'Christian' adoption agency rejects Catholics

This article states that a 'Christian' adoption agency rejects
applications from Catholics. It goes on to give their
reasons why. Well, this is America and anyone can be an
ignorant bigot if they wish to be, however some of the funds
that support this adoption agency come from the 'Choose Life'
liscense plates that are sold in the state. Many Catholics
buy those plates. I would assume that if there are Episcopalians,
Orthodox, Jews and Muslims who purchase those plates as well.
Although I don't know how many of them live in that state.
(Probably not many considering the anti-anyone-but-us bigotry
that happens there.)

Hypocrites. They take money from Catholics and other non-fundamentalists
but then say that they aren't good enough to raise children.

I don't mind a religious organization adopting children out to 'their own',
but they shouldn't accept money from the State liscense plates. It just
doesn't seem right. Oh .. and if these fundamentalists actually went and
read what other Christian religions believed instead of just listening to
their preachers bash everyone else, they might LEARN something - namely
that Catholics and other non-fundamentalists DO know how to raise
spiritually healthy children.

Bottom line - if ANY adoption group gets money from the sale of those
'choose life' plates, then they should be open to any and all qualified
people looking to adopt.

www.msnbc.msn.com...

Excerpt -

The Associated Press/ MSNBC
July 15, 2005

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.”

“It has been our understanding that Catholicism does not agree with our
Statement of Faith,” Bethany’s state 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.

...

‘Bethany is one of 24 adoption and pregnancy counseling centers in
Mississippi that receive 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.



[edit on 7/16/2005 by FlyersFan]

This is the part of the 'faith statement' that the fundamentalists claim
the Catholics don't agree with. If they would put their ignorant bigotry
aside and actually go read the Catholic Catechism, they would see that
Catholics do indeed believe this. When a Catholic goes to confession
the Catholic believes that it is GOD who forgives the sins along with
the priest who says the words of assurance of forgiveness.

The agency’s 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. It does not refer to any specific
branches of Christianity.

“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.”

The RCC seems to be two faced.
Saying one thing, as you showed us above,
and doing another.


THE SALVE REGINA (Hail Holy Queen):


Hail Holy Queen, Mother of
Mercy, our life our sweetness and our hope. To thee do we cry,
poor banished children of Eve; To thee do we send up our sighs,
mourning and weeping in this valley of tears. Turn then, most
gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us and after this
our exile show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. O
clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary!


Its things like THAT , that cause the confusion. I dont think its fair to lash out at those people when there are many prayers to mary like this.
There is also the lifting up of mary in general that causes problems because its not in the bible.

Mary is not sinless in the bible.
Mary does not rise into heaven like Jesus in the bible
Mary is not queen of anything in the bible.

Things like that are a problem for people who keep Jesus's word in the bible.

FATIMA PRAYER: Most Holy Trinity - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
- I adore thee profoundly. I offer Thee the most precious Body,
Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the
tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages,
sacrileges and indifferences whereby He is offended. And through
the infinite merits of His Most Sacred Heart and the Immaculate
Heart of Mary, I beg of Thee the conversion of poor sinners.

Not biblical

MEMORARE: Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary that never was
it known that anyone who fled to Your protection, implored Your
help, or sought Your intercession was left unaided.

Not biblical.

There is so much more, some of which we have already covered.

You are correct about the money. I dont think those people should have dontated the 7,000 if they do not agree with the doctrine.
To each his own.

One more thing.
You seem to use the word fundamentalist as if it were a bad thing. I guess its all in the eye of the beholder but..

DEFINITION: FUNDAMENTALISM

A movement of people/Churches that want to emphasize the main truths or fundamentals of the Christian faith. It began late in the last century as a reaction by some
Protestants who thought other Protestants were getting away from the true Christian
faith. Today they are found in different Churches or denominations.

While there is variety among fundamentalist groups, some of the major points
they uphold include:

The Bible alone as the source of Christian belief and practice.
Literal interpretation of the Bible.
Salvation through Jesus Christ.
Society, the world, as a place filled with sinful, unredeemed people
and thiings.

Poor Jake. Still slithering around I see. Whats the matter ...
not enough room in BTS to blather anti-Catholic ravings, ya' gotta'
poke your head up here? Get yourself a copy of the Catholic
Catechism and READ IT. Educate yourself. Get out of that cult
you are in. Until then your ignorance is

Back to the TOPIC. If ANY group is going to take money from the
sale of special state liscense plates then they need to be inclusive.
If they want to remain uneducated ignorant bigots ... that's their
pathetic problem. But if they want to take money from these sales,
they should be required to be inclusive. If they aren't inclusive,
then they shouldn't get the money from the STATE liscense plates.

