread has gone off on so many different tangents that the original point has been lost, hasn't it? I wonder what would happen to all of the folks who receive assistance through Catholic charities if the Catholic church began insisting on adherence to a "statement of faith." When I volunteered at Refugee Services, funded by the Catholic church, I only helped Moslems.
Uh-oh. According to some at FR that should qualify you for the death penalty.
Nor I. This was a young catholic housewife up by the Chicago area who was telling my sister and me (non-catholics - I later converted) that they didn't want her in their prayer group because she was catholic. I have no reason to believe she was not telling the truth.
It made me feel very sad to hear her tell that; we were on our way to bury my aunt in a distant town and plenty of time to gab in the car.
I do know there is still some bigotry on both sides (and other sides) which I can't deal with any more and don't want anything to do with any of it. The thoughts of many hearts are revealed on the internet.
My birth religion has fallen into disfavor (Methodism), but one very positive thing is that as I child I was never taught that anyone was going to hell because of their religion, and I was never taught to hate anyone for their religion or race, either at home or at church. Some of my little playmates of other denominations were not being taught the same I now know. Now I find out on the internet that if you don't believe just right, many people think you are going to hell. It's enough to turn you off of religion altogether, especially after what has happened with Islam.
No offense to you.
I had some very specific people in mind when I said that.
The Cathars sometimes made that claim - yet at the same time they rejected certain portions of the New Testament as non-Apostolic.
The Cathars also believed that the God described in the Old Testament was a demon and that the Old Testament is not Scripture.
These views are irreconciliable with Christianity in any form, let alone classic Protestantism.
That is unutterably vile.
Which denomination was this - or was it SCN (so-called-nondenominational)?
You're wrong about that. We don't just go on and not worry anymore. Working out your salvation, in my opinion, is that God is continually working things out of you that stand in the way of your relationship with Him. If you have a certain problem or attitude, He brings it to your mind and heart and He expects you to work on it with Him at the helm. He knows we need HIS help to improve our attitudes, etc. We can't do it alone and the Holy Spirit was given to us to assist us, comfort us, guide us. He loves us as we are but loves us too much to let us stay that way.
I'm sure the Orthodox Church would be surprised to know they were founded by Martin Luther.
Didn't what he called him mean 'pebble?' I was taught that a long while ago.
I didn't really see it as a choice. Nobody else was willing to work with Muslims. It was, without question, the most interesting volunteering stint I've ever had.
I sure wouldn't want that pastor in my church. Argghhh. No wonder Christianity gets a bad name. We put anyone on our prayer chains. If they need prayer for salvation, we do that, too. But no one is ever left off. How stupid.
there's a lot of anti-Catholic bias out there mostly from fallen-away Catholics who have an ax to grind with the Church.
Yea keep telling yourself than anyone who left because they found more sound doctrine and less practiced religion elsewhere did it because of some ax to grind.
And you didn't grow up in the 1800's
Did you?
where there was a lot of anti-catholic, anti-Irish bias out there
No kidding you think? Hell I can list crimes against the Irish in American and in Irelead (by the english) with the best of them, but whats the point its like slave reparations... My personal favorite was the killing of the town minstrels by the English because they were the ones carrying on the Irish language and culture..
Ditto, my friend! He'll show us how to keep the lamp of Christian civilization lit in this new secular Dark Age which threatens us today just as it threatened the world of St. Benedict of Nursia.
Yesterday I stumbled upon this great article. Take a look.
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