Philadelphia Cuts Ties With Faith-Based Foster Care System For Their Christian Values
Some 300 foster families received an emergency call from Philadelphia as the city cut ties with Catholic-based foster care agencies. The city allegedly ripped children from their foster homes and threw them into cramped group homes as they cut ties with the religious organizations and denounced them as ‘discriminatory’.
This all began back in March according to the Phillidephia Inquirer, as a gay couple was turned down for adoption by another faith-based agency. Since that time the city has stopped placing children within the organization.
The Wallstreet Journal asks: What’s more important—finding a foster home for needy children, or identity politics? The answer from the political left is exacerbating a crisis in Philadelphia that is leaving hundreds of children to languish in group homes.
As Reported By Kathleen Parker With The Washington Post:
At a time when more than 400,000 children are in foster care nationwide, the city of Philadelphia is threatening to cut ties with Catholic Social Servicesbecause of the group’s policy against placing foster children in same-sex households.
On the surface, one might say this is a classic case of state vs. church: The city must uphold its policies forbidding discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. And CSS must honor Catholic teaching and not place children in LGBTQ households.
On a deeper level, however, the issue cuts right to the core of religious liberty. Although the First Amendment guarantee of religious freedom has always meant that the state couldn’t impose a religion upon its people, secularism would seem to qualify as a religion inasmuch as the state’s policies are really beliefs — articles of faith based upon far less information and experience than the church’s.