Originally posted by jake1997
Not biblical...

Someday you will actually learn how to read the bible, and you will discover
that the bible itself says that there are more truths than the bible holds.
Get out of that cult, you will learn this ... it will free you ...

The bible doesn't contain all of Christ's teachings. The bible even
says so - 'if all Jesus' teachings were written down, then there
wouldn't be enough books in the world to hold them
all'. You want to be Sola Scriptura. Fine. It's your choice to pursue a
non-biblical notion of 'bible only'. No where in the bible does it say
'bible only' and in fact the bible itself says that there is MUCH more
truth than the bible holds. The bible itself says to hold and pass
down sacred traditions. The Catholic church adheres to this biblical
teaching.

you should know that the bible itself (put together by a Catholic counsel
~350ad) says that the bible isn't all there is to faith.

Sola scriptura is a notion invented by Martin Luther while he reworked
the bible to fit his newly invented religion. Tossed out books. Lined
through others. Rearranged according to 'importance'. etc. etc. Scared
the crap out of the other 'reformers' while he was doing it. They had to
pull him back or else nothing would have been left.

Anyways - some scripture quotes that support sacred traditions and
oral teachings -

Mark 4:33 - "With many such parables he spoke the word to them .."
(what were the others? Scripture doesn't contain ...)
Mark 6:34 "He began to teach them many things."
(what things? Scripture doesn't contain)
John 16:12 "I have yet many things to say to you, but you can not
bear them now."
(what things? Scripture doesn't contain)
Jon 20:30 - "now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the
disciples, which are not written in this book"
(what things? Scripture doesn't contain)
John 21:25 "But there are also many other things which Jesus did;
were every one of them to be written, I suppose the world itself could
not contain the books that would be written."
Acts 1:2-3 - To the apostles he presented himself alive after his
passion by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days,
and speaking of the kingdom of God"
(what things were taught? It's not written down)
See also Luke 24:15-16, 25-27

So we have Sacred tradition and oral teachings ... which the bible
encourages us to use.

1 Cor 11:2 - "Maintain the traditions ... even as I have delivered them to you."
2 Thess 2:15 "Hold to the traditions .. taught by word of mouth or by letter."
2 Thess 3:6 "... traditions that you received from us"
1 Cor 15:1 - " ... the Gospel, which you received ..."
1 Gal 1:9 - " ... the gospel .. which you received."
1 Thes 2:9 - "we preached to you the gospel of God"
1 Thes 2:13 - "when you received the word of God which you heard
from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as what it really
is, the word of God"
2 Tim 1:13-14: "Follow the pattern of the sound words which you have
heard from me ..."


NOW BACK TO THE SUBJECT - Using money from the sale of STATE
liscense plates to fund groups that are not all inclusive.

Once again we see that there is more misinformation and fear regarding the Catholic Church than a lot of people (even here attempting to deny ignorance) can overcome.

As usual, most negative comments about the Catholic faith is not even true. If you are getting information about one faith, from the perspective of another, you really ought to look a little further. As Flyers has pointed out, the Chatechism of the Catholic Church is an excellent reference to understand all these discrepancies and it is very easy to use.

It really gets tiresome when people continuously bring up the same old criticisms of a faith when they don't have their facts straight about what that faith actually teaches. I suspect this is exactly why the discrimination of this adoption agency is taking place now. Plain old ignorance (well, that is usually the root of all discrimination).

The Choose Life of Mississippi organization is

The work of Choose Life of Mississippi to create the Choose Life license plate in Mississippi is a grassroots effort. As such, we would like to refer our supporters to other groups working to offer women alternatives to abortion for their unwanted pregnancies.

It partially funds several groups.

www.mschoose-life.org...

So...any group that takes money from this grassroots effort is NOT taking "public funds" but funds that have been intentionally donated to the Choose Life group by people opting to.

The next point would be that I believe if you decide to purchase a Choose Life tag and donate to this organization, you are choosing to promote adoption over abortion - not buying a ticket for a chance at a baby.

Bet you there's at least one group that takes funds from Choose Life that adopts out to Catholics

Originally posted by FlyersFan
Sola scriptura is a notion invented by Martin Luther while he reworked
the bible to fit his newly invented religion. Tossed out books. Lined
through others. Rearranged according to 'importance'. etc. etc. Scared
the crap out of the other 'reformers' while he was doing it. They had to
pull him back or else nothing would have been left.

