[Apologetics] Re: Bethany and the Catholic adoption FUD

[Art Kelly]

Stuart,

Thanks for your very good work in this matter.

Do you know if the office in Mississippi responsible
for the anti-Catholic policy has contacted (or will
soon contact) the couples who were affected to
apologize and to go ahead with the adoptions? 

What has Bethany done to let the world know that this
problem has been taken care of? (And I do mean WORLD,
since we first learned of this situation from Dr.
Stephen Korsman in South Africa.)

In regard to the ramifications, I sort of got an
indication of how this could play out. 

One editorial said that Mississippi should not be
putting political slogans ("choose life") on license
plates, but once they did, there should not be any
discrmination in adoptions with state funds.

On a broader scale, on one level I like the concept
behind President Bush's faith based initiative. 

But on another level, what the government funds, it
will control. And once churches and other religious
groups get addicted to federal money, some/many/most
of them will do whatever it takes to keep those big
government checks rolling in.

Anyway, Bethany has some repair work to do on its
public relations. 

Bad feelings between different elements of the
pro-life community are not helpful. As you pointed
out, this can be exploited by the anti-life side.

Art

--- "Stuart D. Gathman" <stuart at bmsi.com> wrote:

> Reading the articles from Art, you will notice that
> all the Catholic 
> couples were rejected by a single branch office.  My
> meeting with 
> Constance Barry, Virginia director of Bethany,
> confirmed my suspicion.  
> The director of one branch in Mississippi is under
> the mistaken impression 
> that the Catholic "religion" is a priori
> incompatible with the (rather 
> minimal and uncontroversial) Bethany statement of
> faith.  
> 
> In response to the media blitz, the Mississippi
> state office held an emergency
> meeting, and changed the wording of their policy
> from "any couple who accepts
> the Bethany statement of faith ... is eligible to
> adopt" to "any couple who
> accepts the Bethany statement of faith, including
> Catholics, ... is eligible to
> adopt".
> 
> According to Constance, in Virginia, about 1 in 4
> Bethany adoptions go to
> Catholic couples.  All the state offices are
> considering whether their
> written policies also need to explicity mention
> Catholics as not being
> excluded a priori.  It *should* be obvious, but ...
> 
> Now, Catholic friends, the media blitz is stage one
> of a demonic attack,
> and Constance Barry covets your prayers.  Once the
> general public associates
> Bethany with "anti-Catholic", the next step is for a
> secularist to file suit
> concerning state funds received for adoptions of
> older children.  Adoptions of
> young children are fully funded by the adoption fee
> and donations.  However,
> there is no adoption fee for older children - and in
> addition to donations,
> part of the money comes from state funds designated
> for adoptions of older
> children.  There will then be a campaign to force
> Bethany to place these
> children with any kind of "couple" according to
> modern "standards", e.g. not
> only other religions, but gay, etc.  (Can I adopt a
> child with my cat?)
> 
> So prayer warriors are needed, both for Bethany to
> have the integrity 
> to turn down state funds if push comes to shove
> (greatly reducing their
> ability to place older children), and for defeating
> that scenario in
> the first place.
> 
> -- 
> 	      Stuart D. Gathman <stuart at bmsi.com>
>     Business Management Systems Inc.  Phone: 703
> 591-0911 Fax: 703 591-6154
> "Confutatis maledictis, flamis acribus addictis" -
> background song for
> a Microsoft sponsored "Where do you want to go from
> here?" commercial.
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Apologetics mailing list
> Apologetics at gathman.org
> http://bmsi.com/mailman/listinfo/apologetics
> 
> <!DSPAM:1053B91606B2643976106923>
> 
> 


ART KELLY, ATM-S
13524 Brightfield Lane 
Herndon, Virginia 20171-3360 
(703) 904-3763 home
(703) 396-6960 work
arthurkelly at yahoo.com
ArtK135 at Netscape.net
art.kelly at cox.net