CHRISTIAN "TOLERANCE"

Atrios has already covered this but since it made my local paper, I thought I'd add it here.

Christian adoption group shuns Catholics
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
7/16/05
http://www.dailystar.com/dailystar/news/84413.php


JACKSON, Miss. - A Christian adoption agency that receives money from Choose Life license plate fees said it does not place children with Roman Catholic couples because their religion conflicts with the agency's "Statement of Faith."

Bethany Christian Services stated the policy in a letter to a Jackson couple this month, and another Mississippi couple said they were rejected for the same reason last year.

"It has been our understanding that Catholicism does not agree with our Statement of Faith," Bethany's state director Karen Stewart wrote. "Our practice to not accept applications from Catholics was an effort to be good stewards of an adoptive applicant's time, money and emotional energy."

Bethany, based in Grand Rapids, Mich., has 75 offices in 30 states, including three in Mississippi. No offices are listed in Arizona. The offices are independently incorporated and are affiliated with various religions, spokesman John Van Valkenburg said from the agency headquarters. He couldn't say whether any were Catholic-affiliated. He said the Jackson office is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church of America. "They included this practice of not including Catholics," Van Valkenburg said Friday.