http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/11/AR2009111116943.html?hpid=newswell

Catholic Church gives D.C. ultimatum
Same-sex marriage bill, as written, called a threat to social service contracts

By Tim Craig and Michelle Boorstein
Thursday, November 12, 2009

The Catholic Archdiocese of Washington said Wednesday that it will be unable to continue the social service programs it runs for the District if the city doesn't change a proposed same-sex marriage law, a threat that could affect tens of thousands of people the church helps with adoption, homelessness and health care.

Under the bill, headed for a D.C. Council vote next month, religious organizations would not be required to perform or make space available for same-sex weddings. But they would have to obey city laws prohibiting discrimination against gay men and lesbians.

Fearful that they could be forced, among other things, to extend employee benefits to same-sex married couples, church officials said they would have no choice but to abandon their contracts with the city.

"If the city requires this, we can't do it," Susan Gibbs, spokeswoman for the archdiocese, said Wednesday. "The city is saying in order to provide social services, you need to be secular. For us, that's really a problem."

Several D.C. Council members said the Catholic Church is trying to erode the city's long-standing laws protecting gay men and lesbians from discrimination.

The clash escalates the dispute over the same-sex marriage proposal between the council and the archdiocese, which has generally stayed out of city politics.

Catholic Charities, the church's social services arm, is one of dozens of nonprofit organizations that partner with the District. It serves 68,000 people in the city, including the one-third of Washington's homeless people who go to city-owned shelters managed by the church. City leaders said the church is not the dominant provider of any particular social service, but the church pointed out that it supplements funding for city programs with $10 million from its own coffers.

"All of those services will be adversely impacted if the exemption language remains so narrow," Jane G. Belford, chancellor of the Washington Archdiocese, wrote to the council this week.

The church's influence seems limited. In separate interviews Wednesday, council member Mary M. Cheh (D-Ward 3) referred to the church as "somewhat childish." Another council member, David A. Catania (I-At Large), said he would rather end the city's relationship with the church than give in to its demands.

"They don't represent, in my mind, an indispensable component of our social services infrastructure," said Catania, the sponsor of the same-sex marriage bill and the chairman of the Health Committee.

The standoff appears to be among the harshest between a government and a faith-based group over the rights of same-sex couples. Advocates for same-sex couples said they could not immediately think of other places where a same-sex marriage law had set off a break with a major faith-based provider of social services.

The council is expected to pass the same-sex marriage bill next month, but the measure continues to face strong opposition from a number of groups that are pushing for a referendum on the issue.

The archdiocese's statement follows a vote Tuesday by the council's Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary to reject an amendment that would have allowed individuals, based on their religious beliefs, to decline to provide services for same-sex weddings.

"Lets say an individual caterer is a staunch Christian and someone wants him to do a cake with two grooms on top," said council member Yvette M. Alexander (D-Ward 6), the sponsor of the amendment. "Why can't they say, based on their religious beliefs, 'I can't do something like that'?"

After the vote, the archdiocese sent out a statement accusing the council of ignoring the right of religious freedom. Gibbs said Wednesday that without Alexander's amendment and other proposed changes, the measure has too narrow an exemption. She said religious groups that receive city funds would be required to give same-sex couples medical benefits, open adoptions to same-sex couples and rent a church hall to a support group for lesbian couples.

Peter Rosenstein of the Campaign for All D.C. Families accused the church of trying to "blackmail the city."

"The issue here is they are using public funds, and to allow people to discriminate with public money is unacceptable," Rosenstein said.

Rosenstein and other gay rights activists have strong support on the council. Council member Phil Mendelson (D-At Large), chairman of the judiciary committee, said the council "will not legislate based on threats."

"The problem with the individual exemption is anybody could discriminate based on their assertion of religious principle," Mendelson said. "There were many people back in the 1950s and '60s, during the civil rights era, that said separation of the races was ordained by God."

Catania, who said he has been the biggest supporter of Catholic Charities on the council, said he is baffled by the church's stance. From 2006 through 2008, Catania said, Catholic Charities received about $8.2 million in city contracts, as well as several hundred thousand dollars' worth this year through his committee.

