By now you’ve heard about the girl in the care of a same-sex couple being denied enrollment in a Catholic school. (If not, see http://www.denverpost.com/recommended/ci_14631492)
One of the standard retorts has been, “What about other sinners?” That is, why are we not kicking out the kids of parents who are adulterers, in invalid marriages, or even tax cheaters? Zippy made the point that while it’s a fair point, objective reality isn’t fair about it. I’m knicking that idea and will attempt to expand on it.
Many of our schools also accept students of other faiths and no faith, and from single parent and divorced parent families. These students are always welcome so long as their parents support the Catholic mission of the school and do not offer a serious counter-witness to that mission in their actions.
So show me adulterers offering serious counter-witness, and yeah, I’ll support booting their children in addition to any canonical remedies for the parents if they are Catholic. The problem is as Zippy pointed out–objective reality isn’t fair about these things. Same-sex couples are manifest in way that adulterers or tax cheats usually are not. Add the usual public vocal defiance that comes from this quarter, and there is your serious counter-witness present in the one case and not present in the other.
Another argument that comes up is why punish the child? I submit the punishment is coming entirely from the “parents”. As I mentioned elsewhere, they might as well have strapped high-explosives to the child and sent her to school. One unforgettable moment from the book Black Hawk Down (it’s not in the movie) was a description of a Somali who had his children cling to him as he fired on the Rangers; the thought being that our soldiers would not be able to overcome moral qualms about firing back.
Other people ask, why are we so hung up on homosexuality when there are other issues? It is because we are at an unprecedented time in which the media, academia, and judiciary are engaged in a project to normalize homosexuality. The Church, as one of the few remaining holdouts, is going to come under direct assault because of this. I saw related another story about a homosexual who applied for a job at a Catholic Church for the express purpose of suing when he didn’t get it. This is how the assault is going to happen–kamikaze style in a manner of speaking. And as the Denver case shows, the enemy isn’t above using innocent children as human shields to prey upon Catholics’ good but often misguided sense of fair play, and their general lack of clarity on this issue which thankfully, bishops like Chaput are providing a corrective remedy.
P.S. Kevin Jones at W4 gave a great response as well:
The argument about divorced parents is just a way to make past corruption justify further corruption. At some point it may be necessary to again sanction such accepted behavior, but at this point simply digging in one’s heels at further decline is rare enough.
The American Catholic Church’s permissive attitude towards annullments derives power from the laity’s misunderstanding and rejection of true marriage. Since poor Catholic schooling, and the normalization of lesbianism only worsens that problem, bringing up divorce is mainly a distraction.
Other people ask, why are we so hung up on homosexuality when there are other issues? It is because we are at an unprecedented time in which the media, academia, and judiciary are engaged in a project to normalize homosexuality.
Nail meets hammer. My two year daughter loves trips to the library to pick out books. Since I do the reading every night, I try to have some say in what’s picked because I have to consider what’s palatable after 10 nights in a row. However, for the most part, she picks out the bulk and more than anything just grabs, presumably based on the cover. I didn’t give King, King, and Family much thought when she grabbed it until halfway through the first page later that night: it was a childrens’ book promoting two gay men getting “married,” going on a honeymoon, and adopting a child. Childrens’ books…
I think it’s very important to remember that if two lesbians are the “parents” of a child, the teachers are going to have to refer to them both as “your mother.” Think about that. The gay couple with the child in school forces the school personnel to affirm the homosexual agenda continually in words and in deeds. This does not apply to heterosexual couples, yes, including those who are divorced and remarried without annulments. It is far, far more of an affirmation of a perverse attempt to remold reality for the teacher to refer to a child as having “two mommies” than for the teacher to refer to the stepfather as “your dad” and the biological mother as “your mom.” The situation with the two lesbians co-opts the school for the homosexual agenda in a special way. Consider the implications for a situation like the one with Lisa Miller that we have discussed elsewhere. Her former partner is claiming to be the child’s other mother and demanding full rights in law. Imagine if they had stayed together longer before Lisa repented and got out of the relationship, and imagine that they had sent the child to, say, a Catholic preschool. Janet Jenkins would be able to say, “The Catholic teachers at the Catholic preschool called me Isabella’s mother! What’s the matter with all the rest of you?” A very powerful sociological message, there, and one which Catholic and other Christian schools should not cooperate in sending.
Terry, indeed. We borrow heavily from the library, so I’ll keep my eyes open.
Lydia, as usual, your responses are incisive like a laser beam. When I get the”What about other sinners?” response, I think I will simply copy n’ paste your remarks.
Thanks, Scott.
I gotta go look at the electronic catalogue for our local library on-line right now and see if they have that book. Yikes. I’d heard of something like this being read to the kids in Massachusetts schools, but I should have thought of its being in the libraries around the country. Fortunately, our kids almost never borrow or read books from the local library except on specific recommendation, but still…
It’s the sequel to the book read in Massachusetts by the same authors, Lydia. And it’s actually King and King and Family. Rightfully alarmed parents in that district sued, but it was dismissed by the judge saying “diversity’s a hallmark in this country.”
[...] the Chaput Controversy is anything to go by, then bishops should prepare for the “What about other sinners?” [...]