The new gay marriage law in the District of Columbia does not provide exemptions for religious institutions. This means that the Catholic church will be forced to either consider endorsing gay marriage or ending much of its charitable work in DC. Read this for more. It is worth noting that other SSM legislation has allowed for religious exemptions.
The Millennial Star
“But in the conflict between gay rights and religious rights, the city favors gay rights. It argues that the church should not discriminate while it receives public funds.”
It is not clear to me how it is a religious right to receive a government contract of $20 million in public funds.
TT,
I’m hesitant to trust the facts in a W$J editorial (I was reading one yesterday about 2010 tax issues that demonstrated understanding, misunderstanding, and WTF all in the same paragraph) but, to the extent the Journal’s accurate, this could be bad for D.C. The article says that Catholic Charities puts $10 million of its own money and its network of volunteers to work. I don’t know if there’s another charitable institution that could and would do its work and put that much money into it.
That said, W$J editorials tend to be light on facts, so I’m taking it with a grain of salt.
Religious institutions like the Catholic church receive grants and tax exemptions because various governments have decided to outsource charitable work to religious groups rather than set up redundant bureaucracies. There is a long-standing tradition of governments in the U.S. doing this on a local, state and federal level. This is one of the reasons tithing is tax-deductible.
There is widespread support for this idea. This poll is from 2009:
http://www.publicagenda.org/charts/most-americans-say-they-support-allowing-religious-organizations-receive-government-funding-their-programs-help
The Catholic church in DC must choose: either it supports SSM (tacitly or openly) or it rolls back its charitable work. The needy are being sacrificed on the altar of political correctness, yet again.
Interesting article on the gay marriage issue and DC’s dilemma. Not sure I understand the City’s reluctance to exempt the Church. It seems all sides come out better if they do . . .
I heard our church doesn’t accept government funds to run various programs. It is a relief to know we aren’t caught in these kinds of binds. But it is also sad that we run nothing like these kinds of programs in major American cities. I hope that begins to change with the new, fourth purpose of the church.
Thanks for the heads-up about this. It’s a whoa kind of story.