WHERE DO YOU GET THIS FROM???
I am a Lutheran and I personally use a King James Version of the Bible. The only books of my bible that are different then yours are a few Apocryphal books that were removed. I suggest that you go do a bit of research into things before you make a statement like this. The idea of “Sola Scriptura” is simply that the bible is the ultimate authority. Rome, and especially the popes, of course had an issue with this because then they could not change the rules to whatever suited them at the time to rule the masses and control governments....

Of course it’s harder for the "little horn" to “change the times and the laws”, with that troublesome rulebook thing in the way…

So let’s take away its authority and give equal authority to one man through papal infallibility.

Then we can have things like:
"Persecution of the saints" through the inquisition
Indulgences
Salvation through works
Prayer to/through moderators/saints
Sunday Sabbath days
Unmarried priests
Meatless Fridays
And many, many more biblically unfounded and biblically opposed BS doctrines.



[edit on 7/16/2005 by defcon5]

WOOPS!

Furthermore, the funds these organizations receive from Choose Life have nothing to do with the adopters. The monies Choose Life gives to the organizations is for assistance to women who have chosen adoption over abortion. The funds are for the woman who is making the decision - not the people adopting the babies.

And I bet they help Catholic women as much as they help protestants.

You can read about the Benefits deriving from the Choose Life plates here:

www.mschoose-life.org...

But this whole petty crap in the first post of this thread, and the whining by the woman in the article makes the first statement on that page really really true, doesn't it?

In life, people often look for the benefits before they commit themselves to a course of action.

I'm having to jump to the conclusion that the benefit of helping a baby get adopted instead of aborted is not good enough for a few Catholics...right?

If I ran an adoption agency, I would never allow children in my care to fall prey to disciples of the queen spider.

Seriously though, robes fit for kings, golden chalices, rare incense, pomp and overblown ritual.

Individualized faith, tolerance, mutual respect.

When the pope kills a million by refusing to acknoweldge the efficacy of condoms in the fight against AIDS, catholics the world over suffer from the stigmatization. That's what happens when you subscribe to a monolithic, heirachical belief structure that reinforces its 'customer' base with guilt and fear.

If people want to be Catholic, that's cool. Everybody is entitled to their own opinion, and that's the crux of the matter, see, the adoption agencies are responsible for the kids they're sending out. It's their right to hold the opinion that Catholicism is a negative influence.

As far as the liscense plate nonsense, that is such a ploy to throw favorable light on the plaintiff ("They're stealing your money!" ). Valhall pointed this aspect out.

You will either have to get use to fleyers fan or put him/her on ignore.
Any time you examine the RCC doctrine you will be receive a hate filled response like the ones above.

You wouldnt even know that FF started this thread by the way Relentless posted.

Also notice that they keep screaming catechism while ignoring the prayers I pointed out that the church propagates.

Thanks for pointing out a mere handfull of the RCC's fruits. I think FF shows some of it as well.

Look at what Jesus taught
Look at what the RCC has done.

They are not the same

Originally posted by jake1997
You will either have to get use to fleyers fan or put him/her on ignore.
Any time you examine the RCC doctrine you will be receive a hate filled response like the ones above.

I do not see a hate filled response by FF, I see someone defending their faith. Nor do I see an examination of RCC Doctrine, only what is perceived to be RCC Doctrine.

You wouldnt even know that FF started this thread by the way Relentless posted.

Whaterever that meant???

Also notice that they keep screaming catechism while ignoring the prayers I pointed out that the church propagates.

No one is screaming catechism, and I was just pointing out that it wouldn't take much to actually read what it says about Mary to understand the prayers. I think you are just misinterpreting them.

Whatever, some things will never change. Those who are not Catholic view things from the perspective of whatever branch of Christianity they believe, just like those who are view it the way they believe. I perfectly understand the constant criticisms of the Church itself, but not the demonizing of the faith (and there is a difference), which mostly comes from not understanding it.

Should a person's faith be a criteria for adoption? Interestingly, I looked up adoption through Catholic Charities and here is what I found.

We serve people of all faiths and races. You do not have to be Catholic to adopt from Catholic Charities.

For all the accusations against Catholics, at least we can say when it comes to finding the right home for a child, the Catholic Charities do not discriminate based on faith.

Originally posted by Relentless
I do not see a hate filled response by FF

I saw a pretty insulting and untrue remark made about the leader of another faith, enough so to make me post here.

