Ekklesia reported yesterday that five of the eleven British Catholic adoption agencies that were given 21 months to adjust to the 2007 Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations have now come into compliance. The 21-months expired January 1. The complying agencies can no longer refuse to place children for adoption with gay and lesbian couples. One of the eleven Catholic agencies will close, two are seeking exemptions and authorities hope that the other three will come into compliance. (See prior related posting.)
Monday, January 05, 2009
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This is definitely a violation of church and state separation in England.
The Church ought not cave on their view that children do best with a mother and a father. All the studies show this to be the case as regards social indicators of well-being of children. Gay parenting is relatively new and not as studied --but as such is experimental. The hetero couples, therefore, should be given preference if they are available.
England does not have a separation of church and state.
Mmmm, are you making a statement on UK law, Barb? I'm certainly not qualified to do so, and I'd be surprised if you were. Remember that they're not bound by the first amendment.
The church does have the option not to cave; they can close up shop. I would think that continuing to operate under the new restrictions would be a more positive option, though.
Not long ago, might you have been saying that US legislators ought not to cave on their view that homosexuals ought to be jailed? Oh, I forgot -- they never did cave on that view, it was just declared unenforceable by the courts.
I have not said to jail homosexuals for their private behaviors.
I'm qualified enough to observe correctly that this is a violation of church and state separation--regardless of what their law is on the subject. Historically, the Church of England and the gov't were intertwined. This is a Catholic church and England is obviously imposing their law of homosexual equality on the churches.
This is a wrongful interference with the Bible-based beliefs of many churches.
How about England just kick the dissenting churches out of their country? They can do that, you know. There is no "right" for any church to exist outside the laws of the country which acts as its host.
It is not England which must refrain from interfering with the churches -- it is the churches who must refrain from interfering with English law.
I am not certain that it is legitimate to discuss church/state separation in the constitution of the UK in the same way that we would for the US constitution. But it is not exactly true that the UK is "imposing their law of homosexual equality on the churches." Interestingly, the law itself states that "an exemption for religious organisations will be included in the Regulations." However, the law also makes clear that "The exemption will not be available for organisations... providing a service on behalf of and under contract with a public authority."
The churches are not having this law imposed upon them, only the public services that the churches provide.
This sounds to me a lot like our own situation regarding the funding of public services via faith-based groups. This will be, both here, and there, a difficult and always imperfect balancing act. It tries to allow purely religious communities and practices to continue unaffected by public policy, while still proscribing the use of religion as a basis for discrimination in the provision of public services.
This compromise, however, is not free. At least one faith-based adoption service has closed and a few others might. Still, I think that the inclusion of additional qualified adoptive couples may offset this.
As to "studies" showing that a mother and a father do best, the studies show no such thing. Current available studies, some of which I have looked over, demonstrate that other things being equal (education or financial status of the parent(s))
two parent families fare, on average, a little better than one parent families by certain measures. I am aware of no studies that have properly controlled for the differences between one parent families and two same-sex parent families. Nor am I aware of any studies that have properly, and for sufficient duration, controlled for the differences between two parent hetero families and two parent gay families.
I do not know what such studies will show once they are available. If anyone knows of studies that have actually addressed those issues I would be glad to see a direct reference to them. I will actually read them. Until truly valid studies of that issue are available anyone who claims either that hetero families are best or that gay families are just as good or best, is allowing their bias to steer their conclusions, not the evidence.
As to gay parenting being new and as such "experimental," that is simply not so. Gay households, including children, have existed for centuries. They have simply had to hide it because of the viscious bigotry against them. And in the US, gay families have been raising children now for 2 to 3 decades at least. These children were either from adoption, or from previous marriages. To state that this is new and experimental is simply false. It is, however, as far as I know, true to say that the situation is not thoroughly studied.
Jim51
Actually I am going to have to take back a part of what I said in my previous post when I stated "I am aware of no studies..."
Because it has been a while since I looked into this specifically, I did a little searching. It seems that some studies are now emerging that focus on the specific issues regarding two parent gay households. Anyone wishing to know more about this, rather than just to make claims, may paste the following urls into their browser address line and you will find sufficient information to get you started.
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=6dacb809-9929-4379-bb9f-9431e7d5c44d&k=69136
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07161/793042-51.stm
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/10/12/health/webmd/main938234.shtml
http://www.samesexmarriage.ca/docs/Justice_Child_Development.pdf
It seems that the early results here indicate that two parent same sex households bear up rather well in the research. Having said that, I must add that the researchers all hasten to state that the total body of evidence available is, as yet, too small. I am gratified by this, as it means that the researchers are not overstating their evidence.
I was also amused to find that one such study done in Canada was suppressed by the Conservative government because its results were inconvenient to their ideology. Luckily, Canada also has a form of what we here in the US would call the Freedom of Information Act. By that means, the study was pried loose.
Jim51
I've done some reading/study on this myself as you say you have. And I understand that there IS evidence that children generally fare better with both mother and father in the home--especially economically, emotionally, and academically. YOU, however, cited studies where the education of parents and income of homes were similar and saw a slight edge for kids in 2-parent families.
The question would be, how often is it exceptional for the single- parent home to fare as well economically and for the children to fare as well academically and emotionally/socially as the never-divorced home with original parents intact?
Children of divorce and single parenting and the remarried and blended families --the never wed teen mothers -- are more prone to difficulties than those with original set of parents--though, granted exceptions in all cases.
I read that gay parents were reluctant to have their families studied --probably for fear that Junior would announce as Rosie O'Donnell's boy did, "I want a Dad!" We saw the transgendered fathers (to women) on tv and they had children who said, "I miss my father" who was now a 2nd mother in their homes.
I believe the proof is there that the normal is best --by God's design --but God is a compensator to those who seek His aid. Compassionate societies help to equalize benefits for children.
Fatherless children are devastated by every social ill, increased many times. That remains true in comparisons where the natural father is a knucklehead criminal, his kids still have a 100 time smaller chance of being murdered, and of becoming misfits.
The data showing no effect of growing up in a homosexual household was all done by left wing academics, to promote the anti-family homosexual-lawyer agenda. It has no credibility until done by neutral researchers.
At the gut level, the idea of being raised by the homosexuals I know would be funny but completely inappropriate. It would be worse than growing up with old country immigrants who speak no English and strange customs. One has to learn how to act elsewhere than at home, and one is deeply embarrassed by the folks.
SC --you are a brave man! ; D
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