"If they find living under our laws so oppressive that they can no longer take city resources, the city will have to find an alternative partner to step in to fill the shoes," Catania said. He also said Catholic Charities was involved in only six of the 102 city-sponsored adoptions last year.

Terry Lynch, head of the Downtown Cluster of Congregations, said he did not know of any other group in the city that was making such a threat.

"I've not seen any spillover into programming. That doesn't mean it couldn't happen if [the bill] passes," he said.

Cheh said she hopes the Catholic Church will reconsider its stance.

"Are they really going to harm people because they have a philosophical disagreement with us on one issue?" Cheh asked. "I hope, in the silver light of day, when this passes, because it will pass, they will not really act on this threat."

yet another reason I left the church. How awful to make all of those pay people pay, homeless, single mothers in need for adoption services, food services, etc etc. So these people have to pay because the church doesn't believe in same sex marriage? How "Christian" of them.

This isn't the first time Catholics or Christianity has been the bully to get their way.

It makes me sick that they'd take away those services all because they're worried about having to provide employee benefits to same sex married couples.

"God Forbid"

Kinda hipocritical. The priests will do young boys but, doesn't condone the same thing for consenting adults.

well said. " how "christian of them" " i wouldn't consider catholics to be Christian since they hijacked and changed the dogma of Christianity to fit their agenda.
I love in the article it says they generally stay out of city politics. that's b.s. the catholic church much like the jews are the puppet masters pulling the strings in politics.

It would have been better if they just discretely said we want to end the contracts based on our beliefs. Threatening the city, especially a liberal bastion of nonsense like DC, was only going to bring unnecessary attention from likes of the Post. The article appears to indicate limited involvement by the church anyway, so why go public and demand the city change the law.

Poor choices by the Archdiocese.

that's one thing I agree on

the Catholic Church has always been about interpreting the scripture to reinforce their power


on the other hand I understand that they shouldn't be force to support something that is antithetical to their belief

But it is all willing and voluntary too. A Catholic has the choice of supporting it or leaving the Church

The Catholic Church likes to show how powerful they are, so why not go public to do just that? That's how I see it anyway.

As a Catholic, I find it foolish and unnecessary. Pretty much par for the course lately. The American brand of the church is out of touch and needs to replace these older types, with a few more modern thinking people. I am not the only one that is disenchanted by the current leadership..

I am glad to see that there are people who do not necessarily agree with the church just because they are catholic and are supposed to follow along.

I'm not a Catholic and most of the time disagree a lot of their interpretation of scripture

but

your faith is your faith and you don't change it to fit the times you live in. You change the times you live in to fit your faith. or at least your own personal way of living in the times

If the Catholic faith says same sex marriage is wrong and you can't support that then you are no longer a Catholic and should see about finding a different congregation

I was commenting on InvictusV's post about what the Catholic Church was threatening to do in DC and how their going public about what they're doing, rather than just quietly saying they will not support the marriage bill. Not his or any other Catholics' faith. It seems as though people are unhappy with the way the church is dealing with things.

The Catholic Church is Christianity.
Every other denomination is a branch from the Catholic Church. They branched off because it would not allow their specific sins to interpret the scriptures and make them OK.
They would not sully the word of God to fit the sins of the time.
God's word means the same today as it did when he spoke it.
God does not change to suit modernization or popularity!

Just because it becomes popular for people to have unwed sex or homosexual relations does not suddenly mean God will permit it!

Grow up. Get faith or live in sin with the devils advice, but dont attack the Catholic Church because it sticks to Gods word.
Confess your sins. You will be forgiven.

except for the Ethiopians and the Syrians and the Greek Orthodox

they were founded by different Apostles independently

You missed arguing with me didn't you? LOL

The Greek Orthodox Church (Greek: Ελληνορθόδοξη Εκκλησία, Hellēnorthódoxē Ekklēsía) is the body of several churches[1][2][3] within the larger communion of the Orthodox Church, sharing a common cultural tradition and whose liturgy is traditionally conducted in Koine Greek,[4] the original language of the New Testament.[5]



And the New Testament is??????

I don't argue

I like to talk about stuff, permutations and ramifications and investigate reasons behind stuff and for stuff and the results of stuff and how people react to stuff

but when it comes to arguing I always lose interst and wander off