Bill Donohue comments on a bill affirming the purpose of faith-based organizations that passed the Texas House yesterday:
Kudos to Texas Rep. James Frank for securing the right of faith-based entities to carry out their mission without undue encroachment by the government. Under his legislation, which passed yesterday, these institutions can now proceed without fear of state pressure to compromise their doctrinal prerogatives.
Faith-based social service institutions exist to serve the welfare of those they represent. Catholics, Evangelicals, mainline Protestants, Jews, Mormons, Muslims, and others all have organizations that provide services to the needy and the dispossessed within their communities. They should be encouraged by the public sector in this effort, facilitating their success whenever possible.
It is astonishing how many “progressive” activists seem not to care about the fundamental right of Mormon adoptive agencies to place children in their care with fellow Mormons. That the right of Mormons to do so needs to be explained suggests that their critics are out of touch with reality, or that they harbor a prejudice in need of serious correction.
The Dallas News ran a headline yesterday, “Texas Adoption Agencies Could ban Jews, gays, Muslims under House bill.” Why didn’t it mention Catholics? Is that because Catholics have been assigned the role of victimizer?
As a Catholic, I would hope that my Evangelical brothers and sisters would not hesitate to discriminate against Catholics by seeking to place children in their care with Evangelical adoptive parents. Children are best served when they are justly paired with adoptive parents who share their demographic and belief orientations.
President Trump said this week that he supports Black Colleges. Only an idiot would accuse him of fostering bigotry by showing preferential treatment for blacks. And only an idiot would accuse faith-based institutions of fostering bigotry by showing preferential treatment to their own.
We commend the logic and reasoning of Jennifer Allmon of the Texas Catholic Conference, and the sincerity and erudition of Rep. Frank. We hope this Texas bill becomes law and serves as a model to all states.