Originally posted by Relentless
Whaterever that meant???

I caught what he meant, and I am sure everyone else did as well…

Originally posted by Relentless
No one is screaming catechism, and I was just pointing out that it wouldn't take much to actually read what it says about Mary to understand the prayers. I think you are just misinterpreting them.

They believe in praying to saints as mediators between them and God. No point in arguing this, I went to Catholic school and understand their reasoning. It is unbiblical. What is biblical is that Christ said you should ONLY pray to the FATHER in HIS name, not “St So-And-So”, not your pet, not the guy down the street, Christ’s name and his only. In other words you pray to the Father and Christ is the mediator.

Oh, but wait, that comes from the bible, and since that is of lower authority then the opinion of some man, it must not count, right?

Originally posted by Relentless
For all the accusations against Catholics, at least we can say when it comes to finding the right home for a child, the Catholic Charities do not discriminate based on faith.

Well then they should not mind that this group finds good protestant homes for these children, but wait they must care or this article would not exist…

Originally posted by defcon5
I saw a pretty insulting and untrue remark made about the leader of another faith, enough so to make me post here.

Well, I can see we are both posting for the same reasons.

Join the club.

Relentless

So the catholic agnecy will adopt children out to Hindu, Muslim, atheist, buddist, wiccan, satanist, scientologist, darwinist, christian, catholic, judaism, humanist ..
parents?

That is my understanding of your post.

Face it jake1997, If you take God at HIS word, you will allways be viewed as a biggot. I guess that it the price that we must pay for following His word. But i like your signature.. should at Gal 1:8 as well... seams like Paul finds it to be uptmost important to speak so harshly on false gospels... Like the Gospel of Rome.

I mean after all its on public record that John Paul looked to Mary for salvation and not Jesus.

To FF... whats hypritical about taking money from those who give it to you? I mean the goverment takes money from me and pays Abortinists to Kill babies... And I dont agree with that...

So do you also hold every one to your same standard FF? Or is your agenda to attack Biblical Christianity? I think thats what your actual agenda is.

Originally posted by Valhall
Bet you there's at least one group that takes funds from Choose Life that adopts out to Catholics

Originally posted by defcon5
WHERE DO YOU GET THIS FROM???
I suggest that you go do a bit of research into things
before you make a statement like this.

Already DID do research.
'The Facts about Luther'
ISBN 0-89555-322-8
Ask for it at your library or book store.
It's highly educational and packed full of
well documented quotes of his 'contemporaries'

many more biblically unfounded and
biblically opposed BS doctrines.

Nope. Nothing in the Catholic faith opposes scripture.
As far as 'biblically unfounded' ... try reading the biblical
quotes already posted. NOT ALL TRUTH is found in the
bible and the bible says so.

Originally posted by jake1997
You will either have to get use to fleyers fan or put him/her on ignore.

For the hundredth time jake, I'm a girl. You'd know that if you actually
bothered to read ANYTHING that people post to you. But of course
if you had been reading, you wouldn't be in the dire situation you are
in now, would you? Uneducated and bigotted and in a cult. Sad.

you will be receive a hate filled response like the ones above.

Actually Jake, YOU are the one that rode in on your horned stallion
slamming the Catholic faith. The thread started out discussing if it
was appropriate for an agency to be receiving funds from the sale of
STATE liscense plates ... when that agency is non-inclusive. YOU and
your UNHOLY SPIRIT (that prevaids everything you discuss) caused the
problem.

Face it Jake. You, and the demon inside you, are the problem.
This thread was fine until you slithered in to start spouting
anti-Catholic drivel, when the subject of this thread was about
money from STATE liscense plates going to non-inclusive groups.

Also notice that they keep screaming catechism while ignoring
the prayers I pointed out that the church propagates.

That's because if you actually opened the catechism it would explain
the prayers to you in language that even you might understand.

Relentless
Lip service is all well and good, but the figures that would be most illuminating would be: "what percentage of children adopted out by Catholic agencies end up in Catholic homes?"

Those numbers would give you a much better idea of their policy and tendencies.

Every company SAYS they're an EOE, but discrimination still goes on.

My favorite incarnation of Christianity, personally, was the desert fathers.

They got the closest to the essence of what it means to be concerned with things not of this earth. They understood God better than any modern preacher, more than any pope, EVER. Sadly, they are much diminished, and the things they so despised are enshrined, worshipped, adored.

It's very sad.