Each week, Queerty picks one blowhard, hypocrite, airhead, sanctimonious prick or other enemy of all that is queer to be the Douche of the Week.
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We were all smiles when we read the Colorado House Judiciary Committee had passed a civil-unions bill. Then we heard from Colorado Attorney General John Suthers, one of the people who took the time to testify before the committee about SB 11.
Suthers, a Republican, was against it.
He promised he wasn’t there as Attorney General, but as a Coloradan—and a good Catholic. Adopted through Catholic Charities as an infant, he said he had a “very soft spot in my heart” for the organization, which has been placing children in families for more than a century.
“If Senate Bill 11 passes and becomes law, Catholic Charities and some other religiously affiliated social service agencies, will no longer be in the adoption business in Colorado,” Suthers lamented. (Suthers is such a good Catholic, that he filed an amicus brief defending DOMA in 2011, relating to a case in Massachusetts that had no bearing on Colorado.)
You see, because SB 11 doesn’t have a religious exemption, groups like Catholic Charities would be obligated to place children in same-sex households. It doesn’t want to do that—and will cease offering adoption services rather than comply.
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The organization has already closed up shop in Boston and Illinois rather than give kids to loving gay parents. “If the Church is doing good work in an area, don’t force them out of it simply because of their religious beliefs,” said Suthers.
But it’s not just about babies: After marriage equality came to Washington, DC, in 2010, the Catholic Charities in the District stopped providing health-care benefits to its married staffers’ partners rather than give them to same-sex couples, too.
If Catholic Charities was a private organization it would be bad enough, but some $2 billion of its budget comes from the federal government’s Faith-Based Initiatives Office.
Yup, your tax money is going to people who want to keep children in orphanages and foster care, rather than with good parents.
We suppose we can’t expect any better from an institution with such close links to the Catholic Church. But Suther was an orphan himself. Rather than question why the group he has such a warm-and-fuzzy feeling about is so malevolent—and puts its own agenda before the welfare of children like him—he wants us to seem it as a victim.
All together now: What a douche!
Merv
Catholic “charities” is more or less a government contractor. This quote from Wikipedia helps but the organization in perspective.
“Catholic Charities received a total of nearly $2.9 billion from the US government in 2010. In comparison, its annual revenue was $4.67 billion. Only about $140 million came from donations from diocesan churches, the remainder coming from in-kind contributions, investments, program fees, and community donations.”
Daniel-Reader
The Roman Catholic Church has spent years skirting the law to protect their child molesting priests, bishops, and cardinals. The only way they were able to skirt the law was with the complicity of too many government officials. So it is disturbing when any public official wants to protect a Roman Catholic organizations ability to discriminate when it comes to any dealings with children.
Hunter
And Catholic Charities not only gets funding from the feds, but from the states as well — in Illinois, it was about $30 million annually.
And when they closed up shop here, the children under their care were immediately transferred to other adoption agencies, including one run by the Lutherans. No one is missing CC very much, but I’ll be they’re missing that 30 mil.
(And I won’t go into the thought processes of anyone who thinks that leaving children in the care of a Catholic organization is in the children’s best interests.)
Steve Rider
The Jesus industry is a leading provider of hate based slander and malicious legislation worldwide.